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Yeah. Graeber's theory of what jobs are BS doesn't really work. For instance, say a surgeon decides 'hey, y'know people are going to die anyway, my work is use

by sien 8y ago

Yeah. Graeber's theory of what jobs are BS doesn't really work. For instance, say a surgeon decides 'hey, y'know people are going to die anyway, my work is useless' then according to Graeber's definition their work is BS while most people would say it is useful work. But one that says that anything people pay for does't really work either. Say I'm rich and pay you $100K a year to go somewhere and do nothing. Surely that is useless. However, no doubt there really are quite a lot of jobs out there that don't need to be done. I've certainly had pretty pointless jobs. 37% of people say their job is pretty much useless which is remarkable. Graeber's book is worth a read, my review is here for anyone interested ( https://reviewsien.wordpress.com/2018/06/14/bullshit-jobs-a-theory/ https://reviewsien.wordpress.com/2018/06/14/bullshit-jobs-a-... )

tokyodude 8y ago
Sometimes I do wonder though, even "good" jobs (for some definition of "good"). For example, I can work on some tech, say mp5 (made that up), knowing full well it will be replaced in 5-10yrs by mp6. Now I get maybe the person/team who invented mp5 are bringing the world forward. But as some programmer on Windows, MacOS, Android, iOS, Safari, Chrome, or Firefox adding mp5 support to those OSes there's a part of me that knows my work is temporary and it bugs me for some reason. And that's not even at the point of BS for most people saying their job is BS. another random thought is when you know you're being asked to do something in an inefficient way. The job might not be useless but your time is being wasted and it feels awful.
- nsgi 8y ago
  It's not really temporary in that example, though, if mp5 existed for some period of time there will always be mp5 files that some people will want to play and adding support ensures those files are never lost.
Ultimatt 8y ago
Apart from surgeons dont say that, and people with bullshit jobs do. Your argument is even more baseless. Youve highlighted the problem with the metric but Im not convinced its more noise than signal. Plus if every surgeon found their work bullshit thats an even bigger problem in society!
coldtea 8y ago
>Graeber's theory of what jobs are BS doesn't really work. For instance, say a surgeon decides 'hey, y'know people are going to die anyway, my work is useless' then according to Graeber's definition their work is BS while most people would say it is useful work Only actual surgeons don't say that (in any statistically significant number), and people don't think that superficially about their jobs (again, in any statistically significant number).
majewsky 8y ago
> For instance, say a surgeon decides 'hey, y'know people are going to die anyway, my work is useless' then according to Graeber's definition their work is BS while most people would say it is useful work. So what you're saying is that when we do this survey next time, we need to control for nihilism? :)

by sien 8y ago

tokyodude 8y ago

Sometimes I do wonder though, even "good" jobs (for some definition of "good"). For example, I can work on some tech, say mp5 (made that up), knowing full well it will be replaced in 5-10yrs by mp6. Now I get maybe the person/team who invented mp5 are bringing the world forward. But as some programmer on Windows, MacOS, Android, iOS, Safari, Chrome, or Firefox adding mp5 support to those OSes there's a part of me that knows my work is temporary and it bugs me for some reason. And that's not even at the point of BS for most people saying their job is BS. another random thought is when you know you're being asked to do something in an inefficient way. The job might not be useless but your time is being wasted and it feels awful.

nsgi 8y ago
It's not really temporary in that example, though, if mp5 existed for some period of time there will always be mp5 files that some people will want to play and adding support ensures those files are never lost.

Ultimatt 8y ago

Apart from surgeons dont say that, and people with bullshit jobs do. Your argument is even more baseless. Youve highlighted the problem with the metric but Im not convinced its more noise than signal. Plus if every surgeon found their work bullshit thats an even bigger problem in society!

coldtea 8y ago

>Graeber's theory of what jobs are BS doesn't really work. For instance, say a surgeon decides 'hey, y'know people are going to die anyway, my work is useless' then according to Graeber's definition their work is BS while most people would say it is useful work Only actual surgeons don't say that (in any statistically significant number), and people don't think that superficially about their jobs (again, in any statistically significant number).

majewsky 8y ago

> For instance, say a surgeon decides 'hey, y'know people are going to die anyway, my work is useless' then according to Graeber's definition their work is BS while most people would say it is useful work. So what you're saying is that when we do this survey next time, we need to control for nihilism? :)