If you ask a person from a hunter gather society or a medieval peasant what they do, whould the question even make any sense? My old high school coach always asked a new aquantiance "What do you do ... for fun?"
Couldn’t agree more. Our occupations are a pillar of American society for sure and much of the world as well. I had a friend who always used to hate answering the question “what do you do?” So I told him to start answering whatever he did last Friday. “Drink beer and listen to classic rock” or “read a book and so tea.” He said he got a lot of side eye but at least he wasn’t talking about work any more.
I am reminded of how Time magazine once predicted in the 1960s, I believe, that automation would cause so little work to do that we would have UBI.
Fortunately or unfortunately, I believe the promise of AI is just another hustle. An excuse to fire people into the bursting of the AI bubble before hedge funds swoop in like carrion birds to feast on the remains of yet another burst asset bubble. Rinse, repeat.
In the west at least, profession as identity is baked into our names. Smith, Potter, Carpenter, Wheeler, etc, etc.
Or just who's son you are.
Its shorthand for expectations around how we should interact. This isnt a capitalist phenomenon. Like the author says, its in our DNA to want to understand how we can or should relate to others in our society. A profession is just a label for what value we bring to a society.
I think we're going to need a lot more philosophers in the coming decades to help us understand what human purpose is without utility.
If were wise, we'll look to the disabled community for lessons about how to relate to these questions of purpose, ability and intrinsic personal value. Many people there have already had to grapple with those questions in the context of an often hostile and self righteous broader culture.
And for it all to go the more positive direction, we must break free of the era that someone described as childlike behavior-- for self-interest and immediate personal gain -- an era supposedly predicted by Aleister Crowley and past figures of similar persuasion.
If you ask a person from a hunter gather society or a medieval peasant what they do, whould the question even make any sense? My old high school coach always asked a new aquantiance "What do you do ... for fun?"
A better ice breaker question IMHO.
Couldn’t agree more. Our occupations are a pillar of American society for sure and much of the world as well. I had a friend who always used to hate answering the question “what do you do?” So I told him to start answering whatever he did last Friday. “Drink beer and listen to classic rock” or “read a book and so tea.” He said he got a lot of side eye but at least he wasn’t talking about work any more.
I am reminded of how Time magazine once predicted in the 1960s, I believe, that automation would cause so little work to do that we would have UBI.
Fortunately or unfortunately, I believe the promise of AI is just another hustle. An excuse to fire people into the bursting of the AI bubble before hedge funds swoop in like carrion birds to feast on the remains of yet another burst asset bubble. Rinse, repeat.
In the west at least, profession as identity is baked into our names. Smith, Potter, Carpenter, Wheeler, etc, etc.
Or just who's son you are.
Its shorthand for expectations around how we should interact. This isnt a capitalist phenomenon. Like the author says, its in our DNA to want to understand how we can or should relate to others in our society. A profession is just a label for what value we bring to a society.
I think we're going to need a lot more philosophers in the coming decades to help us understand what human purpose is without utility.
If were wise, we'll look to the disabled community for lessons about how to relate to these questions of purpose, ability and intrinsic personal value. Many people there have already had to grapple with those questions in the context of an often hostile and self righteous broader culture.
Very apt inquires
And for it all to go the more positive direction, we must break free of the era that someone described as childlike behavior-- for self-interest and immediate personal gain -- an era supposedly predicted by Aleister Crowley and past figures of similar persuasion.