"My job is not my passion"

[Buster Highmen]

Overall for the health of society? No. But for the individual? Maybe in the short term. I know what my capacity was as a twenty-something.

Regarding the individual, given your current career, do you think your life would have been more enriched by a liberal arts education, with all the attendant flakiness, skirt chasing, drug consumption and nose thumbing at convention or by a vocational school teaching you stuff about your current position? What impact would that have had on the community?

[Buster Highmen]

Just sell name brand drugs and make bank, bro. The rent-seeking economy is where it's at.

Your sarcastic veneer is thin, my man.

[dunfree]

So do you think this morphing is good?

bad/good is somewhat irrelevant; as long as the middle class in the US stagnates and declines the market for the effective luxury that is 4-6 years of general purpose college education will decline. like most other things in this country a classical education will become concentrated in the wealthy and they will take further ownership of things like history and historical thought. Yes, life can be better with luxury.

[XXX-er]

I'm one of those. I am in my 60's and I tried being retired, then tried being semi-retired (consultant for my former company) and I found I did not enjoy it. I went back to work in a totally different field, started at the bottom and now run the show. I found that the social aspect of work is what I enjoy. Interacting with my coworkers and the public is why I keep working.

this ^^ is fairly common from retired guys I have talked to, it would seem the qualities that get someone retired (showing up & working hard) are not good for staying retired and the people who havent worked long enough to retire can always tell you what they would do but they have no clue ... so alot of folks just go back to work

after getting the full package at 49 I took a year to just be man

To answer the big questions like what do i do now & how the fuck am I gona survive on 1/2 the $ they were paying me?

turns out the money was never a problem cuz I have always been frugal enough, after moving west to the mountains i realized being a ski bum might be a good job except terms and conditions were not apparent, cuz when all them college boys were out balling frat girls I was working ... it took 4 years to figure out how to be a ski bum

[Meadow Skipper]

I feel lucky as shit, especially after reading this thread. If I were giving advice, I’d repeat this, it’s basically my story coupled with some real good fortune on my part:

Pffft, every job comes with a shit sammich.
I think the key is in finding something that you can actually do well, that holds a modicum of interest, with people you like and can get along with.

I did manage to stumble into a college major that was a perfect ticket punch. Now I’ve moved into a post-employment phase of my life. It’s cool for me.

[Buster Highmen]

bad/good is somewhat irrelevant; as long as the middle class in the US stagnates and declines the market for the effective luxury that is 4-6 years of general purpose college education will decline. like most other things in this country a classical education will become concentrated in the wealthy and they will take further ownership of things like history and historical thought. Yes, life can be better with luxury.

Your sarcastic veneer is thicker.

[Foggy_Goggles]

Regarding the individual, given your current career, do you think your life would have been more enriched by a liberal arts education, with all the attendant flakiness, skirt chasing, drug consumption and nose thumbing at convention or by a vocational school teaching you stuff about your current position? What impact would that have had on the community?

I value my education by that is the perspective of a of someone that was fortunate no graduate with minimal loans into an economy where being self-sufficient and paying my bills as a young 20 something was relatively easy compared to today.

That is part of the challenge that has been created for young people. It is becoming so difficult to be working class that it is hard to take the time to figure out what you want to be.

[glademaster]

The thrust of higher education for some time has been morphing a trade school philosophy, one based on developing marketable skills.

I think that's a mistake. I think the objective of education should be a lot broader than that, to expose people to history, to the philosophies on which the Constitution is based. To exercise scientific methods in a variety of mediums, to put people in a position to react to changes in scientific paradigms, to changes in markets, to develop new markets.

The US has been a technical leader, creating markets for infra red technologies, solid state devices, computers and solar energy because of focus on scientific liberal arts like chemistry, physics and math in the 50s and 60s. The thing that concerns me is that a drift away from liberal arts and science in US education will have us yielding that leadership.

Thanks for doing a better job articulating the point I was trying to make several posts earlier.

[GiBo]

Interesting thread. I think the job/passion thing is very rare. Might even be that only certain personality types can ever truly achieve that. I know a mag who skis for a living. Skis on his days off. Then skis until the last patch of snow is gone after the job is over. I love to ski, but that's too much of one thing for me. So maybe most people just don't have anything in their life that they are truly that "passionate" about? I think most people are lucky if they just get a "my work is ok and no one's yelling at me" kind of job.

I've had two very different careers. One in public sector IT and one in land development. In both, I've only ever felt good about my work when I was in a team environment interacting with people to meet a common goal. It doesn't seem to matter what the subject matter is. I'm like Harry. I need the interaction.

As far as education, I told both of my kids: you can be a fashion designer or mow lawns or whatever else it is you want to do, but you'll do it with a degree. To me, an education makes you better at critical thinking. And life's just more interesting when you know more about the world. If you end up loving business and get an MBA and make a bunch of money, great, but that's pretty meaningless to me. I know some miserable rich people.

[Buster Highmen]

I value my education by that is the perspective of a of someone that was fortunate no graduate with minimal loans into an economy where being self-sufficient and paying my bills as a young 20 something was relatively easy compared to today.

That is part of the challenge that has been created for young people. It is becoming so difficult to be working class that it is hard to take the time to figure out what you want to be.

Yeah, kollledge is ridiculously expensive now, but I'm not going to be convinced that the trade school approach so one can get a job is really the path to more wealth let alone a better life or society. At the root, the issue is cost of education and poorly distributed wealth density.

[jackstraw]

I know some miserable rich people.

I know a bunch. It's definitely not the answer to being happy. It may relieve one aspect of stress in your life and in some cases it actually may add to it. Keepin' up with the Joneses an all creates stress and they don't even realize it's happening.

[retirwntm]

but no one says they wish they made more money, or they wish they worked more.

There are lots of people who wish they had more money (sure, duh) but there are only a few who wish they made more money.

Subtle but very true in my experience. That’s all I can add to this discussion.


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[BmillsSkier]

Virtue signalling.

No, virtue signalling is telling everyone you will be in the office billing hours on Christmas morning if anyone needs you.

[XXX-er]

At some point you got enough money but the bigger issue with retirement is Validation ... suddenly you don't have any

[Cheeseburger King]

I know a bunch. It's definitely not the answer to being happy. It may relieve one aspect of stress in your life and in some cases it actually may add to it. Keepin' up with the Joneses an all creates stress and they don't even realize it's happening.

When I was married, my wife and I made very good money. Every year, 8 weekends at the beach and 8 weekends skiing. Fought like crazy. I was overweight and unhappy.

Divorced now for 4 years. Have an even better relationship with my son. I am having a rough patch in my career. Living life. Smiling. Doing great with keeping weight off. Much happier.

My lesson- stop chasing money. Does money buy material things? Sure it does. Is it the end all of be all? Not a chance.

Happiness....it's an inside job. (I stole that from Online Ceramics)

[Ted Striker]

At some point you got enough money but the bigger issue with retirement is Validation ... suddenly you don't have any

That's interesting. What exactly do you mean by that?

[highangle]

"If External Validation is wrong - I don't wanna be right"



Does anything feel better?

[spanghew]

At some point you got enough money but the bigger issue with retirement is Validation ... suddenly you don't have any

Unless you use your free time for something useful, applying those skills you once did for fun or money to something else--SAR, the local ambulance, helping rebuild the orphanage at Manzanar. People who need but cannot find validation seem to lack imagination more than anything.

[highangle]

I need internal validation (or justification). If something's not "important" enough, I get bored.

[waxman]

As far as education, I told both of my kids: you can be a fashion designer or mow lawns or whatever else it is you want to do, but you'll do it with a degree. To me, an education makes you better at critical thinking. And life's just more interesting when you know more about the world. If you end up loving business and get an MBA and make a bunch of money, great, but that's pretty meaningless to me. I know some miserable rich people.

Valid point re education and critical thinking except having a degree doesn't always teach critical thinking. I get dozens of resumes/applicants a winter, most with degrees and there isn't a critical thinker among them. It's a retail job so really you just have to talk to people, make sure the store is clean, fill out a workorder or two and basically be present.
Give me a farm kid or someone with passion and you can keep most of the degree holders I see.

[ncskier]

Virtue signalling.

I'm not sure you understand what that term means. But if you want to get on the bash millenial band wagon, there's a thread for that. My point was that its not all doom and gloom.

[CantDog]

There are lots of people who wish they had more money (sure, duh) but there are only a few who wish they made more money.

Subtle but very true in my experience. That’s all I can add to this discussion.


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I mean my N is only about 1200 people, and another 500 or so who participate in providing dictated narratives of their lives, but your example of people wishing they had more money doesn’t come up either. Definitely in other parts of the lifespan—but at the end and looking back? Not in my sample.

[Timberridge]

I think you are all overthinking this work thing. If nobody worked, and did bloody nothing all day long, then we'd eventually starve and die. So we work and do shit so we don't die.

[XXX-er]

but if you got enough money then you can do whatever you want,

smoke a J or maybe go bowling

maybe if its a league game you won't get bored

busy week so far, fixing dry suits and drivivng groceries into camp the middle-of-nowhere,
having tomorrows breakfast commands a lot of power and respect on the radio controled road

[Timberridge]

but if you got enough money then you can do whatever you want,

smoke a J or maybe go bowling

maybe if its a league game you won't get bored

Sure. But forget about the money part. Everyone gets hung up on that. Money is just a construct to value your inputs and outputs. You could barter your services and never use money.

Once you take care of the basic eating part, then it all becomes personal choices. Do I want to bowl one game or bowl two games...or go bowling all day long.