6 ms·

Hyperemployment, or the Exhausting Work of the Technology User

68 points by dkasper 13y ago

dreamdu5t 13y ago
Or you could exercise some control over your own life and not pay attention to Youtube, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, Reddit, etc. Life is so horrible because work consists of reading Reddit instead of physical labor. Where's my flying car?
- Detrus 13y ago
  Physical labor was great because you didn't have to work then go to the gym separately. Left more leisure time.
  - thrush 13y ago
    I don't buy it. You only need to workout about 30min a day, 3-4 times a week to stay in decent shape. Maybe an hour if you include prep and showering. That's only a few hours of your leisure time a week you might be missing out on...
    - scarmig 13y ago
      The biggest difference is the leisure time that accrues to you by retirement. On top of having more money saved, you're almost certainly in much better physical shape than someone who engaged in physically demanding activity for 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week, for 40 years.
      - codex 13y ago
        Have you seen professional acrobats? They look 15 years younger than they are.
        AmVess 13y ago
        There's a tremendous difference between physical fitness and running your body into the ground through long days of extraordinarily difficult labor.
        gizmo686 13y ago
        I suspect acrobats self select as people who look young, as that seems correlated with agility. Not withstanding that, the most common advice my high school coach gave us was to not over-practice. (I ran cross country, most of the more dedicated members had at least 1 season where they had to drop out from over-exerting themselves).
    - chongli 13y ago
      Or you could go even further and incorporate workout into your leisure time: play a sport!
  - kabdib 13y ago
    I was never in so great shape as when I worked as a dishwasher. Bike to work (8 miles, rain / shine / snow), work damned hard, close and clean up the restaurant, bike home. Of course, I was making like 50X less than I do now. I was happy to have that job, but even happier to leave it for something that involved keyboards and air-conditioned machine rooms instead of scalding hot water and smelling like a dishrag during my "leisure time" (which was more like recuperation, actually). I don't mind physical work, and I've done my share, but I'd rather not do much more of it. My dad grew up on a small farm in the northwest US, and that was work; he's paying for it now, in his old age.
    - Aloha 13y ago
      If I could make the same money I do now washing dishes, I would take it in a heartbeat. I was in much better shape, and honestly, my job was more fulfilling I could point to and see real progress every night of work.
  - mtct 13y ago
    Physical labor is great because you don't have time to worry about anything else. Vous devez avoir, dit Candide au Turc, une vaste et magnifique terre? — Je n’ai que vingt arpents, répondit le Turc; je les cultive avec mes enfants; le travail éloigne de nous trois grands maux: l’ennui, le vice, et le besoin.
    - ajlburke 13y ago
      For those who don't know French (approximate): Candide asked the Turk, "Do you have a vast and magnificent estate?" "I only have twenty acres," the Turk replied. "I cultivate them with my children; The work wards off three great evils: boredom, vice, and want." - From Voltaire's "Candide" - one of the more fun (and short!) 'Great Books'.
  - dinkumthinkum 13y ago
    And yet mortality rates worse and there was actually very little leisure time ... funny that ...
alaskamiller 13y ago
Once I was a Marine combat engineer. We worked all day. Reveille starts at 06 and taps wasn't until 20, 21, or maybe even 24. There was a singular focus throughout the day: get shit done. That involved no computers, no phones, no digital distractions. Just blowing up stuff, building bridges, or moving boulders by hand. Physically draining work that at the end you try to somehow find a can of un-skunked beer to cheer to. I remember the culture was unkind to office work, they saw it as soft. That's partly why they were out there in the first place, unfit for mainstream society, not wanting to be desk jockeys, just good ol' boys, the desperate, the unwanted, the jailed, standing around in uniforms doing things with their hands. I made sure I never told anyone I was any good with computers. The type of problem solving we had to do on a day to day basis didn't require too much thought, and if anything there were always policy or documentation to explain what to do and how to do it. Long days, hard work, but I never had to use my brain. I quite enjoyed functioning as a tiny cog in a big machine despite the risks. Transitioning home, I found work at a premier tech company, one where they make phones, tablets, and computers. The work was different. I stared at screens all day. Inside a cubicle with fuzzy walls, where often times the only communication I have were email chains. Operating a computer, functioning as a tiny switch in a big board required the a more precious asset: my brain. I was thinking all the time, trying to recall, connect, and communicate. And doing the same thing all day is... boring. I went home every night drained. Physically, mentally, and emotionally. The days weren't as long, the environment wasn't bad, the risk were low but the work is hard. I hated it. Nowadays I code. I romanticize my job by equating it to writing love poems to an inanimate object. Sometimes I get affection, often times I get rejection. It's an ongoing love-hate relationship. One that just takes and takes from my brain while leaving me a soft, mushy lump on a nice Aeron chair yearning to be free. Computers took a lot from me since I was 10. Two decades late I've only barely learned how to take a lot from computers. Find your balance.
- seivan 13y ago
  Wow this was quite a nice read :) like a 'shorter' novel.
- 001sky 13y ago
  Nowadays I code. I romanticize my job by equating it to writing love poems to an inanimate object This is a great line.
mcv 13y ago
I don't find email that much of a drain. I used to, when I was subscribed to a ton of mailinglists, but I cut down, and I skip a lot. I don't have to read everything. I tried to once; I tried to read all of usenet, then all of the web. And now, well, G+ and HN. And there I skip most too. I read when I like. I don't need to check stuff constantly. I could have tons of free time if I just kept away from G+ and HN a bit more. And the stuff I read counts as leisure; maybe not the best way to spend my leisure time, but it's still leisure. I don't think Keynes was all that wrong, really. I work 32 hours a week, and my son is the main thing that eats up my leisure time. People had more kids in the 1930s.
pmiller2 13y ago
How does this reconcile with "Bullshit jobs," which also quotes Keynes in 1930? http://www.strikemag.org/bullshit-jobs/ http://www.strikemag.org/bullshit-jobs/
sbierwagen 13y ago
I remember pg saying something like "email is a todo list that lets anyone in the world add items to the top" but the actual quote isn't quite as good: http://www.paulgraham.com/ambitious.html http://www.paulgraham.com/ambitious.html Email was not designed to be used the way we use it now. Email is not a messaging protocol. It's a todo list. Or rather, my inbox is a todo list, and email is the way things get onto it. But it is a disastrously bad todo list.
- jerkface 13y ago
  It's amazing you were able to type that from so far up pg's ass. One demerit for not using a numbered citation [1]. [1] Imitation is the sincerest form of groupthink.
xlayn 13y ago
This is a rant about I can't manage my own life: there is no reason to pay attention to what you don't want, unless you do. Unsubscribe, if you can't flag as spam, pay your bills on time (do I really need to say that?). Add others rant's as previous, leave FB/HN/etc bla.

68 points by dkasper 13y ago

Or you could exercise some control over your own life and not pay attention to Youtube, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, Reddit, etc. Life is so horrible because work consists of reading Reddit instead of physical labor. Where's my flying car?

Detrus 13y ago
Physical labor was great because you didn't have to work then go to the gym separately. Left more leisure time.
- thrush 13y ago
  I don't buy it. You only need to workout about 30min a day, 3-4 times a week to stay in decent shape. Maybe an hour if you include prep and showering. That's only a few hours of your leisure time a week you might be missing out on...
  - scarmig 13y ago
    The biggest difference is the leisure time that accrues to you by retirement. On top of having more money saved, you're almost certainly in much better physical shape than someone who engaged in physically demanding activity for 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week, for 40 years.
    - codex 13y ago
      Have you seen professional acrobats? They look 15 years younger than they are.
      - AmVess 13y ago
        There's a tremendous difference between physical fitness and running your body into the ground through long days of extraordinarily difficult labor.
      - gizmo686 13y ago
        I suspect acrobats self select as people who look young, as that seems correlated with agility. Not withstanding that, the most common advice my high school coach gave us was to not over-practice. (I ran cross country, most of the more dedicated members had at least 1 season where they had to drop out from over-exerting themselves).
  - chongli 13y ago
    Or you could go even further and incorporate workout into your leisure time: play a sport!
- kabdib 13y ago
  I was never in so great shape as when I worked as a dishwasher. Bike to work (8 miles, rain / shine / snow), work damned hard, close and clean up the restaurant, bike home. Of course, I was making like 50X less than I do now. I was happy to have that job, but even happier to leave it for something that involved keyboards and air-conditioned machine rooms instead of scalding hot water and smelling like a dishrag during my "leisure time" (which was more like recuperation, actually). I don't mind physical work, and I've done my share, but I'd rather not do much more of it. My dad grew up on a small farm in the northwest US, and that was work; he's paying for it now, in his old age.
  - Aloha 13y ago
    If I could make the same money I do now washing dishes, I would take it in a heartbeat. I was in much better shape, and honestly, my job was more fulfilling I could point to and see real progress every night of work.
- mtct 13y ago
  Physical labor is great because you don't have time to worry about anything else. Vous devez avoir, dit Candide au Turc, une vaste et magnifique terre? — Je n’ai que vingt arpents, répondit le Turc; je les cultive avec mes enfants; le travail éloigne de nous trois grands maux: l’ennui, le vice, et le besoin.
  - ajlburke 13y ago
    For those who don't know French (approximate): Candide asked the Turk, "Do you have a vast and magnificent estate?" "I only have twenty acres," the Turk replied. "I cultivate them with my children; The work wards off three great evils: boredom, vice, and want." - From Voltaire's "Candide" - one of the more fun (and short!) 'Great Books'.
- dinkumthinkum 13y ago
  And yet mortality rates worse and there was actually very little leisure time ... funny that ...

alaskamiller 13y ago

Once I was a Marine combat engineer. We worked all day. Reveille starts at 06 and taps wasn't until 20, 21, or maybe even 24. There was a singular focus throughout the day: get shit done. That involved no computers, no phones, no digital distractions. Just blowing up stuff, building bridges, or moving boulders by hand. Physically draining work that at the end you try to somehow find a can of un-skunked beer to cheer to. I remember the culture was unkind to office work, they saw it as soft. That's partly why they were out there in the first place, unfit for mainstream society, not wanting to be desk jockeys, just good ol' boys, the desperate, the unwanted, the jailed, standing around in uniforms doing things with their hands. I made sure I never told anyone I was any good with computers. The type of problem solving we had to do on a day to day basis didn't require too much thought, and if anything there were always policy or documentation to explain what to do and how to do it. Long days, hard work, but I never had to use my brain. I quite enjoyed functioning as a tiny cog in a big machine despite the risks. Transitioning home, I found work at a premier tech company, one where they make phones, tablets, and computers. The work was different. I stared at screens all day. Inside a cubicle with fuzzy walls, where often times the only communication I have were email chains. Operating a computer, functioning as a tiny switch in a big board required the a more precious asset: my brain. I was thinking all the time, trying to recall, connect, and communicate. And doing the same thing all day is... boring. I went home every night drained. Physically, mentally, and emotionally. The days weren't as long, the environment wasn't bad, the risk were low but the work is hard. I hated it. Nowadays I code. I romanticize my job by equating it to writing love poems to an inanimate object. Sometimes I get affection, often times I get rejection. It's an ongoing love-hate relationship. One that just takes and takes from my brain while leaving me a soft, mushy lump on a nice Aeron chair yearning to be free. Computers took a lot from me since I was 10. Two decades late I've only barely learned how to take a lot from computers. Find your balance.

seivan 13y ago
Wow this was quite a nice read :) like a 'shorter' novel.
001sky 13y ago
Nowadays I code. I romanticize my job by equating it to writing love poems to an inanimate object This is a great line.

mcv 13y ago

I don't find email that much of a drain. I used to, when I was subscribed to a ton of mailinglists, but I cut down, and I skip a lot. I don't have to read everything. I tried to once; I tried to read all of usenet, then all of the web. And now, well, G+ and HN. And there I skip most too. I read when I like. I don't need to check stuff constantly. I could have tons of free time if I just kept away from G+ and HN a bit more. And the stuff I read counts as leisure; maybe not the best way to spend my leisure time, but it's still leisure. I don't think Keynes was all that wrong, really. I work 32 hours a week, and my son is the main thing that eats up my leisure time. People had more kids in the 1930s.

pmiller2 13y ago

How does this reconcile with "Bullshit jobs," which also quotes Keynes in 1930? http://www.strikemag.org/bullshit-jobs/ http://www.strikemag.org/bullshit-jobs/

sbierwagen 13y ago

I remember pg saying something like "email is a todo list that lets anyone in the world add items to the top" but the actual quote isn't quite as good: http://www.paulgraham.com/ambitious.html http://www.paulgraham.com/ambitious.html Email was not designed to be used the way we use it now. Email is not a messaging protocol. It's a todo list. Or rather, my inbox is a todo list, and email is the way things get onto it. But it is a disastrously bad todo list.

jerkface 13y ago
It's amazing you were able to type that from so far up pg's ass. One demerit for not using a numbered citation [1]. [1] Imitation is the sincerest form of groupthink.

xlayn 13y ago

This is a rant about I can't manage my own life: there is no reason to pay attention to what you don't want, unless you do. Unsubscribe, if you can't flag as spam, pay your bills on time (do I really need to say that?). Add others rant's as previous, leave FB/HN/etc bla.