
Bullshit Jobs
A Theory
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Buy Now for $26.99
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Narrated by:
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Christopher Ragland
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By:
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David Graeber
About this listen
Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber, read by Christopher Ragland.
Be honest: if your job didn't exist, would anybody miss it? Have you ever wondered why not? Up to 40% of us secretly believe our jobs probably aren't necessary. In other words: they are bullshit jobs. This book shows why, and what we can do about it.
In the early twentieth century, people prophesied that technology would see us all working fifteen-hour weeks and driving flying cars. Instead, something curious happened. Not only have the flying cars not materialised, but average working hours have increased rather than decreased. And now, across the developed world, three-quarters of all jobs are in services, finance or admin: jobs that don't seem to contribute anything to society. In Bullshit Jobs, David Graeber explores how this phenomenon - one more associated with the Soviet Union, but which capitalism was supposed to eliminate - has happened. In doing so, he looks at how, rather than producing anything, work has become an end in itself; the way such work maintains the current broken system of finance capital; and, finally, how we can get out of it.
This book is for anyone whose heart has sunk at the sight of a whiteboard, who believes 'workshops' should only be for making things, or who just suspects that there might be a better way to run our world.
'Spectacular and terrifyingly true' Owen Jones
'Explosive' John McDonnell, New Statesman, Books of the Year
'Thought-provoking and funny' The Times
Critic Reviews
"Spectacular and terrifyingly true." (Owen Jones)
"Explosive." (John McDonnell, New Statesman, Books of the Year)
"Thought-provoking and funny." (The Times)
Meaningless employment
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Poignant!
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Listen, arm yourself with knowledge and understanding of just how badly our businesses are stuctured, and maybe call out a BS worker...?
Cuts through to some good arguments!
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Thought provoking, despite ideological digressions
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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?
Bullshit Jobs: A Reality
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Mind fuck
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Eye-opening
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AN IMPORTANT READ
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Worth a read
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Insightful and clear
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