Annual Memorial Day Post: Strange New World

This year I didn't really have a plan for the Memorial Day post. I thought I might share thoughts on my adventure to fix a ceiling fan, yet another example of how we cater to the disposable society instead of making it easy to keep existing things alive. But then I thought about how the world's been changing and think maybe it would be more appropriate to ask whether the sacrifice made by our veterans has been  truly appreciated or not.

I don't mean superficial things like saying "thank you for your service," which I'm sure is quite tired and doesn't really do much for veterans anymore (even though they probably do appreciate that you mean well), or making sure you have a flag displayed today or on other honorific holidays.

I mean do you act meaningfully in ways that respect the sacrifice? Not just things on one day, but every day. It can be big things like donating to veterans causes, or simple things like just taking a daily moment to appreciate what you have, rather than worry about how much more your neighbor has. It can be not taking for granted that you have free speech by making sure you have thought through what you want to say rather than wasting it by blathering something to be insulting or hurtful (Harlan Ellison used to say, "You don't have the right to an opinion, you have the right to an informed opinion."). 

Are we making the world in a way that shows we're thankful for it? People are so politically polarized now, and perhaps they always were, but today it seems so many say things just to put others down. Especially in the realm of social media, where people speak by keyboard and they're protected by distance. This deterioration of civility finds its way into other parts of life. I'm not an environmental extremist, but I do care about the environment; I think the earth is a gift to us and we should not so cavalierly pollute it. Even in personal health, there are indications that we're poisoning ourselves with processed foods and insecticides and plastics. The people that have the power to change this aren't using their freedom to do it.

Is this the world our veterans wanted us to build? 

You can be cheeky and say it's the natural order of things. The young today all immediately waggle a finger and say "late stage capitalism," but I'm not sure that's fair. It's not like any other government system was free of issues, and some of the worst were ones that specifically tried to be different from capitalism, then succumbed to the same things that dogs both types: corruption and stupidity.

I've noted before that freedom is a double-edged sword; you can do what you want but so can the bad guy. The law is supposed to be the protection against that, in a society where we accept that what we really want is managed freedom. But the extremes on either end don't like that; they want it their way and only their way and anyone getting in the way isn't worth talking to. It leads to selfish and absolutist behavior that doesn't portend well for the direction humanity seems to be headed.

If you believe in the concept of Pandora's Box, and feel we've opened that trunk and kicked it several times over, then we're indeed walking each day into a strange new world. This direction might not be reversible. Are we throwing it all away on the road to apocalypse? Because that's what happens if the road is one-way; if you can't go back you can only go with adjustments in forward direction. Significant change may only come as a result of disaster; cataclysmic rather than gradual evolution. 

If that sounds biblical, it's because it is. I used to poke fun at things like prophesy and myth but when I look around, I'm beginning to wonder if there's something to it. Humanity's descent into chaos is indeed a prediction shared by both the Bible and The Simpsons. If you believe that, then perhaps it's actually liberating rather than concerning, because it means things are going swimmingly. Just hang on and hope you can cash out the 401k and die peacefully before it gets really bad. Happy Memorial Day!

Something I'd like to Teach my Son

So I've got a child that is a college graduate. But he's struggling to find a job in his area of study. Part of it is that he's probably got some maturing left to do and may not be carrying himself in interviews as a hungry prospect, but also academics wasn't his strong suit so the grades weren't great, and while grades mean less as you progress in your life, they are the only thing to go on for your first job. 

But I have been pondering how to communicate to him that work is just work and it doesn't really matter if you get a job in your college subject or not. It started me thinking about the concepts of labor and jobs. 

Factors include the skill you have and the things you're good at and the things you're not so good at. And  also the jobs available, and which ones you want and which you don't want. Your work life is about getting into some intersection of those things and navigating them.

I drew a Venn diagram to illustrate this.

What does it mean?

1. Star: This type of job is the typical goal. You have a skill, you're good at it, and there's an available job that lets you do what you like. Sadly, many of us don't get here until we retire. That's right, we take the not-so-fun job that pays well, and then when we retire, we start taking the hobby we like (painting, woodworking, gardening, cars, whatever!) and manage to turn that into a revenue stream. I think the problem is that often enough, those hobbies aren't really viable for a living wage unless you're really good or really lucky, so you don't try it until you don't need the money and are mentally liberated to take risks. That's a big talking point from the Universal Basic Income camp, but I think there's still a fair amount of bullshit in that argument because the odds of making it as an actor or artist or dog walker are still pretty low.
2. Plodder: This is where a lot of people end up. There are jobs available, it's something people think they want, but perhaps they don't realize they're not actually the most talented at it or perhaps they're not really that passionate about it. They're not bad at it and are competent enough to keep employed. I call this the plodder because they're going through the motions and doing OK, but either they're ignorant of the fact they could be better, or they're self-aware of it but caught in the inertia of a job that pays well enough that they kid ourselves into thinking they want it when they'd really be happier somewhere else. 
3. Caution: This is where people want a job, there are some available, but they're actually bad at it. Perhaps they're in an industry where there is a constant need for help, so they have no trouble finding work even though advancement never seems to happen for them, or worse, they get advanced due to circumstance and not merit. Teaching could be a good example; some teachers are clearly better than others, but these days as long as you're not an ex-con, you can be an idiot and get a teaching job because I'm not sure how much the administrators really care. 
4. Hope: This is where you want a job for a skill you do well, but there aren't any available. Your strategy here is to take what you can to sustain yourself, but keep looking for opportunities to move.
5. Delusion: This is where you want a job, there aren't any available, and you're not good at it. Bestselling writer, actor, and professional athlete would qualify as these types of jobs. Everybody wants it because of the money or prestige, but most aren't good enough or lucky enough, barriers to entry are high, and there are few opportunities. 
6. Safety Valve: This is where some of us end up too. There's a job you're good at and there are plenty of jobs available, but they're not the jobs you want. I think of the guy I knew that wanted to work in tech, but had a job in food services. He was really good at that job, but he wanted to get to the Star job. This is not a terrible place to be. It's actually second place on this list of labor types. He made good money and was stable and his workplace loved him. Often the difference between jobs in this category and those in the Star category is that they use different skill sets, but it doesn't always have to be that way. Sometimes jobs that are adjacent in an industry can represent this divide, such as an application developer versus a database administrator. 
7. Desperation: The worst labor scenario. There are plenty of jobs available, but you don't want them, and you're bad at them too. You only take this job if you're unable to find any of the other job types. And if things are this bad, perhaps you'd better learn to get better at this job and convert it into a Safety Valve job because if you don't you might get kicked out anyway.

This is not a conclusive list, I'm not a professional labor analyst, and as I've said before, any categorization is just a starting point for discussion. Categories are too rigid for cases where someone may be moving from one to another, and there can be different degrees of state in each one.  

I do think the diagram can help people looking to be more cognizant of what their desires are against what is available and be ready to adjust expectations or prepare to take a fallback role. Nothing is written in stone; you might have a great job in the star category for a company that might go out of business or transfer work offshore, or you might be in a safety valve job and then either a better job opens up to you or you come to grips with the fact that aren't going to find the star or delusional job, so you come to recognize where you are is actually a great spot for you.