The Effects of Meaningless Work

I'll say one thing. When I was most highly paid, I found the work the most meaningless. So I quit. It's incredible how our system has slowly evolved so that making a good living now usually means pushing consumerism forward. Google is the poster child for that. Working as a programmer there is a well-paid job and it's primary aim is pushing needless consumption which is the reason why we have such environmental disasters now.

"Overall, meaningless work commits a Spiritual Violence against a person. It's an attack on something not just physical, not just mental, but on something that is the essence of being. It wears away our sense of self."

The author was unto something big, but didn't expand this idea.

I'll try to explain it this way. The only true reason we live at all is we desire self expression. Iirc, the eastern literature calls it tanha - the desire for material existence. However if this outlet is clogged, the desire for self expression doesn't go away. Like a stream of water, when it encounters an obstacle, it takes a different path or overflows in a disorganised manner. The latter corresponds to spiritual self-destruction.

Most work is meaningless, increasing clicks, increasing engagement, etc

Unless you are curing cancer, fighting companies doing bad things, etc many jobs are very far removed from any meaning. But does life have meaning, you need to answer that yourself first

I'm so happy to see one of the greatest 20th century American poets quoted right at the beginning! Elizabeth Bishop was amazing! Something fun to do at work is to read her correspondence with another great 20th century poet, Robert Lowell (Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence Between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell).

I feel like I have a meaningful job now. I'm certainly not making a large impact on the world, but I'd like to think there's a small number of people out there who would appreciate my work if they knew what I do.

I've also worked bullshit jobs where I seriously felt that standing by a roadside with a sign that says "new car wash" would have been a more valuable use of my time. It is emotionally draining, at least for me.

Having been in both situations, trying to find meaning outside of work didn't cut it for me. For many people, our jobs are a large part of our lives and our identity, so when our jobs lack meaning, it's simply too great a void to fill outside of work.

Of course, I can't speak for everyone. People are diverse, and I'm sure there are lots of people who couldn't care less if they work a bullshit job, so long as they get paid every couple weeks. But there are also lots of people who want to take pride in their work. Heck, if you're commenting here on hackernews, good chance you fall under the latter group.

So the advice is:

* Find meaning outside work, with the five hours per week you have between working full time, commuting (hopefully not as much anymore), and taking care of your kids and yourself. Hours during which you're completely exhausted and mentally drained.

* The same advice again, but while touching grass.

* Become labeled as negative, get union-busted.

* Quit and go to another bullshit job where the exact same cycle will repeat.

Look, I'm not actually saying this advice is wrong, or that it should be better advice. I'm saying that this stated goal:

> When I set out to finally put all these thoughts down in text, I did not want it to be all doom and gloom

was not achieved by the author. It is all doom and gloom. Because bullshit work really does kill your soul, and the best advice we can come up with for dealing with that is awful. Many, many smart people have spent a LOT of money and effort organizing the American capitalist system (and those in other countries, to varying degrees of success) so that you have absolutely no power to improve your situation, ever. Turning us all back into serfs is their intentional, focused goal, and has been for many decades, and they are invested in it, and they are good at it. It's only going to continue to get worse. You cannot do anything about it. Everything only ever gets worse.

I don't know if "meaningful" vs "meaningless" as much as "hate it deeply and sincerely and there's not a thing I do that I find interesting or useful" vs "at least I don't hate it and might use one or two things from what I learn here".

I had the former and couldn't stay in the job. Pay was good, stress was low but just couldn't go along with it.

"If we have our own why in life, we shall get along with almost any how. Man does not strive for pleasure; only the Englishman does."

Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols

Meaning is in the eye of the beholder. For most people in most of history their work just meant to bring food on the table.

The entire concept of "bullshit jobs"/"meaningless work" just sounds like mental illness to me.

> We can’t ascribe an absolute worth to hairdressers or service workers (though I would argue the pandemic has taught us we highly undervalue these kinds of workers)

> 37% and 40% (respectively) of people believed their job did not make a meaningful contribution to the world.

These two statements seem to be related. These people undervalue themselves as much as others. That's antisocial behavior as much as sheer ignorance.

Disclaimer: Controversial take, feel free to disagree, but take a moment to as well to think what I am saying.

What is this trend of citing “meaningless” work I see recently?

How is a work defined as “meaningless”?

To me, if a work has any contribution, then it is highly meaningful. World is not that simple.

For example, if someone was employed to simply sit at the door and count the number of people coming in and then subtract the number of people going out for 8h, it may be considered a bullsh!t job by many dimensions. But to me, it is very valuable as it just employed someone who is willing to do it and offers them a mean of paying their bills and survive. It is boring as f!ck? Yes, but the sole factor that it allowed someone to survive is meaning enough.

We all do not have to be brainless servants of the tribe constantly rat racing to find meaning(i.e. pursuing whatever the govt or some industry considers lacking adequate qualified people to work for). As long as something that allows a person to have their basics met, it is immensely valuable.

I hate this constant meaning finding in everything. Yes curing cancer for example brings immense meaning, but not every person on earth is capable or have the socio economical benefit of pursuing that education and mental sharp to carry out the R&D and by the definition of bullsh@t work, even curing the cancer is kind or nit much because death is inevitable anyways.

So yes, we need to stop this constant pseudo rat race of finding meaning and get led into whatever the overlords tell the media to brainwash us into believeing as meaningful.