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What is work?

yenom

Alexander the Terrible
Joined
Aug 3, 2008
Messages
1,755
What is work? Why do I hate it so much? Why do I have to spend everyday doing something I hate? What do i gain from it?
Do you ever question yourself why you are wasting so much time and energy doing this thing called "work" everyday? More importantly, why do I procrastinate and how to fight it?



here are several definitions of work I come up with, but nevertheless imperfect:

work is art
work is changing reality with your imagination
work is using your intelligence to change reality
work is using energy to do something
work is creating something with your imagination
work is using energy to achieve a purpose
work is forcing yourself to do what you hate
work is praticing your intelligence
work is using energy to do anything
work is undefinable

If work is changing reality, what do I gain from changing reality? Why do we have the drive to change reality. Why do we want to transform what we think into reality? What is the difference between working and thinking?

If work is undefinable, why do I hate it so much? Why do I have to force myself to do something I hate everyday? Why do i hate something whose existance is questionable?
 

Mole

Permabanned
Joined
Mar 20, 2008
Messages
20,284
What is work? Why do I hate it so much? Why do I have to spend everyday doing something I hate? What do i gain from it?
Do you ever question yourself why you are wasting so much time and energy doing this thing called "work" everyday? More importantly, why do I procrastinate and how to fight it?



here are several definitions of work I come up with, but nevertheless imperfect:

work is art
work is changing reality with your imagination
work is using your intelligence to change reality
work is using energy to do something
work is creating something with your imagination
work is using energy to achieve a purpose
work is forcing yourself to do what you hate
work is praticing your intelligence
work is using energy to do anything
work is undefinable

If work is changing reality, what do I gain from changing reality? Why do we have the drive to change reality. Why do we want to transform what we think into reality? What is the difference between working and thinking?

If work is undefinable, why do I hate it so much? Why do I have to force myself to do something I hate everyday? Why do i hate something whose existance is questionable?

I remember working in a large bureaucracy my boss would come in every morning and say with heartfelt feeling, "I hate work".

He was a good boss for one morning I woke up, sat on the edge of my bed and looked into the large mirror in my wardrobe, and I realised I didn't want to go to work. So I didn't.

So I found a beautiful place to live on the Australian National University Campus for $5 a week. And I started to live my own life. And I have lived it ever since.

My boss though had a family to support and had to stay at work to collect his pension. So his face got greyer and greyer every day. He got angrier and angrier. Until he had a heart attack. His heart told him in no uncertain terms to stop. And so he did.
 

Thalassa

Permabanned
Joined
May 3, 2009
Messages
25,183
MBTI Type
ISFP
Enneagram
6w7
Instinctual Variant
sx
You work because you want to live. Work gives you money.

If you question it too much, you might take out your co-workers one morning with a rifle. Not good.

So just stop it.
 

Lady_X

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 27, 2008
Messages
18,235
MBTI Type
ENFP
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784
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
i like work...you gotta find something you like. i can go to work in an awful mood and feel like a new person by the time i leave....i still don't like going to work...but i'm cool once i get there.
 

FDG

pathwise dependent
Joined
Aug 13, 2007
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5,903
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ENTJ
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doing something people will pay you money for
 

Mole

Permabanned
Joined
Mar 20, 2008
Messages
20,284

Sure, Charles Darwin never worked and we named a Capital City after him.

And the Ancient Greeks regarded paid work to be unsuitable for free men.

It is only the Protestant Work Ethic that changed all that, and made work not only cool but mandatory.

Fortunately scarcity has been overcome in the West and developed nations, so now work is optional.

But the Protestant Work Ethic arose to address scarcity. And the Protestant Work Ethic has been so successful that we have overcome scarcity for the first time in human history.

But in the midst of plenty the Protestant Work Ethic is still brandished over our heads - as though we were still living in scarcity.

So the Protestants are incredibly powerful because they have been incredibly successful. So successful that they still live in our heads.

Perhaps it is time to listen to other voices.
 

BlueScreen

Fail 2.0
Joined
Nov 8, 2008
Messages
2,668
MBTI Type
YMCA
Work is wasting a lot of time getting money to fund the little time you have left over.
 

BlackCat

Shaman
Joined
Nov 19, 2008
Messages
7,038
MBTI Type
ESFP
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9w8
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Doing something that makes something else happen.
 

yenom

Alexander the Terrible
Joined
Aug 3, 2008
Messages
1,755
Maybe it is about doing something with your knowledge.
or executing your desires.

I still don't understand what satisfaction I get from changing reality.
It is not always about money. Our ancestors did not work for money before money was invented.

Of course survival is one of the reasons that drive us to work.
But I am trying to understand why do we have the drive to change reality.
 

yenom

Alexander the Terrible
Joined
Aug 3, 2008
Messages
1,755
Or maybe there is no such thing called work.
It is just a label we create when we are forced to do something we hate.
 

Mole

Permabanned
Joined
Mar 20, 2008
Messages
20,284
From Menial and Professional to Amateur

Or maybe there is no such thing called work.
It is just a label we create when we are forced to do something we hate.

Perhaps you are talking about industrial work.

Industrial work is done to the rhythm of the machine and the clock. Industrial work is not done at our inclination or to our rhythms. No wonder we hate it.

However we are now moving into the post-industrial society, where creativity is more valuable than conformity.

And creativity cannot be forced, indeed the creative individual must first be free in order to create.

So that if we are lucky, we do what we love.

We turn from menials and professionals into amateurs.

And as you know the word, 'amateur', comes from the Latin, 'to love'.
 

yenom

Alexander the Terrible
Joined
Aug 3, 2008
Messages
1,755
W = Fd

W = deltaKE

I am not looking for physics definition.
I am questioning what work is for the human race.
Why do we humans exert energy to change the enviroment?
Do animals work? Why do humans do work, what is the underlying motivation?
 

KDude

New member
Joined
Jan 26, 2010
Messages
8,243
Work is something necessary to live.. but by far the most tragic thing about life for many. If they are not doing what they like, then they are basically investing the majority of their life, thoughts, and energy into complete bullshit that has nothing to do with them. So... I don't blame "non-workers". Some people slack off so they can invest time in their own, more valuable bullshit. Hopefully they can eventually make money from that too. But probably not. :laugh:
 

Poki

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Dec 4, 2008
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Work is something I dont enjoy doing. If I can make something fun then it stops being work.
 

KDude

New member
Joined
Jan 26, 2010
Messages
8,243
Sure, Charles Darwin never worked and we named a Capital City after him.

And the Ancient Greeks regarded paid work to be unsuitable for free men.

It is only the Protestant Work Ethic that changed all that, and made work not only cool but mandatory.

Fortunately scarcity has been overcome in the West and developed nations, so now work is optional.

But the Protestant Work Ethic arose to address scarcity. And the Protestant Work Ethic has been so successful that we have overcome scarcity for the first time in human history.

But in the midst of plenty the Protestant Work Ethic is still brandished over our heads - as though we were still living in scarcity.

So the Protestants are incredibly powerful because they have been incredibly successful. So successful that they still live in our heads.

Perhaps it is time to listen to other voices.

While that may all be true in the West, Asia is marked by the Confucian work ethic (the counterpart to Confucius was Lao Tzu btw... who, in a way, can be compared to anarchist viewpoints that challenge Protestantism). So there seems to be a drive to think this way, regardless of Protestantism.
 

Chunes

New member
Joined
Sep 9, 2009
Messages
364
MBTI Type
INFP
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9w1
Work is the label we give to activities we don't enjoy.

The first step is to stop calling it work.
 
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