Bullshit Jobs

Bullshit Jobs: A Reality

“It’s hard to imagine a surer sign that one is dealing with an irrational economic system than the fact that the prospect of eliminating drudgery is considered to be a problem.” - David Graeber

For me this is the poignant heart of the entire problem; how is it that in our pursuit of making life easier, we’re now making it harder for lack of imagination?

We left the shady canopies of the jungle, stood upright, learned to sweat, braved the savannah, built primitive canoes and populated new lands, harnessed steam, tamed electrons and are now on the precipice of being able to free everyone from drudgery and our biggest dilemma is we can’t work out a productive way to imagine how this might be.

The history of humanity, of all life for that matter, is one of change; increasing complexity and control that feeds back into itself. Yet, now, for lack of a mental model that has been stripped via indoctrination, we are now at an impasse with ourselves - the economy has become a kind of shotgun pointed back on itself and instead of trying to invent our way out of that situation we’re merely spending all our time trying to figure out how to keep the proverbial gun from firing, and we’re losing precious time.

David makes a strong, neigh impenetrable, argument that 50%+ of current occupations have been invented to keep the wheels turning, for no other reason than to allow people to earn money to spend back in; a useless exercise that wastes resources and life.

Think about the plethora of occupations that exist to support other occupations that are meaningless, that contribute no social value whatsoever, or those that exist merely because we’re all too busy working bullshit jobs to be able to find time to cook, or look after our children.

I used to work at a callcenter that sold everything from energy to internet, and the primary value statement was attempting to compare different costs of the same service and then harass people to try and save them an average of maybe $10/m if they change provider, which was obviously worth money to the business. I couldn’t stomach it - it’s literally a bunch of people that turn up, and get pushed to hit sales targets, that produce nothing of value... nothing. It only exists because we have 20+ electricity providers in Australia... why? There’s only one electrical infrastructure and electrons always work the same. These companies don’t provide anything, they meter your use and bill you with increasingly complex arrays of discounts and rates, all with a different colour letterhead to their competitor.

There are literally thousands and thousands of people, even hundreds of thousands, fuck it, millions of people, that work in what I call ‘Self Serving Chains of Reliance’, and it’s insanity.

We don’t trust people to not work, work is a virtue in and of itself even if it’s a heinous waste of time and resources; the narrative from top-down has worked a treat and we now beat one another over the head for being lazy if we’re not willing to torture ourselves, unless we’re of the lucky few that manage to get paid for something that matters.

People are what we tell them they are, and what we make them. And we have told them they are lazy, and convinced them of this truth; a more permeating self perpetuating prophecy there is not.

And don’t even get me started on the statistically proven inversely proportionate relationship between job income and social value contribution... what kind of world do we want?

We need to return to a time where self-help books (usually about wealth) are tossed in the trash and books that deal with structuring the world in such a way that we produce not monetary wealth, but the kinds of people we want to be around.

Aristotle had it right when he said, “Men [and women] acquire particular quality by constantly acting in a particular way.”

What ways are we forcing people to act in, and in doing so what qualities are they attaining that continually create the world?

If you can think of a reason for your job to exist, outside of giving you money that you need, or merely occupying your time, please pick up this book - it’s more important than the title may suggest.

We are torturing ourselves, and we’re on the precipice of vindication via autonomy or a divide such that we’ve never seen; what world will we choose?

5 people found this helpful

Worth a read

Light hearted, easy to follow, interesting content, this book does say important things about major problems our society is facing. I would recommend it. But the writing feels frustratingly one-sided: the author stresses the cases which support his argument, conspicuously avoids critical nuances, omits many factors which play against his pitch, and seems to label anyone who differs as naive, ignorant or overly particular, depending on how articulate they are. I did however enjoy the delight with which he seems to enjoy words like 'ramification', 'proliferation', and 'sundry'.

2 people found this helpful

A must read for anyone with a job.

If you have a job, bullshit or not, you have to read this. Right now.

1 person found this helpful

Bullshit Jobs ... bullshit book

12 hours and 38 minutes on a subject that could be successfully dealt with in 10. It should be a fascinating topic but this just doesn't deal with it well.

1 person found this helpful

Incredible uncovering of the useless job epidemic

I have been aware of the massive overtaking of pretty much every industry by bureaucratic and administration for quite a while, witnessing it in my own field (construction) and how so many people don't really contribute anything of any value to society, well this book goes deep into this issue which lies hidden from most people, David does it in an entertaining way, i laughed out loud several times hearing examples of peoples insanely useless jobs from all over the world, but he also backs up his theory with facts. I enjoyed this book so much that this is actually the first book review i've ever written and i'm probably going to listen to it again straight away!.

1 person found this helpful

Poignant!

Ever more so. Graeber’s contribution is original, hopeful, practical and engaging. Really loved every minute!

The most important book you'll ever read

Where to begin? It's hard to summarise this book, because everyone should consume it in full. By the end, you will be fulminating against the system that condemns 40% of humanity to total bullshit activity when they could be doing something fun and/or useful. Graeber was one of the most important thinkers in the world, and he will be sorely missed. Honour him by fighting for UBI.

Could be summarised

Sounded too much like a dissertation. I decided to use my time on another book without finishing it.

Expends his thesis in the first ten minutes

The first ten minutes was illuminating. I started to suspect the author, however, when he said that military IT procedures where an IT worker was needed to move a computer from one room to another, was a BS job. I was military for 26 years, and am well aware that the IT systems in place are specifically because of the existential threat of espionage and cyber warfare. I've seen how easy it would be for an interface surveliance device to be installed or activated while a computer was moved, the need to document the locations of terminals, routes of entry into the networks, and to check for malicious devices that no military person is trained in. I've seen how the entire "Restricted", "Secret"and "Top Secret"networks can be messed up (even rendered unusable) if equipment is moved around without stringent recordkeeping. Plug the wrong interface device into the wrong plug, and secuirty integrity software can make the whole system can go down, grinding entire units to an IT halt. I've seen many a career ruined by inadvertant messing with secure systems that result in potential national security breaches that result in hundreds of hours wasted in investigations. Clearly the author had no idea about the military but i kept going, maybe it's a one-off. The author, however, kept in his merry way. in the next 30 minutes he made so many fallacious arguments including about gender politics, workplace delegation, even ancient/medieval social systems that he clearly hadn't a clue about, that I gave up. And here I am, returning the book. This book should have been a pamphlet. Well performed though.

Mind fuck

Although it was a bit repetitive in parts, it was, like all of Graeber's books, very interesting. I'm not totally sold on all of it, but it is definitely deserving of a re-read.