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“So, What Do You Do?”
- headcanon 10y agoBeing in my 20s, I've learned that it's not a good idea to ask that among my peers at parties, since so many are in service industry jobs (if they have jobs at all) that they hate and don't want to talk about. Even if they do have salaried careers, it seems most people would rather talk about something besides work. Tech parties are a different culture since many of us are fortunate to be employed in self-actualizing roles in high-growth companies, or at the very least enjoy their jobs better than most. However since I live in the Midwest, engineers aren't as plentiful as in the Bay area. At any rate, I usually just ask "how do you spend your time?" instead if Im fishing for conversation material. It's a bit more open ended
- maerF0x0 10y agoYeah I avoid the "what do you do (for a living)?" Question too. I prefer to ask, what do you like to do for fun. So many people dont have an answer, its sad.
- maerF0x0 10y ago>The top one percent of the world population hoards over 110 trillion dollars That provides ~630k a year perpetually (average). I wonder how much wealth is the cutoff line of top 1% (~70M ppl) ?
- cafard 9y agoAbout 35 years ago, a guy in the group house was laid off. He remarked on how uncomfortable it made people at parties when they would as "So, what do you do?" and he would say "Nothing." I don't know that it especially bothered him.
- arcanus 9y agoGood point. The problem isn't doing nothing, it is that many are insecure not having a 'story'. We as a society need to get past work as a justification for our existence. I say this as a complete hypocrite, who finds tremendous meaning in my work.