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> few jobs that can become life goals, most are boring. Humans have been doing "boring" work their whole lives for millions of years, it has never been a probl

> few jobs that can become life goals, most are boring. Humans have been doing "boring" work their whole lives for millions of years, it has never been a problem. The problem is that people are working for organizations that are DOING HARM to them and their people. Not only is their work not productive, it is destructive. Not only is their work meaningless, but it endeavors to undermine meaning itself.

deleted 5y ago
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handrous 5y ago
I'd say boring isn't the same thing as (perceived) meaninglessness. I kinda like lots of work that's considered boring, personally—but pointless, wasteful, meaningless, or unappreciated? Let alone harmful? I won't become disengaged, because I'll never be engaged to begin with.
cblconfederate 5y ago
yeah thats what i mean, people will do boring work if they feel the other rewards of life make it worthwhile. right now in an uncertain lonely period one questions whether the juice is worth the squeeze
Jetrel 5y ago
Yeah. This right here. The problem with corporate america isn't that the work is boring; it's that for most jobs it's actually evil at some point in the pipeline. (To use a metaphor - you're still morally culpable if you're carrying boxes of bullets to the soldiers doing the actual killing). Almost no matter what industry you're in, whether it's shoes, or batteries, or electronics, you know that somewhere on the other side of the world, actual slavery is providing materials and labor for what you're selling, and you really wonder why we can't all mutually agree to make that illegal. There are very few professions (often stuff like medicine, teaching, etc) where someone can sit back and think "yeah, my day job is a net positive for humanity". It's hard enough to cope with when something is a decent "material good" on its own - like if you're selling shoes (virtually all of which get made in sweatshops), at least you have the pride in the fact that shoes are a necessity. It sucks that slavery was involved in making them, but at least you know people are getting genuinely good clothing out of it. But when you don't have that - when you are, say, working in market analysis or advertising, and you realize your job isn't actually making anything or filling any material need - or even just bringing people joy, yeah, it's a bit worse than being meaningless. You're flushing the best years of your life down the toilet to make a little more money for some private equity firm. Great.
- kazen44 5y ago
  This disconnect between one's labour and the value it produces has been known for a very long time (Entfremdung). marx, hegel, Feuerbach all talked about it. I think the main issue with modern corporate america is that too few people see the direct impact of their job. especially in pure office jobs without any technical inclination. Doing boring work isn't bad per se, but it should lead to something that improves thanks to your labour.

deleted 5y ago

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handrous 5y ago

I'd say boring isn't the same thing as (perceived) meaninglessness. I kinda like lots of work that's considered boring, personally—but pointless, wasteful, meaningless, or unappreciated? Let alone harmful? I won't become disengaged, because I'll never be engaged to begin with.

cblconfederate 5y ago

yeah thats what i mean, people will do boring work if they feel the other rewards of life make it worthwhile. right now in an uncertain lonely period one questions whether the juice is worth the squeeze

Jetrel 5y ago

Yeah. This right here. The problem with corporate america isn't that the work is boring; it's that for most jobs it's actually evil at some point in the pipeline. (To use a metaphor - you're still morally culpable if you're carrying boxes of bullets to the soldiers doing the actual killing). Almost no matter what industry you're in, whether it's shoes, or batteries, or electronics, you know that somewhere on the other side of the world, actual slavery is providing materials and labor for what you're selling, and you really wonder why we can't all mutually agree to make that illegal. There are very few professions (often stuff like medicine, teaching, etc) where someone can sit back and think "yeah, my day job is a net positive for humanity". It's hard enough to cope with when something is a decent "material good" on its own - like if you're selling shoes (virtually all of which get made in sweatshops), at least you have the pride in the fact that shoes are a necessity. It sucks that slavery was involved in making them, but at least you know people are getting genuinely good clothing out of it. But when you don't have that - when you are, say, working in market analysis or advertising, and you realize your job isn't actually making anything or filling any material need - or even just bringing people joy, yeah, it's a bit worse than being meaningless. You're flushing the best years of your life down the toilet to make a little more money for some private equity firm. Great.

kazen44 5y ago
This disconnect between one's labour and the value it produces has been known for a very long time (Entfremdung). marx, hegel, Feuerbach all talked about it. I think the main issue with modern corporate america is that too few people see the direct impact of their job. especially in pure office jobs without any technical inclination. Doing boring work isn't bad per se, but it should lead to something that improves thanks to your labour.