This was a question I asked myself a few weeks ago. What is antiwork? Where did this subject appear?
I’m a bit of a Reddit enthusiast. Endless amounts of data and perspective is just waiting there, categorized a billion ways. Sure, a lot of it is AI, not real people now, and sometimes that is really sad and always annoying. But to find real consciousness behind your screen is priceless.
Side note: Any other nerds out there who are fascinated by researching passionate people? If so…Aaron Swartz is someone you should dig into. In fact, maybe just stop reading this and go now check him out now.
If you’ve already heard about him, you know how wonderful his work was in the effort of having entirely free information for all. He was also involved in the creation of Reddit, before it evolved into more of a corporate structure. He was a creative genius, and a staunch defender of freedom of information. He was broken by a corrupt system of justice. Because that happens here. Fights over access to ideas without payment. Yeah, it’s icky.
But…back on my first track. Reddit. Like it for the conversations you can find/read.
The AI (known collectively as Reddit) recognizes me and and knows what I interests me. Reddit knows more about me than any human in my life. More about me than, perhaps, I even know about myself. I feed it data, it feeds me ideas. It can profile me better than the FBI.
All that to say that I was recently pushed a notification to check out a post on a board about antiwork.
Man, there are some great threads found here. Today’s post that caught my attention is a chart that shows how different things correlate to the wage you are earning.
Today the worker has more power than the employer, in most cases. It hasn’t always been this way, but now people don’t have to do a job that is not at least tolerable.
If you were required to regularly stay late, would you do that for $60,000? What about $120,000? How does your tolerance level change for work creeping into your personal time. It’s hard to remember sometimes that an employer does not own all of your time. They technically own as much as you allow them to.
Maybe it’s a commute that is a difficult thing for you. What amount would make the drive worth it?
Doing a job because you have to is much less pleasurable than doing a job because you want to. Historically it wasn’t really a choice. You found a job to feed your family. The world is open now and you can find different places. Why not try to align with your interests? Why waking up in dread for a day of work?
Fortune Cookie Version: Your value is priceless. Only you can give it a price.