As someone who has been a fair amount unemployed throughout the years I love work and love my current job, feeling productive is a good feeling and sitting at home makes me restless.
With the lottery talk of late, along with the people willing to marry complete strangers for billions, essentially it is a ticket from the need to work for a living.
I definitely don't have a dream job, but solving problems, teamwork, and overcoming obstacles is rather fun. Albeit, I come from a very privileged perspective. I'm not a coal miner. I'm a white collar professional.
If you were to win the lottery, sure I can see traveling for year or so, but wouldn't you want to do something to use your talents and gifts?
Start a business, possibly a non-profit. Go back to school and pursue a career you always wanted to pursue but had no money or time. Just relaxing all the time in ostentation sound incredibly boring. Look at Notch and compare him to a Bill Gates, who while is out of the software space, is very excited to solve big problems thought his foundation. He has purpose and vision. Sure he still enjoys his money too.
Also this. Last time I really opened up about how depressive I get sometimes about my work/life balance, my girlfriend asked why I don't pursue an actual passion instead of just picking the career I was very fortunately presented with (GIS in my case). I said it was because I don't want to ruin the few things that I enjoy doing in my very little free time. I've thought on and off about doing the whole gaming channel/stream thing and every time I start I just find that it's exhausting and not as fun as just playing something to enjoy it. Same with doing photo commissions - when I'm not with friends it comes with pressure and expectation and I don't feel I can just shoot and edit the way I feel on that day.No offense, but you make yourself seem like a rathr dull person. Is "just relaxing all the time" all you can fathom people doing when they're not working? A lot of us have actual passions that we might not have any interest in making businesses out of. Turning a hobby into a job makes it work, it can suck the enthusiasm out of things like nothing else. I love freedom. Freedom to do what I want at my own pace. If I want to just relax today, I want to be able to do that. But I might want to go for a hike, work on some photography, build some furniture, work in the garden, make a sculpture, work on a painting, or write some songs. I have a ton of things I want to do, and the mental and physical drain that naturally comes from going to work, gets in the way.
So yeah, I'd take that money and never work another day.
No offense, but you make yourself seem like a rathr dull person. Is "just relaxing all the time" all you can fathom people doing when they're not working? A lot of us have actual passions that we might not have any interest in making businesses out of. Turning a hobby into a job makes it work, it can suck the enthusiasm out of things like nothing else. I love freedom. Freedom to do what I want at my own pace. If I want to just relax today, I want to be able to do that. But I might want to go for a hike, work on some photography, build some furniture, work in the garden, make a sculpture, work on a painting, or write some songs. I have a ton of things I want to do, and the mental and physical drain that naturally comes from going to work, gets in the way.
So yeah, I'd take that money and never work another day.
Burning man is an Art festival not a place for living and surviving. But yea there are communities of people that live off the land if that what you meanHave people tried Burning Man types existences, but long term?
I remember reading about the hippie communes of the 60s. But those didn't last long.
I just wonder why humanity hasn't found a way to escape this as so many hate the need to work. What are the obstacles?
Would you promote and market your music? Try to get gigs? Or would be completely personal?
I definitely don't have a dream job, but solving problems, teamwork, and overcoming obstacles is rather fun. Albeit, I come from a very privileged perspective. I'm not a coal miner. I'm a white collar professional.
No offense taken.entremet
This is honestly one of the dumbest questions I've seen.
Seriously? Do you not look at corporations and their work ethics in the United States? How about in places like India and China where they're exploited people in the US even further than many here?
I know it's probably question built for discussion, but the fact that it needs to be asked is fucked.
If I didn't have to wake up at 6:00am to go to work and school, and could get a crazy good amount of sleep, on top of making great amounts of personal creative progress, I would drop all of this rat-race, achievement bullshit.
And to answer your other question, if I had no need to worry about money, I would try to use it on solving societal issues, funding research, etcetera.
As someone who spent a lot of time unemployed and also doesn't mind my current job...nah, I'd rather just do what I want all day. Don't get me wrong, unemployment SUCKS, but it's because it is impossible to enjoy anything when you're worried about how you're going to survive another month without money. If that was out of the equation then I'd be very happy moving back near family and never working again.
I mean, it's not like I'd sit around playing games all day. I'd work out, learn new languages, maybe take a college course for no reason other than to learn. There's plenty of ways to challenge and improve myself, the 10-11 hours a day I spend at or going to/from work is a lot of room to fit other stuff.
I'm a white collar professional too, but what you state all highly depends on where you work and what the makeup of your team is. My current 'team' is more of the variant of 'hey, I'm on holiday next week, here's a big chunk of extra work for you. You'd take that for the team right? Have fun!', hefty politics and throwing each other under the bus.
Hey, I can solve this myself by looking for better things, I'm not complaining, but just saying.
Same. My profession is probably the biggest thing that defines me. I enjoy what I do and wouldn't retire even if I came into wealth. I rarely even go the weekend without working unless we ave a ton of stuff planned or their some new game that just came out that I'm binging. I just get bored most of the time if I'm just chilling alone or with just for more than a day and end up doing some work as it's fulfilling to me.
To the OPs question the biggest factor is most poeple have jobs they either hate or are just ok with rather than a career they enjoy and have passion for. It takes a lot of luck, knowing what you want to do, skill to do it and hard work to get a gig you like doing work you love. Some just never find something they truly love and can get paid well to do. Others find it, but can't find a job with a good employer in their area. And so on. It makes sense those people would retire ASAP.
Then there's another much smaller chunk of people who just lack work ethic and some who are just plain lazy.
I mean most people work and have dreams of financially security, and the pleasures that come with having a lot of money (buying that home, buying that nice car, going on vacation in the south of france). Why work when you have won the capital necessary to actually achieve your dreams and goals?
You're not going to find many people in the world whose dream it is to work for work's sake.
I heard it all... follow your dreams, what do you want to BE when you grow up or my favorite ... find out what you love and do that as a career every day .No offense taken.
However, you never received messages growing up about what you wanted to do when you grew up, follow your dreams and all that?
Western society places a high value on work beyond sustenance. For many, it becomes an identity.
Yet, we all reach a point we're we say forget this.
So I'm coming at it more from an existential perspective. Moreover, since many of us are in this boat collectively, why haven't we overthrown it.
Hope that clarified my intent. I'm kinda kooky guy, so I can understand the disconnect lol.
But I would admit that even the most menial and boring jobs I have had have given me a sense of pride, worked as a dishwasher in restaurant for a bit. Maybe I'm wacky like that.
(of course some people find ways to make a hobby into a job they can enjoy which is great )
Too bad that it wont last. Eventually there wont be enough jobs left to work, not because of overpopulaltion alone but also due to the fact that consumerism "bigger, better, higher" simply doesnt work endlessly. Resources are limited and to reach a perfect score humans are not a good workforce, instead we will be replaced by robots.Also consumerism is a big thing too. Let's face it many of us love its fruits, including myself.
As someone who has been a fair amount unemployed throughout the years I love work and love my current job, feeling productive is a good feeling and sitting at home makes me restless.
As someone who had spent a fair amount unemployed, I actually preferred the freedom of not working, not being put under pressure or not feeling tired.
I am lucky that I have job that it's flexible with its hours and allows me to work from home.
A lot of these comments are deeply troubling. You might wanna re-evaluate your life if you think leisure is the only thing you want from it.