5 ms·

Our conception of a job as doing repetitive, boring, pointless work, is very much not the nature of actual work. I feel there is a huge underclass in society w

by urthor 5y ago

Our conception of a job as doing repetitive, boring, pointless work, is very much not the nature of actual work. I feel there is a huge underclass in society who do dead end jobs and feel terrible inside. But that's not the nature of work itself. My experience is that there is plenty of high paying, high status, highly stimulating work. But there's competition for those jobs, then employers deliberately discriminate against those who don't have experience in those lines of work. And over time the job market bifurcates.

ClumsyPilot 5y ago
Well if there are 20% of jobs that are interesting, the leaves 89% of us stuck no matter who discriminates against who and how we distribute them
- 2muchcoffeeman 5y ago
  Not to mention the fact that many interesting jobs that are not highly paid restricting the choices you aim for even further.
  - WastingMyTime89 5y ago
    You don’t have to aim for a high paying job. It’s not a goal in itself. Plenty of people are happy doing jobs which don’t pay that well but interest them.
    - mmcgaha 5y ago
      My whole career I had the attitude that the job was more important than the money. I have budgeted and planned so I could retire well even though I have not made a lot of money. The problem is that I did not foresee that a divorce would end up halving my retirement. I think we would all do well to destroy the idea that enjoying work is more important than making money. We have a limited amount of time and effort that we can invest so we need to maximize our earnings.
      - SamoyedFurFluff 5y ago
        I think that’s not an issue with jobs not paying enough but an issue where society doesn’t have a suitable safety net for when life does it’s unpredictable thing. A divorce sucks, but it shouldn’t destroy your ability to retire well. There should be government programs to ensure the elders of the community are set.
        v-erne 5y ago
        I think that there is not enough wealth around to support all elders communities at reasonable levels. The demography is a bitch all around and there is too many people young and old that believe that they deserve american middle class level of life. Where they will find all required modern slaves to make it happen?
        SamoyedFurFluff 5y ago
        We have plenty of wealth. The argument we don’t is something I don’t actually believe and would like to request evidence for. Everyone does in fact deserve a decent quality of life, with basic things like healthcare and housing made available to them and we don’t need slavery to do this.
        v-erne 5y ago
        If everybody would somehow limit their greed - then yes, You are right, there is plenty of wealth - for example from the pure math point of view the hunger problem should not exist (we have too much food at this moment). But this is not math problem to solve - this is people problem. We collectively do not care enough to solve it. Most of us are lazy and there is too many greedy people between those who can provide and those in need. When I look around my family and friends I do not see anyone who knows how to limit their greed - I believe that almost all of them, if given a chance, would use money and power to bring their status up, increase their consumption, and only then would share like 10% of it with the ones in real need. And when I look around those who know how to restrict themselves (some church community participants) I only see people that know how to talk and are mostly impotent - they do not know how to build systems that could bring wealth to those who need it.
- FpUser 5y ago
  I was a research scientist in my other life. And while overall the job was challenging and very interesting 90% of it was still boring and mentally repetitive things. Granted being board behind one's desk and board while working 9 to 5 on a conveyor are two completely different scales of boring. I was once cutting trees and shrubs using nothing but axe for 3 month as my summer job.
- zelphirkalt 5y ago
  I read or heard somewhere (maybe some Schwarzenegger speech?), that only 25% of the people are happy with their jobs. If the rest of the people drags themselves through the workday ... I guess you get used to the frustration at some point and have to completely separate/compartmentalize that from private life, otherwise you get into a life crisis or something. As a society we definitely owe it to ourselves to find better jobs for people and create less frustrating work environments. As to how to achieve that though, I do not have the answer.
  - dgb23 5y ago
    If power and responsibility went hand in hand, then the incentives would align with that goal.
- dorfsmay 5y ago
  Is it a typo or is the math wrong intentionally to feed a pin (which I'm obviously not getting)?
  - neogodless 5y ago
    Guessing the 9 was meant to be a 0. (They are self-described as "clumsy.")
    - ClumsyPilot 5y ago
      Exactly
- wing-_-nuts 5y ago
  >if there are 20% of jobs that are interesting, the leaves 89% of us Um...
  - leaflets2 5y ago
    The 9 and 0 keys are next to each other on my phone, meaning ...
  - solenoidalslide 5y ago
    I read that as some type of Birthday Paradox at first.
goodpoint 5y ago
> high paying, high status, highly stimulating work If you are lucky you can pick one. If you are very lucky you can pick two.
- mmmpop 5y ago
  I dunno if I agree with this. I feel like I've got a nice combination of the three. I make median wages for "lead full stack developer" role at a company with no central office (I live in the middle of nowhere.) I also have a fairly good amount of autonomy and authority, and do work that borders on "fun" more often than not. Maybe you could say that I have no "status" compared to some pedigreed, Fortune 500 C-suite type but that doesn't really interest me so much. I come from a working class Appalachian family so I have a pretty low bar of "status" which really just means "professional respect" to me.
  - 3qz 5y ago
    Most people also wouldn’t consider standard full stack development highly stimulating
  - goodpoint 5y ago
    >> > high paying, high status, highly stimulating work > I make median wages So it's not "high paying". > do work that borders on "fun" more often than not That sound a quite far from "highly stimulating work". > I have a pretty low bar of "status" ...you made my point.
    - mmmpop 5y ago
      >> So it's not "high paying". Median full-stack developer making median city wages in the country? Okay. >> That sound a quite far from "highly stimulating work". No it doesn't. >> I have a pretty low bar of "status" Yeah well, what's yours?

by urthor 5y ago

ClumsyPilot 5y ago

Well if there are 20% of jobs that are interesting, the leaves 89% of us stuck no matter who discriminates against who and how we distribute them

2muchcoffeeman 5y ago
Not to mention the fact that many interesting jobs that are not highly paid restricting the choices you aim for even further.
- WastingMyTime89 5y ago
  You don’t have to aim for a high paying job. It’s not a goal in itself. Plenty of people are happy doing jobs which don’t pay that well but interest them.
  - mmcgaha 5y ago
    My whole career I had the attitude that the job was more important than the money. I have budgeted and planned so I could retire well even though I have not made a lot of money. The problem is that I did not foresee that a divorce would end up halving my retirement. I think we would all do well to destroy the idea that enjoying work is more important than making money. We have a limited amount of time and effort that we can invest so we need to maximize our earnings.
    - SamoyedFurFluff 5y ago
      I think that’s not an issue with jobs not paying enough but an issue where society doesn’t have a suitable safety net for when life does it’s unpredictable thing. A divorce sucks, but it shouldn’t destroy your ability to retire well. There should be government programs to ensure the elders of the community are set.
      - v-erne 5y ago
        I think that there is not enough wealth around to support all elders communities at reasonable levels. The demography is a bitch all around and there is too many people young and old that believe that they deserve american middle class level of life. Where they will find all required modern slaves to make it happen?
        SamoyedFurFluff 5y ago
        We have plenty of wealth. The argument we don’t is something I don’t actually believe and would like to request evidence for. Everyone does in fact deserve a decent quality of life, with basic things like healthcare and housing made available to them and we don’t need slavery to do this.
        v-erne 5y ago
        If everybody would somehow limit their greed - then yes, You are right, there is plenty of wealth - for example from the pure math point of view the hunger problem should not exist (we have too much food at this moment). But this is not math problem to solve - this is people problem. We collectively do not care enough to solve it. Most of us are lazy and there is too many greedy people between those who can provide and those in need. When I look around my family and friends I do not see anyone who knows how to limit their greed - I believe that almost all of them, if given a chance, would use money and power to bring their status up, increase their consumption, and only then would share like 10% of it with the ones in real need. And when I look around those who know how to restrict themselves (some church community participants) I only see people that know how to talk and are mostly impotent - they do not know how to build systems that could bring wealth to those who need it.
FpUser 5y ago
I was a research scientist in my other life. And while overall the job was challenging and very interesting 90% of it was still boring and mentally repetitive things. Granted being board behind one's desk and board while working 9 to 5 on a conveyor are two completely different scales of boring. I was once cutting trees and shrubs using nothing but axe for 3 month as my summer job.
zelphirkalt 5y ago
I read or heard somewhere (maybe some Schwarzenegger speech?), that only 25% of the people are happy with their jobs. If the rest of the people drags themselves through the workday ... I guess you get used to the frustration at some point and have to completely separate/compartmentalize that from private life, otherwise you get into a life crisis or something. As a society we definitely owe it to ourselves to find better jobs for people and create less frustrating work environments. As to how to achieve that though, I do not have the answer.
- dgb23 5y ago
  If power and responsibility went hand in hand, then the incentives would align with that goal.
dorfsmay 5y ago
Is it a typo or is the math wrong intentionally to feed a pin (which I'm obviously not getting)?
- neogodless 5y ago
  Guessing the 9 was meant to be a 0. (They are self-described as "clumsy.")
  - ClumsyPilot 5y ago
    Exactly
wing-_-nuts 5y ago
>if there are 20% of jobs that are interesting, the leaves 89% of us Um...
- leaflets2 5y ago
  The 9 and 0 keys are next to each other on my phone, meaning ...
- solenoidalslide 5y ago
  I read that as some type of Birthday Paradox at first.

goodpoint 5y ago

> high paying, high status, highly stimulating work If you are lucky you can pick one. If you are very lucky you can pick two.

mmmpop 5y ago
I dunno if I agree with this. I feel like I've got a nice combination of the three. I make median wages for "lead full stack developer" role at a company with no central office (I live in the middle of nowhere.) I also have a fairly good amount of autonomy and authority, and do work that borders on "fun" more often than not. Maybe you could say that I have no "status" compared to some pedigreed, Fortune 500 C-suite type but that doesn't really interest me so much. I come from a working class Appalachian family so I have a pretty low bar of "status" which really just means "professional respect" to me.
- 3qz 5y ago
  Most people also wouldn’t consider standard full stack development highly stimulating
- goodpoint 5y ago
  >> > high paying, high status, highly stimulating work > I make median wages So it's not "high paying". > do work that borders on "fun" more often than not That sound a quite far from "highly stimulating work". > I have a pretty low bar of "status" ...you made my point.
  - mmmpop 5y ago
    >> So it's not "high paying". Median full-stack developer making median city wages in the country? Okay. >> That sound a quite far from "highly stimulating work". No it doesn't. >> I have a pretty low bar of "status" Yeah well, what's yours?