Finding Meaning in the Daily Grind - Alain de Botton

[SuperSantom]

What if you work in McDonald's?

[cuteEvil87]

@SuperSantom you then need to get a new job

[alyshooting]

Very good ! I agree and I'm glad someone else thinks of this stuff as I often do.

[massiveants]

Wow.. i can't wait to get to work tomorrow and forget about my shitty life now. Thanks Alain! Maybe on my death bed i'll be able to look back and say "thank god i had all those coffee breaks, they really did distract me from my existence. Now i can die happy!"

[dfjpr]

@massiveants

lol, maybe also, because of the pain of having lived, you will be able to look back on your death bed and think happily how you are about to experience the biggest possible distraction, far better than all those coffee breaks, which is that of finally being dead.

[dappadub]

I think this viewpoint is a double edged sword.

On one hand, there is a strong argument to suggest that disciplined work, in any kind of a field, begets happiness through the simple but instructive process of completing a task to course. See Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi -- Flow

The distraction component, however, also fits squarely with Christian teaching and capitalism as outlined by Max Weber, and has allowed religion to stand in the place of self determination for many people.

[coupet14]

i can where hes coming from, sometimes in life we plead ignorance to the obliviousness of body,mind and atmosphere, but we shudnt shy away from things bigger things, sadly, most people do, live their happy lives, i am for one who cant do that :d

[Ginlah]

Work is only good when its creative. De Botton is too nice.

[archaedemos]

Entropy

[EuroInvicta]

Well, escaping into one's work is great for people lucky enough to have INTERESTING work. However most people's work is so mindless and menial that it ends up making them feel like a rat on the wheel. With dead end jobs there's few benefits to work, and most people I know have dead end jobs.

[milfrie]

I hate to say this, but all of this obvious. Everyone is happier when they are busy.. It is amazing how research and theory just proves words of wisdom laid out for hundreds of years. We just discovered this?

[TheKevtrevable]

@milfrie I guess he is just articulating the thoughts of the deadpan coughing city subway commuters we see everyday

[thpt]

Work saves us from three great evils: boredom, vice, and want.

[forger42]

How are those things evil?

Boredom may be...well...boring, but it's hardly and evil thing. It can be nice to be bored and just do nothing once in a while. By vice, what exactly do you mean? Sex? Fun? Those are certainly not evil things. And finally, want. If we didn't want things, we'd never have the motivation to do anything.

[thpt]

That was a quote from Voltaire's Candide. The problem with boredom was actually explained in the video -- remember the part about big, unsolvable thoughts and death? That. And 'vice' is not sex or fun, but obsession and destruction. Want is hunger, thirst, lack of creature comforts. Your rationale "if we didn't want, we wouldn't have motivation" is pretty much just rephrasing Volatire's quote as I wrote it.

[forger42]

Ah ok. Thanks for explaining. Haven't actually read anything of Voltaire.

[blsaums]

No worries! Just cuz a quote is from someone famous doesn't mean it's worth anything. It's always good to find out what is meant. In the future you may want to take a slightly less challenging tone, though -- I have a short fuse and nearly went off. That would have been shortsighted though cuz your challenge was pretty mild! Thanks for taking the time to read my reply and for being decent, was big of you.

[JohnnyFuckinHardcore]

I was outside sitting in the chair, then I saw some fire, then I opened the door, then it said bloom, then I said "ma, the house is on fire".