Black Swan author: An employee is basically an “obedient, housebroken dog.”
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Re: Black Swan author: An employee is basically an “obedient, housebroken dog.”
#2> Evidence of submission is displayed by the employee’s going through years depriving himself of his personal freedom for nine hours every day, his ritualistic and punctual arrival at an office, his denying himself his own schedule, and his not having beaten up anyone on the way back home after a bad day. He is an obedient, housebroken dog.
And in exchange I get to not really care about complicated things I do not enjoy other than whether it indicates I need to go find an owner with more dog food, I practically get to use many of those hours at work as I please, and at least as a professional, I can carve out hours as required for other things.
Re: Black Swan author: An employee is basically an “obedient, housebroken dog.”
#3The parable of the wolf and dog might be motivating at first glance but one has to wonder what happened to the hungry wolf afterwards? In the wild, animals live a rather precarious existence, fight and eat each other to survive, and die of starvation and disease in untold numbers. "The idea of freedom is inspiring. But what does it mean? If you are free in a political sense but have no food, what's that? The freedom to starve?" ― Angela Y. Davis
What exactly is it that Mr. Taleb proposes we do? Even starting one's own business means inflicting the state of being a domesticated dog upon others which seems even less laudable than being a domesticated dog oneself.
Re: Black Swan author: An employee is basically an “obedient, housebroken dog.”
#4Is being housebroken a bad thing? I don't want to live in my own filth.
Re: Black Swan author: An employee is basically an “obedient, housebroken dog.”
#5The parable of the wolf and dog might be motivating at first glance but one has to wonder what happened to the hungry wolf afterwards? In the wild, animals live a rather precarious existence, fight and eat each other to survive, and die of starvation and disease in untold numbers. " The idea of freedom is inspiring. But what does it mean? If you are free in a political sense but have no food, what's that? The freedom…
Yeah, that fable isn’t the greatest. The dog could run away but it benefits from the arrangement and in many countries dogs don’t even have collars - yet they still return home.
The wolf like an entrepreneur is still a slave to survival just with higher stakes. You may think that you don’t have a boss, but you still have clients/customers in the end. Freedom (Financial independence) is gained once you can collect rents, investment income, or delegate responsibilities - but someone else is now your ‘slave’ in those cases.
The company man in the tropical paradise was a strange example. The company gives him a better life than he would have otherwise had and let’s him live like a king - so he supports the company. Is there any treatment of employees possible that Taleb would think is a fair shake? Perhaps because the title is “skin in the game” he thinks they must make their income through company stock?
Re: Black Swan author: An employee is basically an “obedient, housebroken dog.”
#6The parable of the wolf and dog might be motivating at first glance but one has to wonder what happened to the hungry wolf afterwards? In the wild, animals live a rather precarious existence, fight and eat each other to survive, and die of starvation and disease in untold numbers. " The idea of freedom is inspiring. But what does it mean? If you are free in a political sense but have no food, what's that? The freedom…
>The parable of the wolf and dog might be motivating at first glance but one has to wonder what happened to the hungry wolf afterwards?
In real life, of course, the wolf just eats the dog because it's a dog eat dog world, and trading your next meal for ideological purity isn't something wolves do, it's a privilege afforded to dogs who sometimes like to imagine themselves as wolves.
Re: Black Swan author: An employee is basically an “obedient, housebroken dog.”
#7[deleted]
Re: Black Swan author: An employee is basically an “obedient, housebroken dog.”
#8Unless you are independently wealthy (good on you) you always work for someone. If not your employer, then you work directly for your customers. Your customers can often be very unrealistic and unreasonable, and it requires time, effort, and grey hairs to keep them happy. I often find myself humming "And I'm one step ahead of the shoe shine, two steps away from the county line, just trying to keep my customers satisfied." Wise words by Paul Simon.
Re: Black Swan author: An employee is basically an “obedient, housebroken dog.”
#9The parable of the wolf and dog might be motivating at first glance but one has to wonder what happened to the hungry wolf afterwards? In the wild, animals live a rather precarious existence, fight and eat each other to survive, and die of starvation and disease in untold numbers. " The idea of freedom is inspiring. But what does it mean? If you are free in a political sense but have no food, what's that? The freedom…
>The parable of the wolf and dog might be motivating at first glance but one has to wonder what happened to the hungry wolf afterwards? In real life, of course, the wolf just eats the dog because it's a dog eat dog world, and trading your next meal for ideological purity isn't something wolves do, it's a privilege afforded to dogs who sometimes like to imagine themselves as wolves.
>the wolf just eats the dog
Wolves eat livestock, not being trained otherwise. Wolves are rare in a lot of places where they used to be numerous, coincidence?
Re: Black Swan author: An employee is basically an “obedient, housebroken dog.”
#10The meta to this is that even without an employer you are doomed to be an "entrepreneur of the self." The employer/employee relationship has essentially been internalized to the extent that we are always exploiting ourselves to one degree or another.