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What is it about working that makes it so depressing for you to not do it? Is it the earning of money for yourself? If so, you're greedy. That's fine. Be greedy

by moate 7y ago

What is it about working that makes it so depressing for you to not do it? Is it the earning of money for yourself? If so, you're greedy. That's fine. Be greedy. Not a great look, but we're just being honest with ourselves. If it's "doing work that changes the way things are", once you've reached a point where you are able to retire and no longer need to work for money, there's plenty of options in just about every sector (I'm assuming yours is tech or tech adjacent being on HN and all that) where you can do meaningful work and which people would gladly accept the help of an expert on even if they can't pay them. If it's some other 3rd thing that you feel differentiates jobs from non-jobs, I'd be interested to hear what you think that is.

dangrossman 7y ago
You're coming across as being purposely offensive/antagonistic, FYI. To borrow your words, "not a great look".
- moate 7y ago
  I'm posing a hypothetical set of emotions for OP to try and understand is POV. If someone was to tell you "I get depressed if I don't work for long periods of time, because I my life feels meaningless if I'm not making money" How do you describe that person, if not "greedy"? I don't think calling greed "greed" is offensive. That isn't even saying OP actually is greedy, but that it was a possibility. To each their own. I'm trying to figure out what OP feels provides him meaning at work. If it's the money, and he gets depressed when he doesn't make money, I'm fine calling that greedy. If it's the lack of meaningful "work" you can do the work without the money. If it's a 3rd thing, I genuinely don't understand what it could be since to me work is simply "doing a task for money".
BurningFrog 7y ago
Just speaking for me, what I like about work is that I'm doing important things for other people. Things that actually matter. Society is built on division of labor. I enjoy the fruits of so many people's labor in uncountable ways all day long. It's only fair that I too participate in this wonderful system and give something back. You're right that the payment is important. Calling that "greed" is a misunderstanding of that word, aside from the attempted insult. Among several things, it does serve as a check that what you do is important. That someone is willing to pay you money, shows that the work is important to that someone!
- techsupporter 7y ago
  (I don't write the following to impugn your choices; I'm only drawing a contrast between your view of the world and mine so we can discuss the differences.) It's interesting to me that you wrote the payment is important to you because it shows that what you are doing is important. My outlook is that the thing I am paid to do is arguably the least important activity out of any I do in the world. I'm paid to ensure that a particular set of bits are turned on and off in the appropriate way so that other people can manipulate those same bits to influence how data is represented elsewhere. In essence, I feel as though I'm the digital version of a paper-pusher, merely moving reports from one end to the other. It's not bad, as such, just not something I imagine as an important thing. But, it's what the market / society / the invisible hand has decided is deserving of almost outlandlishly wealthy levels of pay, so I do it. On the other hand, the things I find most important are the activities I either don't get paid to do or I actively pay to do them. Volunteering at my library showing kids and older adults how to read and find information. Being a guide at the zoo, hanging out with animals and encouraging others to see them as worth conserving. Knocking on doors for my preferred candidate in local elections. These are all things that, should I deduce some way to continue to pay my usual bills without having to digitally-push-paper, I would happily do for the rest of my days and let someone else occupy my chair at work. That I don't get paid to do them is almost part of the charm, though I wish society valued the work highly enough that I could get paid to do one or more of those instead of dealing with the latest wrinkle in "site reliability engineering."
  - BurningFrog 7y ago
    Let's be careful here: I'm not saying getting paid is the only important thing. Far from from it! But what I am saying is that it shows what I'm doing is important to other people. It's not just something I'm doing for myself. > it's what the market / society / the invisible hand has decided is deserving of almost outlandlishly wealthy levels of pay, so I do it. That's true, but I prefer to deabstractify it a bit. There are real people, who have decided to spend substantial money on paying you and me to do what we do, because they think it's important. That makes it very real to me. And confirmed by an independent outside "reviewer", so to speak. I came into this way of thinking after being a stubborn youth who hated work and dreamt about never having to do it. But I couldn't get the ethics of it all to add up. So this is how I made sense of things. Of course, what you describe sounds like working for the benefit of others as well.

by moate 7y ago

dangrossman 7y ago

You're coming across as being purposely offensive/antagonistic, FYI. To borrow your words, "not a great look".

moate 7y ago
I'm posing a hypothetical set of emotions for OP to try and understand is POV. If someone was to tell you "I get depressed if I don't work for long periods of time, because I my life feels meaningless if I'm not making money" How do you describe that person, if not "greedy"? I don't think calling greed "greed" is offensive. That isn't even saying OP actually is greedy, but that it was a possibility. To each their own. I'm trying to figure out what OP feels provides him meaning at work. If it's the money, and he gets depressed when he doesn't make money, I'm fine calling that greedy. If it's the lack of meaningful "work" you can do the work without the money. If it's a 3rd thing, I genuinely don't understand what it could be since to me work is simply "doing a task for money".

BurningFrog 7y ago

Just speaking for me, what I like about work is that I'm doing important things for other people. Things that actually matter. Society is built on division of labor. I enjoy the fruits of so many people's labor in uncountable ways all day long. It's only fair that I too participate in this wonderful system and give something back. You're right that the payment is important. Calling that "greed" is a misunderstanding of that word, aside from the attempted insult. Among several things, it does serve as a check that what you do is important. That someone is willing to pay you money, shows that the work is important to that someone!

techsupporter 7y ago
(I don't write the following to impugn your choices; I'm only drawing a contrast between your view of the world and mine so we can discuss the differences.) It's interesting to me that you wrote the payment is important to you because it shows that what you are doing is important. My outlook is that the thing I am paid to do is arguably the least important activity out of any I do in the world. I'm paid to ensure that a particular set of bits are turned on and off in the appropriate way so that other people can manipulate those same bits to influence how data is represented elsewhere. In essence, I feel as though I'm the digital version of a paper-pusher, merely moving reports from one end to the other. It's not bad, as such, just not something I imagine as an important thing. But, it's what the market / society / the invisible hand has decided is deserving of almost outlandlishly wealthy levels of pay, so I do it. On the other hand, the things I find most important are the activities I either don't get paid to do or I actively pay to do them. Volunteering at my library showing kids and older adults how to read and find information. Being a guide at the zoo, hanging out with animals and encouraging others to see them as worth conserving. Knocking on doors for my preferred candidate in local elections. These are all things that, should I deduce some way to continue to pay my usual bills without having to digitally-push-paper, I would happily do for the rest of my days and let someone else occupy my chair at work. That I don't get paid to do them is almost part of the charm, though I wish society valued the work highly enough that I could get paid to do one or more of those instead of dealing with the latest wrinkle in "site reliability engineering."
- BurningFrog 7y ago
  Let's be careful here: I'm not saying getting paid is the only important thing. Far from from it! But what I am saying is that it shows what I'm doing is important to other people. It's not just something I'm doing for myself. > it's what the market / society / the invisible hand has decided is deserving of almost outlandlishly wealthy levels of pay, so I do it. That's true, but I prefer to deabstractify it a bit. There are real people, who have decided to spend substantial money on paying you and me to do what we do, because they think it's important. That makes it very real to me. And confirmed by an independent outside "reviewer", so to speak. I came into this way of thinking after being a stubborn youth who hated work and dreamt about never having to do it. But I couldn't get the ethics of it all to add up. So this is how I made sense of things. Of course, what you describe sounds like working for the benefit of others as well.