3 ms·

All jobs are basically pointless except for agricultural jobs, which is all we need to survive.

by xyzzy4 9y ago

metaphorm 9y ago
construction, textiles, carpentry, blacksmithing, at minimum there's a lot of other labor intensive jobs that are essential to civilized life. then there's all the necessary jobs that exist because humans living in hives creates many challenges of its own. police, fire fighters, medical jobs, lawyers and judges, legislators, etc. are all necessary functions for city-dwelling. you might be noticing that most of these jobs are not things that have a whole lot of venture funded software companies working on. no, most of our venture funded software is fairly trivial and unimportant stuff in the grand scheme of things. for example, I just manage servers and shit for a company that, on a fundamental level, is a hunger merchant. our product is hunger. we make people want to consume more. it's certainly not a necessary thing. in fact, it is probably harmful at least a little bit. there are worse things but what we do isn't really a good thing, at least not in any obvious way. so yeah, not all jobs are pointless. but a lot of software jobs are.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
taway_1212 9y ago
Protection from starvation is indeed our basic need, but according to Maslov's theory we have other needs as well. On the other hand, a field such as marketing exist only to extend your share of the market at the cost of others (and to defend against others who try to do the same to you). It's a zero sum game without any benefit to the society.
- xyzzy4 9y ago
  >Maslov's theory we have other needs as well So you think every hunter-gatherer is extremely unhappy?
  - taway_1212 9y ago
    On the contrary, I think they might be happier than many people in developed countries. When you look at the Maslov's hierarchy, they get less security and safety but might be getting more of the higher needs (intimate relationships and friends, sense of belonging, feeling of accomplishment/mastery).

All jobs are basically pointless except for agricultural jobs, which is all we need to survive.

by xyzzy4 9y ago

All jobs are basically pointless except for agricultural jobs, which is all we need to survive.

construction, textiles, carpentry, blacksmithing, at minimum there's a lot of other labor intensive jobs that are essential to civilized life. then there's all the necessary jobs that exist because humans living in hives creates many challenges of its own. police, fire fighters, medical jobs, lawyers and judges, legislators, etc. are all necessary functions for city-dwelling. you might be noticing that most of these jobs are not things that have a whole lot of venture funded software companies working on. no, most of our venture funded software is fairly trivial and unimportant stuff in the grand scheme of things. for example, I just manage servers and shit for a company that, on a fundamental level, is a hunger merchant. our product is hunger. we make people want to consume more. it's certainly not a necessary thing. in fact, it is probably harmful at least a little bit. there are worse things but what we do isn't really a good thing, at least not in any obvious way. so yeah, not all jobs are pointless. but a lot of software jobs are.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

taway_1212 9y ago

Protection from starvation is indeed our basic need, but according to Maslov's theory we have other needs as well. On the other hand, a field such as marketing exist only to extend your share of the market at the cost of others (and to defend against others who try to do the same to you). It's a zero sum game without any benefit to the society.

xyzzy4 9y ago
>Maslov's theory we have other needs as well So you think every hunter-gatherer is extremely unhappy?
- taway_1212 9y ago
  On the contrary, I think they might be happier than many people in developed countries. When you look at the Maslov's hierarchy, they get less security and safety but might be getting more of the higher needs (intimate relationships and friends, sense of belonging, feeling of accomplishment/mastery).