I think the "bullshitness" of a job is determined primarily by the person that does the job, if she judges it to be socially useful or not (under assumption tha

I think the "bullshitness" of a job is determined primarily by the person that does the job, if she judges it to be socially useful or not (under assumption that being the person doing the job, that is an expert, she is the most qualified to judge its utility). So, someone creating a "phoney" friendly atmosphere is a bullshit job, even if it increases the bar attendance, while a genuine entertainer (like a magician) is not a bullshit job. Even though both may be payed the same, both may have to smile when they don't really have reason to, and both may lie (in case of magician). The dividing line is that phoney friendly atmosphere is not socially useful thing (as judged by both by people who do it and common sense), while a magic trick may be. > You can't ignore pleasure and satisfaction of other people when considering a job is useful or not. Extreme example would be a drug dealer - his job is not useful yet he provides pleasure and satisfaction (and also gets it himself, in making money). It's not necessarily a bullshit job, because drug dealer does not have to care about it being socially useful.