• Honytawk@lemmy.zipEnglish
    0·
    10 months ago

    If someone is willing to pay you enough to live for a bullshit job, is it really a bullshit job?

    • rumschlumpel@feddit.org
      0·
      10 months ago

      Yes.

      Though I don’t agree with that person’s definition of “bullshit job”. Read Bullshit Jobs (the book) if you haven’t, the website has all or most of its contents.

  • Tikiporch@lemmy.world
    0·
    10 months ago

    Saying “I catch fish” is as descriptive as the first guy saying “sales analyst”. Second person is a software developer, second guy is a systems architect. So you catch fish? Sure. What kind? On a river? In the ocean? Do you really just press a button that rolls up a big net full of turtles and dolphins as well and you’re destroying the delicate balance of a fragile ecosystem? Are you a fishing guide?

    Anyone can describe their job in three words. Understanding it is on you, man.

    • JayDee@lemmy.sdf.org
      0·
      10 months ago

      The whole concept is more akin to whether or not you are working directly with the material fruits of your labor, or if you’re some secondary or tertiary job to the actual work being done.

      Basically, their view is that if you are not directly making the product or apart of the physical logistics for that product, then you’re in a bullshit job. I would not say I agree with the philosophy myself, but i kind of get it. ‘I farm Corn’, ‘I Truck frozen food’, and ‘I catch fish’, do exist in a very different realm from ‘I manage a team of QA specialists’, ‘I am an Advertisement Consultant’, and ‘I contribute to my company’s server backend codebase’.

      Also, yeah, the 3-word rule of thumb sucks.

      • Tikiporch@lemmy.world
        0·
        10 months ago

        Thank you for your insight.

        The concept is still bullshit. You can describe any job in three words to the same extent that “I catch fish” is informative. That’s all I’m saying.

            • Ek-Hou-Van-Braai@piefed.socialOPEnglish
              0·
              10 months ago

              IDK if that checks out.

              ‘Go to house’ wouldn’t describe what a builder does, nor would ‘go to ocean’ describe what a fisherman does.

              It describes something going to a location, but not what you do.

              TIL astronaut is a BS job

              • elephantium@lemmy.worldEnglish
                0·
                10 months ago

                Oh, I think it checks out. Maybe it should be “fly to space” or “fly rocket ships”, but the point of the job is the trip. Unless – hmm. Did explorers of yesteryear have BS jobs, too?

              • exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com
                0·
                10 months ago

                It describes something going to a location, but not what you do.

                Going to that location is a much bigger part of the astronaut job than it is any other job you’ve listed.

      • Taldan@lemmy.world
        0·
        10 months ago

        The problem, to me, is that not everyone on a boat is catching fish. There are plenty of different roles. It’s just that people outside the industry don’t have a concept of the nuanced differences between roles, so it gets simplified to “I catch fish” even if they aren’t involved in catching fish at all. Most people outside of tech have no idea between the different roles that exist in tech either. It wasn’t too long ago where no matter your role in tech, you’d tell laymen, “I work in IT” as a catchall for any technical role

  • Zozano@aussie.zoneEnglish
    0·
    10 months ago

    3 people above the fisherman:

    • sales analyst
    • automation technician
    • software engineer

    Fisherman:

    • I operate a decentralized, sustainability-focused aquatic-resource acquisition methodology utilizing precision-guided line-and-lure interface systems to facilitate targeted biomass retrieval.
    • slampisko@lemmy.world
      0·
      10 months ago

      In the OP, all the speech bubbles are answers to “What do you do at your job?” I challenge you to try again with that in mind

      • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
        0·
        10 months ago

        If you ask me what my job is and then you ask for clarification because you don’t know what that job is, those are two separate questions.

        Just because a person does not understand a job does not mean that it’s a BS job. By that logic a cyber security analyst is a BS job. But you would sure as hell would notice if all of them went away.

    • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      10 months ago

      I think the meme is saying that if you know your job is bullshit, you obfuscate what you do behind a thick layer of corpospeak.

      • Zozano@aussie.zoneEnglish
        0·
        10 months ago

        Everyone likes to act like they’re more important than they are.

        Ironically the fisherman might actually be worse ethically and ecologically.

        • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          10 months ago

          Everyone likes to act like they’re more important than they are.

          And that impulse is borne out of insecurity.

            • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.worldEnglish
              0·
              10 months ago

              All it does is convey that the person saying it thinks their job is bullshit and that they’re insecure about it. So they either have impostor syndrome or their job is genuinely bullshit.