Careers
How do people pick what they want to do?
It could be intertesting but useless.
Or it could be useful but insignificant.
Or it could be useful and significant. But then, lets say its science for example, you discover stuff only to have others use it to make weapons?
Is there a practically useful, morally positive, interesting and significant career?
Is the transmission of impractical yet interesting knowledge a worthy pursuit?
To what extent must one compromise one's highest ideals in order to make a living?
posted by Isaac at 11.7.05
15 Comments:
Perhaps it is best to do multiple things. Activism, basic services/labor, and intellectual pursuits. Setting up a society where that is easy to accomplish may be difficult. I know that utopian thinkers and leftists, particularly in mediterranean countries like France and Spain have supported job variation/retraining and worker education. They also have worked to lower the number of work-hours per week in order to lower unemployment and to give people more recreational time. The Israeli political party Am Echad had information about this in its platform, but their page is down (perhaps they dissolved into Labor or Yachad). I've been trying to think of a concise phrase to describe this idea so that I can search and find it on the internet. It's related to job rotation pools, co-ops, shorter work-week... but phrases like job variation or task variation aren't bringing many relevant results.
12:52 PM
I been thinkin' for about 17 years, okay? I don't ask myself those questions any more, I just kick it from my head, you know what I'm sayin'? I can do that. No disprespect, but that's how I am.
2:43 PM
life is not linear, not a ladder to be climbed from preschool to upper management.
fer chrissakes just look at mom and dad.
(in case anyone besides isaac and jp read this, our dad got a psych degree after years of a long illustrious career in radiology. and our mom has been an immigration lawyer, divorce mediator, guardian ad litem, international law professor, and most recently a personal trainer)
4:55 PM
mom used to work in real estate.
8:11 PM
now for a proper response...
In general, people should put much more thought into what they want to do and how it relates to their purpose in life. In all too many cases, people get stuck with an occupation that is neither useful nor let alone interesting.
As for significance, that is a difficult concept to assess, because hypothetically, an individual could be doing as much as he or she is capable of, but it may be viewed by the mainsream as "insignificant." Also, many "insignificant" contributions will inevitably add up to something "significant." For example, someone might devote his/her entire life to saving just one small plot of land from being taken over by greedy developers, but many such individuals' lives may save a huge greenspace.
Now Isaac, I know you know that there are plenty of morally positive, interesting, and significant careers. One may help humanity in nonprofit organizations, serve needy people through government organizations, care for the sick and suffering as a doctor...just to name a few.
I suppose the next question depends on one's particular worldview and/or perceived purpose in life. First of all, who's to say what is practical knowledge and what isn't (one's life goal may in fact be simply to pursue knowledge)? In some cases, practicality of knowledge (let alone knowledge altogether) is considered a nonissue. Beyond that, if somebody is transmitting knowledge and it is giving them genuine happiness and fulfillment, I am not at a point in my life where it would be appropriate for me to judge that choice.
Lastly, I think it one should try one's best to minimalize the margin between his/her ideals and what he/she does for a living. I believe happiness will come naturally to anyone who feels he/she is living his/her life in tandem with his highest ideals.
7:14 PM
There are certain tasks that must be done every day. Some of these tasks do not make for very attractive jobs. However, someone must collect the trash, deliver the mail... that's what I meant by useful or practical jobs. Some of these jobs are more technical, like engineering...
However, for the most part these jobs serve to turn the cogs of a giant machine, a machine that has many flaws and needs to be changed. These practical jobs often do not serve to change the way things are done or how society functions and will leave no significant long-term mark on the world as a whole. So, for me a job that is a good job or ideal job must be practical, and significant, it must not only concern itself with a single piece of the machinery, but all of it (without abandoning a smaller yet practical role).
Many of the more "significant" jobs end up requiring one to abandon some of their principles. For example few high-power politicians or others with great power behave in ways I would consider morally sound. But total adhereance to ideals may leave one outside of the stream of history, in a class room or library somewhere, inaccessible/incomprehensible to the vast majority of people, only transmitting your ideals and thoughts to a few students, without even giving them the tools to implement their solutions to the world's problems. When these isolated intellectuals attempt to break into the stream of history they are often misunderstood by their readers or slandered by those who hold power, and their ideas become twisted to justify horrific social movements (like what happened to Marx as his ideas were claimed by Stalin; and perhaps even Lenin misunderstood).
And lastly, the job must be interesting, and it must allow one to live as they wish. This means they need variation of tasks from day to day, sufficient leisure time and adequate pay...
I think if one were to work on multiple tracks they may best be able to achieve these goals. I would want a part-time practical job, performing some of the unattractive labor that must be done. I would want an activist/non-profit role through which to help influence the shaping of society (maybe this would be during the summer months for the most part). And perhaps an academic role teaching classes and writing/researching (teaching larger, lower level classes to reach more people, and higher-level classes to work with others who are concerned about some of the same issues I am concerned about). Prior to this sort of academic career I think I should spend at least some time in a more technical practical job and/or volunteering full-time overseas for an activist/humanitarian organization like the Peace Corps).
3:37 PM
I highly recommend that you read Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement With Everyday Life by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. I'm reading it now and it's ridiculously good. Just based on your apparent enthusiasm about this topic, I know you would love it. The primary focus is on what types of work and activities make us happy (so there's not much focus on practicality and significance). While happiness is certainly not the only factor one should take into account when deciding what to do, it should indeed be seriously considered.
5:54 PM
btw you need to give me the lowdown on the Peace Corps.
6:00 PM
I don't know much about the Peace Corps other than that one of my uncle's friends went to the Congo for them to set up sustainable food sources, specificly fisheries.
6:58 PM
“The scientific literature is quite clear. Anatomically, physiologically and biologically, the pain system in fish is virtually the same as in birds and animals.”
-Dr. Donald Broom, scientific advisor to the British government
In addition, a recent issue of Fish and Fisheries, devoted to learning, cited more than 500 research papers on fish intelligence, proving that fish are smart, that they can use tools, and that they have impressive long-term memories and sophisticated social structures.
To learn more about our great underwater allies, visit http://www.fishinghurts.com/
1:36 PM
ok, well I'm sure Peace Corps does all kinds of other stuff too.
Maybe you're right about the fish. But I find fish less disgusting than other animals. So, for the time being, I eat fish. However, if it comes to people starving I'd help get them any kind of food they could get.
12:17 AM
I find YOU disgusting
1:37 PM
starvation is overrated
1:37 PM
I know this sounds lame, but "when I grow up" I think I may stop eating dairy or egg products unless they are verifiably free-range and organic and worker-friendly. So basically only if I know exactly where it comes from. I might also chose to stop eating fish. However, now I think it would be more difficult for me to structure my life that way. Since I do not disagree with the principle of eating dairy or egg, and it does not gross me out in itself, it would be much harder for me. I am practically incapable of eating meat though. When I had been a vegetraian for a only a few months I remember trying to get myself to put a piece of meat in my mouth but I couldn't. I didn't want to be vegetarian, I just couldn't eat meat anymore.
Even though I have very little interest in agriculture, I think it would be neat to work to set up an agricultural co-op that is animal/eco/worker friendly so that I could eat dairy and egg and know where it came from. If it were done smart enough it could even be made at a cost comparable to "normal food." The extra could be sold, but it wouldn't be designed for large-scale production because other people wouldn't know where it cam from and they would have to do it themselves. People could still live in the city, but spend a couple days a month out at the small communally-owned farm to do their share of the work to earn their food. Let's see, a dairy cow or 2, egg chickens, corn, potatoes, wheat, tomatos, and equipment to make cheese, butter, flour, pasturize the milk...
12:15 AM
Ah, the bane of my existence for the last half a dozen years.
I wish that years of self-inflicted, miserable worrying would yield some sort of wisdom or peace of mind.
At the moment, I have contented myself to minimize the harm inflicted by my career/affiliations and to live as sustainably as my situation allows.
I will exist on the margins of society, with few expectations.
12:32 PM
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