As an addition to this, I've struggled a lot with the concept of working for pay and only recently could I really begin to explain why.
Some people would probably call it 'entitlement', but I'm not really sure that's an accurate description.
As an employee, your role is essentially a permanent state of brown nosing. First of all you must convince a rich person/company that you are worthy. Then you must convince them that you want to work for them, that they're special, and so on. And then later, you must defer, every single day. Ill? According to policy document AED, page 5, section b, one of your eight sick days will be deducted, worker drone!
It's not enough to simply perform a valuable function for society. You need to be subservient and defer to authority - you are worth less than your betters (those with wealth) and must please them in order to eat, in order to shelter.
There are a few ways left in which you can directly serve other humans and profit via such - private entrepreneurial services such as window cleaning, antique dealing, etcetera - but these make up a small portion of the employment market today and are often subject to ridiculously overbearing regulation. The vast majority of 'jobs' in the Western world involve being directly, by rank, inferior to another human being.
Other people seem much more capable of dealing with this than I do. Often I find myself resenting others for putting up with the more ridiculous aspects - it feels like a betrayal, that if only people were better human beings and less likely to defer to authority we could all have a better experience.
This is the struggle I face, really. Physical trauma I find very simple - the emotional aspect of actively taking part in a system that I despise is much more difficult.
I definitely wouldn't call it a sense of entitlement. What you say though is disturbing and unfortunate and I wish I had a good answer. Imagine you buy a plane ticket and fly to somewhere exotic. Passenger in seat 11a is thinking "flying is horrible. It is a huge polluter. You're all crammed in like sardines. The airline is owned by wealthy fat cats and I had to pay $1500 for the 'honor' of being stuck with horrible food, crying babies and long lines at the toilets" passenger 11b has a constant smile on his face "I can't believe that one weeks salary + 12 hours of flying is all it takes to be in a completely different part of the world starting an adventure with unknown possibilities and tremendous learning to be had"
The thing is I guess they're both right! But now you know why you dont need to worry about why your coworker is grinning in the seat next to you. He/she is viewing the same circumstance very differently. Maybe over time your view can change to (mainly because you seem so unhappy with how it currently is)
An interesting post and one that has me questioning quite a lot.
I actually used to have that sort of viewpoint to a huge extent. I remember vividly thinking when starting University - there are so many other people begging to have this chance, I was the lucky chosen one, I should revel in it (I had a relatively poor upbringing).
Fast forward a few years and it's all coloured by what I can only describe as... 'seeing too much'. It's like an odd, less severe, less violent form of PTSD. Everything is tainted by the knowledge that my privileged alma mater is, predominantly, a way of signaling membership in the upper/middle classes.
The knowledge that if I manage to secure a job based on my education, mainly I've just circumvented the barrier to entry, met the arbitrary requirements, etc.
The way that the employment market is basically a race, but with real consequences. Coming second in the 100m sprint might be emotionally scarring, but coming second in the job interview might mean starving, having to sell your possessions, having to spend weeks 'wasted', unable to learn due to struggling to meet basic needs, etcetera.
And yet that person who finishes second in the job interview is born in the first world and thus luckier than 90% of the world's population. Is that fair? No but it's not unfair either. Everyone has a defined position in life that dictates the macro environment. Male/female. Tall/short. Handsome/not. Educated/uneducated. In general someone less fortunate than you would want you to maximize your opportunity in life because squandering it seems particularly cruel to those less fortunate.
I feel this way so strongly. "Why do you want to work for us?" Because I have to sell my labor to pay my landlord for a place to sleep.
I'm passionate about a few things, but none of them include being told what to do, then having someone take a large cut out of the value I produce.
Edit: I'm currently researching alternatives to traditional corporations, like worker owned cooperatives. If you or anyone reading this have ideas or want to talk, my emails in my profile.
> I feel this way so strongly. "Why do you want to work for us?" Because I have to sell my labor to pay my landlord for a place to sleep.
Yes, exactly. I personally don't have a problem with being subordinate and receive tasks to do. But if asked that question, my answer would be just like yours. "No, I'm not coming to your place because I care about things you do (I probably won't even know what you do until day 1 of my employment anyway). I need to slave my life away somewhere to provide food and shelter for myself and people dependent on me, and your company just happened to ask me to accept you as my slave master. I have tons of my own projects and ideas that are million time more interesting than what you want me to do here, but money doesn't grow on trees.".
But of course I can't tell that to a potential boss. I need to dodge the question with "I'm a passionate programmer who loves spending time coding stuff, and I'm looking for interesting projects, which your company seems to have". Or something.
I'm increasingly thinking that maybe I should find some mundane computer work, automate the hell out of it without telling anyone, and use all the free time I gained by this to do my own projects. That way company gets the service it wants, I get paid for it and don't feel sick all the time. Win-win.
I always think "Because I need money to survive," followed by "and your project seems like it would look good on a resume for when I apply for a new job in 3 or 4 years because you're not paying me enough anymore." Then I say "I'm excited for the opportunity to develop this product." I never told them "why" I'm excited. I only told them that I am, which is all that they really want to hear.
I'm with you. The only options I've thought of are independent employment or escaping society, both come with significant tradeoffs and neither are simple to accomplish, especially without personal guidance... I guess you could find a job you're overqualified for too, make things easy at least even if you don't get to own your time. I'm not sure that would be fulfilling either.
It gets even harder for me, when I calmly and rationally think, that I am more intelligent or could do things better than my older - age plays a role, too - boss.
To sound less arrogant I normally explain my dislike of employed working by arguing, that my work amasses capital for others, who receive interest on it, followed by a sermon about how people do not get exponential growth.
If you have ability / skill that is valuable, then half of what you said no longer applies.
And if you possess that and still can't stand the status quo, you get to invent a new one: start your own thing, and do it your way.
I discovered very early on that I was incapable of working for other people, for numerous reasons. So I figured out how I could arrange my life so that I wouldn't have to ever work for someone else; and of course, there were trade-offs, but they were worth it.
Economic activity is the process of changing things.
For example, a lumber will chop down trees and sell them for $5000. He changes forest into logs. A house builder will buy those trees, and then take the money he has saved and pay someone to make the planks, another person to nail them, and another person to do all the other things needed to make a house. This person changes some wood and metal into a house.
He will then put this house on the market and someone will offer him $30,000. His total cost was $15,000 and by selling this house he has paid back what he invested and has an additional $15,000 he can reinvest.
This person made more money than you (the laborer) because he changed more things. He changed some wood and metal into a house, while you simply changed wood into a plank as directed by him. Sure, he hired you and 3 other guys who technically did all the work.
But this is a situation where the sum is vastly more than the total of the parts. You were the cogs in his "house building system".
If you don't like where you are, figure out how you can change this world more so than how you are now.
Not really, the builder made more money because they took on more risk: they bought land speculatively, they took on a massive loan, built a house on speculation that someone will want it. Lumber took on much less risk to chop a few trees and sell a commodity that has a defined market value. Better analogy is the lumber who took on debt and grew into a massive organization that buys land, processes trees into lumber and sells wholesale. This is more of what a home builder is and there are plenty of very large, rich timber companies.
Technically true. But then you only live in that system by choice.
You can instead choose to live in a slightly different system that only overlaps the "system" in a few meaningful points. You can, for instance, avoid going in to debt or living beyond your means, allowing you to live for a fraction of what your peers require. That would let you work less. Like months per year less in order to cover your expenses.
That would give you a lot more freedom to pick and choose better gigs from better employers. Better still, could choose to program computers for a living, giving you the advantage of a much higher bill rate than most folks in that "system", as well as the option to do all you work remotely for clients you've never met face to face.
So yeah, sell your time and soul, but only tiny fractions, and on your own terms. That's one of the cool perks of this career you've chosen.
First start by recognizing that there can never be an alternative system to having to earn your way in this world. One way or another, someone's productive effort has to pay for things that get created, whether by currency or direct barter. The only alternative is slavery: someone else being forced to work to fulfill your needs, for no compensation or trade.
And then understand that money is nothing but frozen time and productivity. It's among the most glorious of inventions. I can work my ass off when I'm young and able to stand it, freeze that effort via money, and then expend that value when I'm 73 and no longer able to work. Absolutely brilliant.
There is no escape from having to possess something to trade (skill, time, money, objects of value, etc) in order to feed yourself or have shelter, or have clothing. Stop torturing yourself by wishing there was.
The only choice you have, is how you burn your time. You can be a 9 to 5 low wage worker; you can be a 9 to 5 high wage worker. You can be an entrepreneur. You can try to lead a basic life as a farmer. You can get rich, and then spend your remaining time doing whatever you want with that vast sum of frozen productivity.
I feel it is not true that there just cannot be another system. For a long time, there was such a system: homesteading. You could head out into an unclaimed area of land, stake out a piece, and live off it. It is quite recent that ALL land and capital has already been staked out, and that you have to live off the capital given to you by others if you perform chores for them.
However, you are probably right in saying that one shouldn't tortute oneself thinking about all this. It is unlikely my thoughts or feelings will change anything, and the only option left is to work hard to become a part of the system.
Yes, trading value must be necessary in a system with scarcity.
But most of the things that make work a struggle for me are simply not necessary at all.
It's not necessary to have nonsense like a few weeks of holiday. The UK is far better than the US in this regard and still we get only a few weeks.
It's not necessary for there to be ludicrous entrenched inequality, which results in most employment being with a mega corporation.
I could go on but I lack the energy, I've had this discussion too many times to count.
The issue is the way in which the system seems artificially set up to benefit the rich. In the UK homes are unaffordable for most of the population now in a way that wasn't the case a few decades ago. That means that the idea of saving for retirement is a total dream for anyone other than a tiny elite of workers.
> Yes, trading value must be necessary in a system with scarcity.
Which our system is becoming less and less like thanks to automation - so at this point I really hope that people will drop this stupid meme that "everyone has to work" and push towards basic income. I'd provide much more real value to people around me and worldwide if I didn't have to worry about money that much.
Also, many (if not most) of the jobs related to tech sector, and especially web development, are bullshit anyways. We're cogs in the machine of advertising, which is a) harmful to society, and b) powered by negative feedback loops that can suck in infinite amount of labour and resources for no value to show.
I understand everything you said almost too well. The solution, for me, has been to only work for small businesses (ie, startups) or to find a way to work for myself. PG described the benefits of working in small groups in another essay (last year), and I find it all to ring true.
An HNer who commented below said one other possibility is finding work you're overqualified for, which can be an option, too. This would allow you to do non-challenging work while being able to challenge yourself in other ways in your off time. If you combine this with working online, you may find it to be the solution to your woes. I often say, "I don't care what I do, per se, I care about what that work situation allows me to do" (in my off time, in how I control my time, in where and how I can live).
I have struggled with the same issues. Most work involves fitting into a social hierarchy and being rewarded by managers for preserving the appearance of tribal unity.
I finally had to leave corporate life for good. I discovered that what I do compulsively, other people compulsively avoid, and so I marketed it as my special skill. I also had to choose a field that encourages churn, so that I could be competitive as a freelancer. Eventually I found a job with an institution that gave me more autonomy than I would ever have in the corporate world. Ironically, my commercial skills have helped protect me from institutional politics. But I may get sucked in by ambition.
As an employee, your role is essentially a permanent state of brown nosing. First of all you must convince a rich person/company that you are worthy. Then you must convince them that you want to work for them, that they're special, and so on. And then later, you must defer, every single day. Ill? According to policy document AED, page 5, section b, one of your eight sick days will be deducted, worker drone!
It's not enough to simply perform a valuable function for society. You need to be subservient and defer to authority - you are worth less than your betters (those with wealth) and must please them in order to eat, in order to shelter.
Some people would probably call it 'entitlement', but I'm not really sure that's an accurate description.
As an employee, your role is essentially a permanent state of brown nosing. First of all you must convince a rich person/company that you are worthy. Then you must convince them that you want to work for them, that they're special, and so on. And then later, you must defer, every single day. Ill? According to policy document AED, page 5, section b, one of your eight sick days will be deducted, worker drone!
It's not enough to simply perform a valuable function for society. You need to be subservient and defer to authority - you are worth less than your betters (those with wealth) and must please them in order to eat, in order to shelter.
There are a few ways left in which you can directly serve other humans and profit via such - private entrepreneurial services such as window cleaning, antique dealing, etcetera - but these make up a small portion of the employment market today and are often subject to ridiculously overbearing regulation. The vast majority of 'jobs' in the Western world involve being directly, by rank, inferior to another human being.
Other people seem much more capable of dealing with this than I do. Often I find myself resenting others for putting up with the more ridiculous aspects - it feels like a betrayal, that if only people were better human beings and less likely to defer to authority we could all have a better experience.
This is the struggle I face, really. Physical trauma I find very simple - the emotional aspect of actively taking part in a system that I despise is much more difficult.