Comment on Metafilter, December 9:
For those of us who want to work as little as possible, office work works.
Well, to an extent I agree. But something I’ve come to realize is that stuff (“watch YouTube, share music, play Flash games, and kill time”) is ultimately not really fulfilling (and although I only speak for myself, I know it’s true of many other people I know… /anecdote).
For a while it was fulfilling (I had not had very much exposure to broadband connections). When I started working I used to spend all my down time at work on metafilter, watching TED videos, etc. etc. Then I got bored because I actually wanted to do a lot of the things I read about online (example), things I don’t necessarily have the time or energy to invest in when I’m off work and I’m tending to my relationships, going through all the mundane parts of independent living, and just relaxing.
So I started spending my down time figuring out how best to get out of this… trap? And then I came up with a plan. So now I spend my free time at work brushing up on my math skills, exploring technical manuals and getting ready to become an apprentice electrician. I really want to get a good background on all of the jobs that society could not function without, especially the trades (electrical systems, metal machining, welding, plastics, masonry, carpentry, plumbing/water/sewage systems, etc.) and agriculture which seem the most foundational. Unfortunately there is no university program anywhere that offers anything like a tour of these fields, so I’ll just have to do it myself.
You say it’s easier to smash the system from within, and although i take it that you’re joking I personally find the society (“the system”) we live in to be quite horrific on a number of levels, especially when it comes to how much we work, what kind of work we’re doing, and how that work affects the broader world. Office work is a good start in working as little as possible (in that access to the internet gives you the opportunity to get an education on how the world works and how it could be better) but the only way to REALLY work less is to create a better world in which we don’t have to work as much, and the only way to do that is to get out there and make it. Which is a lot more interesting than anything made possible by working less (hard) anyhow.
