The corrosive culture of modern work | Hacker News Reader

The corrosive culture of modern work

iansommerville.com

26 pointsingve6 comments

The article makes sense from a professionals perspective I guess, but where it falls flat is in 'non professional'. Whatever that means.

I'm a senior engine mechanic for a chain of diesel repair shops in the Midwest. I work with my hands, so I guess its not 'professional' but its still fulfilling. I get my 5 o'clock beer every day at quitting time and I get plenty of time with friends and family

What killed a lot of mining jobs was shifting to automation and cleaner energy. What killed US manufacturing was profiteering. Whenever someone says they can't compete at a global scale with us labor, all I hear is they can't afford to pay a living wage and buy this years nicest mega yacht. Plenty of companies still exist in the us that not only compete but dominate the competition in quality, and pay a living wage. Bobs red mill comes to mind. So does Tesla.

I think the post did make a classification mistake there. I'm not sure exactly what is meant by professional, but there are a lot of jobs people can find fulfilling that are not in the classic defintion of "professional", like park ranger or dancer. And there are a lot of professionals who don't like their job and do it just to get a paycheck. I think otherwise the post does raise a very good point about the importance of having more to your life than just work.

Tesla is barely profitable. Bob's red mill is filling a tiny niche. The price of a yacht wouldn't pay that many people's wages either.

They're barely profitable because they're aggressively expanding and buying/building new infrastructure. Tesla would have been profitable years ago if they had decided to just stick to building the Model S, but they have much bigger plans.

Does Tesla really dominate anyone in quality? I thought Yugo has been dead for a while.

I don't think this is a particularly new insight.

Yes, most retired people suffer if they don't have a life outside of work. Yes, most people do indeed define themselves by work. Yes, automation threatens to undermine or relegate people who have defined themselves by work to the impermanent and transient needs of the middle and upper class (uber/task rabit/gig economy etc).

Given that this article recognizes a (what I thought was) well understood trend, and doesn't present a fix, whats' new here?

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