Why would I consider it 'good' to take pride in my work? So I can make another dollar for the shareholders of the company? So I can bring forward the destruction of the natural world by another millisecond? Even if you hunger for physical possessions, which I don't personally, why would that incentivise you when your level performance makes no difference?
Are you so much a slave that you have to search for meaning in the nobility of work? Work does not offer us purpose because there is no purpose in the operation of institutions in the modern world. Where the driving philosophical principle of an enterprise is "make as much money as possible", who among us can wring out a meaning that satisfies us spiritually?
Where even our charities are corrupted by the guiding principle of more money more good - from where is the conscious worker to draw their meaning?
We exist in an age of spiritual and moral vacuum and there is no guiding principle at this time that a non idiot can align themselves with while retaining some semblance of internal consistency.
How is Elon Musk working magic? A big part of it, apart from not being just another idiot with an MBA, is that he is giving people an actual purpose they can get behind. A purpose that is not just something slung over a money making machine in a vague attempt to align the workers. No, a real bottom up purpose that drives the enterprise. With that kind of purpose a team can move a mountain.
You have to ask yourself... If you are not trying to save the world from cooking itself, or trying to end poverty or trying to cure cancer, or trying to ensure the existence of humanity into the far future, what the bleep are you working for? Answer: You're working for the thoughtless vacuous industrial machine that is devouring both our souls and our physical world.
You should be depressed because this sh* is depressing. You should be angry because this sh* should make you angry. These emotions are deep intuitive reactions, they are drivers for change, hear them and move to change the way you work.
> You have to ask yourself... If you are not trying to save the world from cooking itself, or trying to end poverty or trying to cure cancer, or trying to ensure the existence of humanity into the far future, what the bleep are you working for?
Some people consider life to be a party, hence they are working to "get more beers" and to "wire up the amps" that the band will use to play.
In other words they spend time in working mode today in order to spend future time in leisure mode. And in their mind the future leisure mode is somewhat "better" or "more abundant" than the leisure they could have if they retired today.
Not saying they are right or wrong, but most people don't have the need to become the undisputed savior of the world.
I think getting emotional and screaming at them because they are focused on things that the intelligencia perceives as mundane is not the right way to encourage a healthy exchange of opinions between the aforementioned intelligencia and the general population
Thank you for expressing what I struggle with every day.
The additional counterbalancing layer on top of this is an internal drive for justice - this is what pushes me to work for a big tech company rather than doing something which gives me more self-respect. If other people can earn 6+ figures to fuck about with computers all day and deliver nothing of true societal value, why should I be the sucker doing scientific research for a fraction of that?
Are you so much a slave that you have to search for meaning in the nobility of work? Work does not offer us purpose because there is no purpose in the operation of institutions in the modern world. Where the driving philosophical principle of an enterprise is "make as much money as possible", who among us can wring out a meaning that satisfies us spiritually?
Where even our charities are corrupted by the guiding principle of more money more good - from where is the conscious worker to draw their meaning?
We exist in an age of spiritual and moral vacuum and there is no guiding principle at this time that a non idiot can align themselves with while retaining some semblance of internal consistency.
How is Elon Musk working magic? A big part of it, apart from not being just another idiot with an MBA, is that he is giving people an actual purpose they can get behind. A purpose that is not just something slung over a money making machine in a vague attempt to align the workers. No, a real bottom up purpose that drives the enterprise. With that kind of purpose a team can move a mountain.
You have to ask yourself... If you are not trying to save the world from cooking itself, or trying to end poverty or trying to cure cancer, or trying to ensure the existence of humanity into the far future, what the bleep are you working for? Answer: You're working for the thoughtless vacuous industrial machine that is devouring both our souls and our physical world.
You should be depressed because this sh* is depressing. You should be angry because this sh* should make you angry. These emotions are deep intuitive reactions, they are drivers for change, hear them and move to change the way you work.