5 ms·

This completely misses the disturbing horror aspect of the show.

pavlov 2y ago
Severe enough burnout at a startup (or crunch-mode game studio, or similar) can give you a reasonable simulacrum of that. Come in, go home, come back. Did something actually happen that wasn’t work? Unclear.
- mptest 2y ago
  >come in, go home, come back. https://youtu.be/2n34NrkDlZk https://youtu.be/2n34NrkDlZk this felt germane
- trhway 2y ago
  to me it isn't about burnout, etc. To me the show is a metaphor for "nothing personal just business" - for how people may turn off that human personality inside them and do whatever is "just doing my job/following the order".
  - yapyap 2y ago
    I don’t think it’s either, I think they’re working on a way to get secrets out of the human brain. Mark my words.
    - usefulcat 2y ago
      The severance procedure is about slavery. Undergoing the severance procedure and having your "innie" work at Lumon is exactly akin to having your own personal slave. The innie does all the work, the outie collects the paycheck. The outie controls whether the innie lives or dies, since the innie literally does not exist outside of work. I guess another part of the tradeoff is that you're giving up a significant part of your life time-wise. The number of waking hours experienced by the outie would be substantially reduced (presumably around 40 fewer hours per week). Overtime would really suck, especially if unpaid. From the perspective of the outie, working overtime would be exactly equivalent to the company taking away additional hours of their life.
      - trhway 2y ago
        yes, that sounds also reasonable. Like a good piece of art it allows a range of interpretations. At the same time it being Ben Stiller, i see his absurd comedy treatment of whatever serious interpretation we come up with, Space Force on [dark and heavy] steroids.
ethbr1 2y ago
Yeah, to me the show was much more about how every modern real company secretly wished they could sever their employees, and how much they'd abuse that power dynamic if they actually had it. Work without workers? Perfect!
inopinatus 2y ago
ah yes the pineapple
manapause 2y ago
That’s funny because I thought they captured it perfectly. Cults can be blissful places; the experience and friends I’ve made amidst the madness I’ve experienced in startups made me stronger in the end.

Severe enough burnout at a startup (or crunch-mode game studio, or similar) can give you a reasonable simulacrum of that. Come in, go home, come back. Did something actually happen that wasn’t work? Unclear.

mptest 2y ago
>come in, go home, come back. https://youtu.be/2n34NrkDlZk https://youtu.be/2n34NrkDlZk this felt germane
trhway 2y ago
to me it isn't about burnout, etc. To me the show is a metaphor for "nothing personal just business" - for how people may turn off that human personality inside them and do whatever is "just doing my job/following the order".
- yapyap 2y ago
  I don’t think it’s either, I think they’re working on a way to get secrets out of the human brain. Mark my words.
  - usefulcat 2y ago
    The severance procedure is about slavery. Undergoing the severance procedure and having your "innie" work at Lumon is exactly akin to having your own personal slave. The innie does all the work, the outie collects the paycheck. The outie controls whether the innie lives or dies, since the innie literally does not exist outside of work. I guess another part of the tradeoff is that you're giving up a significant part of your life time-wise. The number of waking hours experienced by the outie would be substantially reduced (presumably around 40 fewer hours per week). Overtime would really suck, especially if unpaid. From the perspective of the outie, working overtime would be exactly equivalent to the company taking away additional hours of their life.
    - trhway 2y ago
      yes, that sounds also reasonable. Like a good piece of art it allows a range of interpretations. At the same time it being Ben Stiller, i see his absurd comedy treatment of whatever serious interpretation we come up with, Space Force on [dark and heavy] steroids.

ethbr1 2y ago

Yeah, to me the show was much more about how every modern real company secretly wished they could sever their employees, and how much they'd abuse that power dynamic if they actually had it. Work without workers? Perfect!

inopinatus 2y ago

ah yes the pineapple

manapause 2y ago

That’s funny because I thought they captured it perfectly. Cults can be blissful places; the experience and friends I’ve made amidst the madness I’ve experienced in startups made me stronger in the end.