The problem is clearly not just about completely pointless jobs. Among jobs that actually have a purpose, we find many that are: required to deal with the probl

The problem is clearly not just about completely pointless jobs. Among jobs that actually have a purpose, we find many that are: required to deal with the problems generated by bad practices/inefficiency (the article mentions duct-tapers. Commenters here also mention how in computer science we deal with a lot of technical debt, even when many times we know there's no way out unless we rewrite from scratch), or even worse, generated by the own inefficiencies and 'stupidity loops' in a system (see a good deal of bureaucracy, supervision and reporting taks, goons, etc.) Of course we can't remove inefficiency completely, but these are big problems with big consequences. I'm really saddened by it: I regularly see a lot of comments from people that seem to be very capable but end up doing dull jobs, for dumb bosses, wasting their potential when they could be adding so much more value to our societies (and also be happier with it). And I don't intend to blame anyone here, it's not like we have much better choices in many cases. Sometimes you even think we would be able to achieve more with less man-hours if we didn't spend so many of them on nonsense. The need for jobs for everyone has also been discussed. UBI as an alternative, etc. To me it's clear the number of jobs we need/will need in the future will fall. And that's a good thing (we can produce more with less resources), but it also has very negative consequences, due to the way our economic system works and our need for money. But there's also a social problem. The concept of work is so valued that society rarely stops to reflect about the positive consequences of needing less work. And without this, it's really hard to build towards that society with less jobs or less work hours sanely. The difference between "work" and "paid work" is very important, and I feel we don't talk enough about it either. Work is important for humans, even necessary. But we can't keep repeating nice quotes that are actually referring to "work" and applying them to "paid work" to evangelize the concept. The whole situation is very frustrating. I'm quite young, and I think about it pretty often. I don't really like the perspective for most jobs I could do. What can I do? What can we do? Ignore the rest of the world and just try to find the best place for yourself? Try to live with less? Get in politics, start a business? I find it really hard to ignore so much waste of potential and useless pain.