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I completely agree and have felt this happen to me personally. I maintained employment throughout 2020 but have felt quite a strong pull towards reconsidering h

I completely agree and have felt this happen to me personally. I maintained employment throughout 2020 but have felt quite a strong pull towards reconsidering how I spend my time and energy, and how much of it goes to "work." Out of curiosity, do you know any literature that I could read to understand the eternal debate about Diogenes that you mention? I'm trying to understand the more philosophical questions around work and our modern culture finding itself in a quite a jolting self-aware realization about work, time, attention and our liberties -- and I'd love to read some of the existing foundational lit in this space. I studied comp sci, so really just doing this out of a deep curiosity and an understanding that I didn't get the opportunity to study any of this in college.

mikem170 5y ago
David Graeber talked about stuff like this sometimes. His book Bullshit Jobs [0] is one place. He talks about the history of work in the U.S. (going back to medieval guilds, puritans, industrial revolution, consumerism, etc), amongst other things. [0] https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/david-graeber-bullshit-jobs https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/david-graeber-bullsh...
jokoon 5y ago
Quote about Diogenes: “The philosopher Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king. Said Aristippus, 'If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.' I haven't read anything about Diogenes, but listened to several podcasts of philosophers talking about Diogenes. Also going to advise reading Bullshit Jobs by Graeber. Add "In praise of idleness" by Bertrand Russel. The Abolition of Work by Bob Black. The subreddit /r/antiwork is quite extreme but has good info on their wiki https://www.reddit.com/r/antiwork/wiki/index https://www.reddit.com/r/antiwork/wiki/index

mikem170 5y ago

David Graeber talked about stuff like this sometimes. His book Bullshit Jobs [0] is one place. He talks about the history of work in the U.S. (going back to medieval guilds, puritans, industrial revolution, consumerism, etc), amongst other things. [0] https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/david-graeber-bullshit-jobs https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/david-graeber-bullsh...

jokoon 5y ago

Quote about Diogenes: “The philosopher Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king. Said Aristippus, 'If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.' I haven't read anything about Diogenes, but listened to several podcasts of philosophers talking about Diogenes. Also going to advise reading Bullshit Jobs by Graeber. Add "In praise of idleness" by Bertrand Russel. The Abolition of Work by Bob Black. The subreddit /r/antiwork is quite extreme but has good info on their wiki https://www.reddit.com/r/antiwork/wiki/index https://www.reddit.com/r/antiwork/wiki/index