Open Thread - Thurs 07 Mar 2024 - Bullshit Jobs - A Quick Review

Bullshit Jobs - A Quick Review

I just finished reading David Graeber's book, Bullshit Jobs. It was very good. It was educational, eye opening, and scary and made me mad and upset. Graeber has a lot of good input and thoughts, so if you get a chance and haven't yet, the book's worth reading.


Image from here at Bookshop.org.

Over 50% of jobs these days are pointless, meaningless bullshit, according to Graeber. These jobs are harmful because our work ethic associates them with self-worth and other positive values, but they do not give the actual workers who hold them those feelings for themselves.

Graeber defines five kinds of meaningless, aka bullshit, jobs: flunkies, goons, duct tapers, box tickers and taskmasters. As Graeber writes: 'flunkies are those that exist primarily or only to make someone else look good.' He likens them to feudal retainers. Doormen in the homes of the very wealthy are an example.

Goons are 'people whose jobs have an aggressive element but, crucially, who only exist because other people employ them'. For example, corporate lawyers, telemarketers, PR people, etc, are goons. Their jobs have elements of manipulation and aggression.

'Duct tapers are employees whose jobs exist only because of a glitch or fault in the organization; who are there to solve a problem that ought not to exist.' Coders who put together other people's code to make it work (instead of being able to write the code themselves), people who are underlings who have to repair the damage done by higher ups' sloppy and incompetent work, etc, are all duct tapers.

Box tickers are 'employees who exist only or primarily to allow an organization to be able to claim it is doing something that, in fact, it is not doing.' People whose jobs require them to help others fill out forms, which are then computerized, filed and ignored forever, are box tickers. Lots of government jobs are box ticking jobs; academic jobs can be box ticking jobs too.

Taskmasters come in two categories. The first contains those who 'role consists entirely of assigning work to others'. They are the opposite of flunkies; 'unnecessary superiors rather than unnecessary subordinates'. The second category of taskmasters are those who create and supervise bullshit tasks and jobs. In other words, they are 'bullshit generators'. Graeber gives as an example a middle manager whose job it is to hand work to other people, all of whom could do the job without him.

I have to admit, I have not had a bullshit job. I ran away from academia before it got too far into needless rules, regulations, and all that. The agriculture and research and writing I have done is not bullshit. It's rewarding and enjoyable. Of course, it pays little, as many non-bullshit jobs do.

One of the points I took away from the book is that the work week should be about 15 hours long now, as was promised back in the 60s and 70s. It's not that short because bullshit jobs, which essentially do nothing, have become normal and 40 hour work week remains. If bullshit jobs were eliminated, then there would be enough workers to do the non-bullshit jobs for 15 hours max a week!

Graeber spends some time discussing 'caring' jobs and why or how these jobs that are important (for example, here's a few - teaching, cleaning homes, raising kids, selling tickets in the train station, making food, collecting trash, growing food, and nursing) are not bullshit jobs but are not respected in this world either. He relates this, in part, to the fact that many of these jobs are women's jobs, or are jobs that other people say should be 'satisfying' because you are helping others and therefore you don't need to be paid well to do them! Supposedly, according to our current society, the value of the job is in the act of caring, and being paid would denigrate the job.

Graeber ends the book by talking about UBI (Universal Basic Income). He points out that with UBI people could do 'caring' jobs, which they want to do and are satisfying, without starving. People could work 15 hour work weeks, without starving. People could dance and sing and help others do the same, without starving. People could grow old, without starving, and so on. And with that, I'm even more convinced everyone, the world, needs UBI. Will it happen? I doubt it, but I sure can try...

Something Weird/Funny Because, Why Not?
So I ran across this headline a day or two ago: 'Scorpion stings man in testicles while sleeping in bed at Las Vegas hotel, report says'. Now, I wanna know, what was the man doing getting into bed where a scorpion was sleeping? Wasn't it natural for the scorpion to wake up while the guy is climbing unannounced into the bed with it, get scared, and do some stinging? Isn't that what the headline says? I know that's not what happened, but that's how I read the headline. I hope the man recovers and is ok now. Smile

Thanks for reading! Here's the open thread - and remember, everything is interesting if you dive deep enough, so tell us about where you're diving!

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Sima's picture

It is not raining here. That is good. Was very cold last night (for here). Around 28. The goats were cuddled up and happy, the cats are inside. It's getting really, really, really green outside.

Hope good things are happening with everyone! Let us know what's up, what's interesting, and what you've been reading/doing/whatever lately. We wanna know! Smile

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11 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

QMS's picture

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Interesting breakdown of categorized job descriptions.
I might add there is an additional layer of BS over the
otherwise useful functions of business. An example is
how management requires employees to spend un-billable
time to input data expressly to satisfy some mandated
program like 'safety' or 'security' or 'satisfaction'.
The larger the corporate structure, the more involved these
operations draw staff away from critical work performance.

It's a helluva way to run a railroad.
Thanks for the OT!

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Sima's picture

@QMS
box tickers and duct tapers? I don't know. I do know there is a lot of mess in the large corporations with a lot of unnecessary and unsatisfying jobs. As you say, 'helluva to run a railroad'.

Thanks for stopping by.

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3 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

earthling1's picture

Bright and sunny morning at 28 degrees and frosty here in the Portland/Vancouver area.
Have been pondering the homeless situation and decided to use a novel approach and work from a different direction. Instead of trying to figure out what to do about the homeless crisis, which is bringing zero results, why not try starting with what we cannot do and work backwards.
We can start with:
We cannot just shoot them on sight. Along with the moral, ethical, and legal ramifications, how would we distinguish between homeless people living in tents, pushing a shopping cart, or sitting on a park bench from housed people actually camping, shopping, or enjoying an afternoon in the park?
We cannot just arrest them and put them in jail, because that would be housing them and they would no longer qualify as homeless, a murky conundrum. Besides the cost of "housing" a criminal is quite expensive. Something to the tune of $75,000 a year the last I heard, c. 1990. Add inflation and it's got to be $100 grand per prisoner today.
Which brings us to UBI.
Why not just give them a quarter of that amount, 25 grand in weekly or monthly installments and let them find a place to call home, even if they double up on an apartment, and get their lives started again? That incentive alone could inspire them to actually get a menial job an supplement that UBI to start buying things they need or have always wanted.
Incentive.
Of course, the devil is in the details. There would have to be an income threshold that cuts you off of UBI, and maybe a drug testing regimen. Or not. Criminal activity would have it's downside should one be caught. And children under a certain age would be non-qualified, to discourage gaming to system with newborns every 9 months.
Dunno.
But what we are doing now isn't working and the homeless population is growing.
Thanks for hosting today's OT.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

QMS's picture

@earthling1
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Exactly why our elected representatives can not solve this
problem of "housing impaired" families and individuals says
a lot about government policy.
To recognize a problem is a start. Then a committee is formed to
'study the issues'. Consultants are paid to bring forward possible
solutions. Normally involving taxing the poor for problems they
did not create. A cycle of sorts. Administration officials try to paint
a picture of dong something (which is ineffective at best) and shift
blame to the higher-ups. No, it is not the town, it is the county.
No it is not the county, it is the state. No, it is not the state, it is the
fed. No, it is not the fed, it is the WHO, IMF or whichever organization
is supposed to be helping people.
Sorry kids, there is no money for housing, healthcare and community
development. It is all earmarked for security, wars, bombs and such.

I like your idea of saving the state money by issuing a graduated UBI.
The snafu appears to be the lobbyists representing the prison industry
own the politicians. And there is more money to be made by incarceration.

It is not solutions, rather perpetuation of an income stream driving this.
It is the capitalist way.

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Sima's picture

@QMS
It all boils down to, we are owned by big corporations, the MIC and so on. and why the hell are we taxing the poor? The bosses solution is always taxing and blaming the poor. Gads.

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4 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

Sima's picture

@earthling1
I like that. I want UBI for everyone. No means testing, nothing except age testing (you have to be an adult to get it). Not sure about drug testing. Maybe if you fail that, you don't get your yearly UBI? But then, people will be harming others, like by robbery and so on, to get the money for their drugs. So, I dunno, but I think that if you are human, and an adult, you get UBI. Even if you are rich, even if you are poor. Now, if you are rich, it should be taxed back, shouldn't it? But you should still get it.

It was 25 at 6 am up here in Kingston! What the heck!?! Anyway, thanks for stopping by. I always love to read your OTs and comments. Thank you!

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5 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

lotlizard's picture

@Sima  
I useta woik in dat town.

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Sima's picture

@lotlizard
Kingston, WA. It's a ferry terminal, basically. But a lovely little town :). Never worked in New York state, but I used to live and work in PA! Smile

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4 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

QMS's picture

@Sima

lived in Rome for awhile
bit northwest of Utica
don't ask me why
just went on and did it

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3 users have voted.

was just a placeholder. I was a non-essential person performing tasks that were so mundane, I could be replaced by the next day if I quit.
Most of my supervisors were not as experienced or proficient as those they supervised. They had gotten their positions by ass kissing, having just the right love affair, or having a good cocaine source. Nothing makes the boss happier than for his or her supervisors to drop off cocaine every Friday, amirite? Makes for a fun weekend! By 1982, I left Corporate America in my rear view mirror.
Texas has now passed laws that allow paralegals to not only represent low income clients, but to own the company providing the legal services.
I can't think of a bigger insult to members of the Texas Bar. And in one fell swoop, poor people, who apparently should be glad to afford such quality representation.
Lots to think about, sima.
Thanks for the OT, glad the kids are warm.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

QMS's picture

@on the cusp
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spent more times in meetings and the associated paperwork
than actually doing my jobs. OK for middle managers I suppose
but I had friggen work to do. Not sitting around listening to some
BS about flow charts and improving efficiency or whatnot.

Nobody at my level carried tools appropriate to the tasks at hand.
Therefore, my recommendations were belittled, as coming from a
lowly tech type.

OK. Moved on. Better to be self employed than in a room full of squawking
chickens poring over spreadsheets. Creating self importance with BS.

Independence has worked for 30 years. Not rich, but job approval ratings are OK.
The strong survive. The weak ones go into management.

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Sima's picture

@QMS
is echoed over and over in Graeber's book. Working independently is so much better, although, it can be hard to make enough to live off, that way. Kudos to you for doing so!

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4 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

@on the cusp I'm afraid I don't have a high opinion of our higher level attorneys since I am at the moment making changes in my estate planning.

To set the stage... east of the rockies, in the non-community property states, it is a very common practice to make use of trust accounts. My wife and I don't have a lot of assets, enough to last out our waning years with some security. Back east, the laws are made by the lawyers and they are more than happy to gouge when they can, particularly during divorce/death situations. Ready to support any claimant crawling out from under a rock. The trust is designed to protect the estate from the lawyers. Most of the verbage in my trust documents defend the trust and thus provide a bastion for me and MsIndy. My BIL was a judge in VA and he wholeheartedly supported the trust approach. It served us well and gave us security -- until we came to WA.

The institutions here don't care for trusts so I am engaging an attorney to dissolve the trust and move our assets into a conventional (for here) estate. He suggested a community property approach and after looking at it and being cognizant of the nursing homes and "Visiting Angels" and the way they suck all the blood from an estate and then throw the people onto Medicaid I disagreed with the community property.

If either of us require care in any institution I believe that treating our estate as a unit would guarantee that even the one not needing the care would become destitute. If I have a stroke there is no way I want the love of my life, my soulmate for 55 years to be in that position.

I want to separate our estate, hers and mine. We have been doing separate finances since the 80s and I saw family members (wives particurly) borrowing money before they could establish a separate identity. So we did. Turns out, she has more than I have... I'm not jealous, I'm so f'in proud. She started with nothing, maybe twice as much nothing as I, went to night school, raised our sons, and made her way in a man's world without ever playing the p-card. In our DoD dept I had some influence at the Hq level but she never played that card. She broke thru the glass ceiling on her own identity and talent.

Anyway... the first thing that happened with this atty office, my documents were given to a clerk, then scanned into an Adobe cloud and there they went. They will be reviewed and someone will get with me. I have contacted my paralegal (I think) and identified my desires, ie, treat each of us as individual estates and let each be distributed accordingly. We have no claimants other than our sons and have agreed that upon the death of either the assets will be divided 1/2, 1/4, 1/4.

I have not received any response on my request, not even a full of shit. BTW, the hubris of the vaunted one... oh hell, nevermind.

This firm is about 48 hours from being fired. Meanwhile our assets are intestate.

There's good and bad in every profession, every calling. Excet maybe the PMC class, minions of the elites.

Be well...

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QMS's picture

@exindy
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"for protection" from vultures ..

- power of attorney
- separate p.o.w. for healthcare (in two states)
- heath care Proxy (2 states) we are on the border
- documented last wills
- family trust for our property (most important)

so we share liabilities and assets equally
problem is the rules change over time
requires a check-up occasionally

we are lucky to have a good lawyer
to steer us thru this mess of legality

having to deal with these issues several times
over the years with my family and friends

makes one consider the clean up crew

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Sima's picture

@QMS
As my father gets more and more demented, and my mother less and less capable of caring for him 24/7, the hoops kinda make sense. At the time, they seemed like a lot of trouble. But not now.

Our family trust is a good thing, I think. It can be awkward, and when I became the trustee I had no idea what I was doing. I do now. I share everything about the trust with my mother, although she doesn't understand half of it. That was my father's job. But... he can't anymore.

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5 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

@exindy and hire one that will listen to you. Surely you have law firms that specialize in "elderly law" and estate planning?
In Texas, we can draw up what is called a post-nuptual agreement. A party lists their portion of particularly described assets on a schedule, then records the agreement in public records at the courthouse. This is good to separate out interests in real estate, and personal property, which is absolutely everything you own that is not real property.
The sticky wicket is your residence for trust purposes. Here, if you put your home into a trust, you cannot claim the magic homestead property tax exemption for annual ad valorum property taxes. Or the property tax exemption for disability, or the elderly tax exemption. Trusts are taxed at the corporate rate. High as a kite. Moreover, if you owe a huge judgment, a trust property can be taken to satisfy the creditor. Any trust can be busted. A judgment lien can be placed against a homestead, but no surviving spouse can be foreclosed upon or evicted. The judgment only gets paid after the homestead after the surviving spouse dies, and the homestead is sold at public auction.
Every state has different statutes, but as far as I know, post-nuptual agreements are honored in all states. This is not meant to be legal advice, but food for thought.
Getting old is hell.
I am really glad to hear you and your spouse of a lifetime made each other so proud, and so happy.
I am a fairly newly wed. 30 plus years being a widow. Luckily, it took no time at all for me to be both proud and happy.

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5 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

@on the cusp I will fire him before lunch. The hard part will be getting the stuff they shoved into that dam adobe cloud.

Why do they do that? Stupid, pure stupidity. But like everything else in this dystopia, whether they do it out of malice or ignorance, the effect on the serfs is the same.

In my old estate firm the first encounter was with an "advocate" who took down the information, was the primary contact, decided which atty was most fitting, etc. When the job was all done, all work product was delivered to me. I'm sure they have a copy but I'm pretty sure it was not electronic.

I have no real property. It became a millstone.

As far as this firm? It looks like the estate part is a cash cow for the PMCs. Meh, maybe I'll just do like I did for HVAC and other stuff... learn how to do it myself.

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Sima's picture

@exindy
My parents have a trust, called a revocable living trust, for their entire estate. Everything they own is in that trust: cars, real estate, clothes, etc. It's set up so that when one dies, the trust is divided into two. Half of it goes into an inheritance trust for us kids, the other half stays in the trust for the remaining parent.

My father was the trustee of this trust, but he is now much too demented to do this. So I became the trustee about 2 years ago. Basically I pay all the big bills, oversee their tax payments, make sure their investments are working and so on.

Anyway, I dunno if this story will help you, but it might. I agree with firing the lawyer you have and finding another, btw. I hope things work out for you!

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5 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

@Sima As we age (no, I refuse to get old!) things get pretty tough.

The firm I had before suggested that the trust be used more as a vault, a virtual safe deposit box. They particularly said to avoid a car because if an accident occurs, the trust might become a liability. They also suggested that regular obligations be take care of with a household budget separate from the trust.

Serve my kid right to have to clean out my room and haul it all away after I'm gone.

We've been getting rid of so much over the last 4 years, my old train, MsIndy's milk glass, etc. She refuses to part with the china. It's ok, just stuff. No one cares anymore.

This has been a wonderful thread...

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Sima's picture

@on the cusp
were not placeholders. They were tedious, and hard sometimes (integrated circuit tester, archaeological digger) and so on. The archaeological digger job actually made decent salary, although it was very hard work and it only lasted a few months. And the next job was entirely up to chance. So, heh, not that great a job. But I didn't realize how lucky I was. Working placeholder jobs would destroy the soul, I think.

Totally support and agree with leaving corporate America in the rear view mirror. Laws are getting more and more comfortable for these makers of placeholders, like the paralegals owning their companies. What the heck? And of course, they will milk the resources for the poor, without actually really helping the poor, and then government can say 'we tried, but it didn't work' and cut back the aid for the poor!

Bleh. Thanks for sharing your story about placeholder jobs. It was good to learn! Have a great weekend!

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5 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

snoopydawg's picture

.

IMG_6371.jpeg

Smile

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There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Sima's picture

@snoopydawg
That was good! Smile Smile

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3 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

Someone has to load the teleprompter with bullshit in order for this to take place.

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Sima's picture

@humphrey
Just couldn't bring myself to do so. All the bullshit he says, they all say. Bleh. I wonder what drugs they are giving him, and how long they had to coach him...

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If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

I worked at a high tech company that went through a period of financial upheaval that saw it lose lots of upper and middle managers. What happened was that engineering groups carried on without them and introduced new features and products. This lasted all about one year.

But the company needed an official leader. The Board of Directors thought that without highly paid leadership, no progress or innovation. So they hired some hotshot from Texas who then hired his cronies and the company started getting worse. Finally the board realized their mistake and hired a COO who had a lot of experience running organizations. Lots of the Texas crowd were fired or just give symbolic positions. The end result was under the new guy was that three engineers were allowed to build a product that saved the company. In it is a product line running into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

In high tech at least one of the most useless areas is "marketing".

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Sima's picture

@MrWebster
along with several other people. He was the engineer. He got forced out of the company, which has done very well btw, after about 15 years. Why? Because he was a founder and he HAD to move up into being a CEO. But he did not want to. He wanted to design circuits, not manage people. So he quit.

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6 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

I find cleaning one's own house satisfying, similarly with cooking for one's family or friends, but as a servant, I don't think so.

I understand the downsides of lawyers, but I have to admit that when I had to resort to one, he gave me great advice, could scan docs very very fast picking out the pertinent bits and showing where the BS was, and he ended up costing very little considering. Lawyers can give equality to the little guy. We are all supposed to be equal before the law, lawyers help make that a reality.

After a while lawyers are so used to being bullshitted they can cut to the chase.

Once I was talking to an engineer who ended up screening for new hire engineers. Your cell phone has his chip in it. He said they would over hire by about half, because half the people would be useless and do nothing. Every time there were layoffs it was great to get rid of the useless ones. Over hiring kept the good ones from going to someone else.

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is what is called the "residual institutional talent", the unsung downtrodden who keep on keeping on because of their own integrity, their own drive because that product has their name on it. Oh, there are some who just mail it in but then there have always been those. That old 80-20 rule.

If I might include a comment I sent to a good friend describing my recent experiences:

It's really tough to move ahead these days, hel, difficult to even tread water. All the machines are breaking and there's not a lot of talent left to keep them running.

It's good that there are little victories that can give us confidence. Eg, even if I'm likely to get another smack in the face later, at least for this one few minutes I can breathe easily. That's wonderful.

All these institutions keep rolling out these "improvements" that are full of gadgetry and markety on the surface but there's nothing underneath. Meh, interesting anecdote... I went into the Drs office cause I got a co-pay bill. Ok, I expected it. I tried to pay it when I did the visit, saying there's always a co-pay. Nope, didn't come up on their screen at the time so I'm good to go. Fast forward a month and I get a bill. Yep, no sh. Tried to pay online. After 50 years of navigating computer interfaces I couldn't figure out where to pay it and who of my 5 Drs to pay. So I went to their front desk and handed my credit card and said I couldn't figure it out. Hah, she couldn't either using her superduper access.

I'm not going to describe my current attempt to cancel a credit card. 10 different ways to freeze, suspend, increase limit, etc. Not one f'in way to just get rid of it because I got tired of it taking up space in my wallet.

The credit union where I keep my funds rolled out a "new" system and now I can't move money in and out and around without going thru an "independent" 3rd party who "may" release my personal information. On top of thtat they say I have to present myself at a branch and prove my identity.

So in about 3 hours MsIndy and I are heading over the passes to the nearest branch where I will get a check(s) and take it across the street to where I can put the funds in a different place. The new place has a branch (actually hqs) a block away from my apt. Real people. They will rue the day... I spent last evening changing my direct deposits, etc.

In a couple days I will do my fed tax business. It is a dream cause of the interface. Did I mention that I haven't regreted leaving IN? Those systems were a nightmare. The licensing here is really easy also. Had to do an inperson once 3 years ago. All else is a couple minutes. Took longer to put the sticker on the plate. Oh, I want no parts of the part of this state on the other side of the mtns. Pay a toll to some company in Texas that is owned by Blackrock or something to go across a bridge that I paid for.

Sorry for the lengthy. MsIndy just woke up and it's time to go online and cancel her credit card using a chat with a real person who will try to figure it out.

Fun times. Actually, there are some really good techie stuffs going on. Hope for the future. I've figured out epub formats and found out I can convert them to a format that doesn't require using some "app" so I can read a book.

This last part about the books has opened a whole new universe for me. I had never read Steinbeck or Faulkner or.... These books were grabbed by the corps and made it difficult to get, paying a gatekeeper. My Kindle is close to being bricked and will be if I bring up any comms but I can read the books on my PC.

I had seen the Grapes of Wrath but never read the book.... it is awesome, reads like current events.

Be well, please.

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QMS's picture

@exindy -
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by most big corps now
some Polynesian reading a screen
without a grasp of the assigned language

best way to go is find someone local

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5 users have voted.
Sima's picture

@exindy
I read a lot of books. I never use a gatekeeper epub thing. Probably because i use Linux as an OS, I learned to just avoid that. Now there are epub readers which don't require payments. And I use Open Library (https://openlibrary.org/ ), part of internet archive and Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org/ ). If you haven't already found those sources of books, they might add even more possibilities for you Smile .

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4 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

@Sima as I have just about everyone on c99.

There are other sites that I use as sources that don't feel themselves encumbured by the DRM business. There are also sub-sources within established ones. A lot of broken glass scattered around but with care... For example I picked up Dr Dobbs issues from the heyday period. I got so much from it then and I have found much of it still pertinent.

About a year ago when msft and google were in their smash and grab crusade I found that things were happening inside my machine. I did a piece here about what was happening, the monster in my machine. Screen scaping, keyboard acting kinda weird. I traced it to one of the "benefits" of the chrome core of all browsers. I ended up bricking my win7 machine and losing my comms trying to rid myself of the thing. Now I'm on the new, improved msft systems /s. At least one VM running around passing stuff to some cloud somewhere so it's still going on. Oh the days when I was competent enough to write my own sniffer... but like being able to ride my bike, those days are gone.

Needless to say I have a couple of airgapped machines, including some obsolete cell phones. I limit my visibility on the web as much as possible and under no circumstances do I do anything that involves money.

By the time Linux had come into vogue I had been immersed very deeply into the multi-tier environment, running offline doing cross-development on the PC as much as possible, then shipping my stuff to different platforms. Those days too are gone. Too dam much work.

PDFgear is good. Libre office is also. I read pdf format exclusively now but not the one that the int'l pushes. That one has been coopted by the publishers, not the creators. And I avoid adobe like the herpes it is.

Thank you very much, Sima.

I'm into the parts of Grapes of Wrath where the land grabs and hatred is so rampant as they've made it to CA. It's very distressing. Reads so much like my "family" texts.

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5 users have voted.
lotlizard's picture

@exindy  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Dobb%27s_Journal

Funny how a vision of tech-enabled freedom always seem to beckon in the distance, but after you spend many moons crossing the burning sands, it turns out to be a mirage, with but a new oligarchy of vultures and hyenas waiting to pick money, flesh, and data from your bones.

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2 users have voted.
usefewersyllables's picture

the Peter Principle!

I would comment further, but the walls have ears- and now is not the time to be without a job, regardless of one's principles...

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4 users have voted.

Twice bitten, permanently shy.

Sima's picture

@usefewersyllables
Don't they just? And yes, having a job right now is important! Keep on keeping on!

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2 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

snoopydawg's picture

.

I’ve gotten satisfaction from all my jobs in the medical field. My favorite of course was being an ophthalmic angiograper where I got to help save people’s eyesight. I got to blend my long of photography with medicine. I would love to work part time now that I would’nt have to spend so much time in the darkroom…oh who am I kidding. Even that was fun.

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6 users have voted.

There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Sima's picture

@snoopydawg
I really liked it. My father taught me, then I did a bunch of it myself. In fact, I have a darkroom in my house. Now it's a crafts room, heh. And the sink in my greenhouse is a repurposed darkroom sink that I had. Every farmer that ever sees it wants one Smile . After digital happened, the darkroom stuff sort of went... phhhhhhhhhooooofff. Even my Dad's darkroom is cleaned out and abandoned. It's sad. Boy, does time move on!

I think a lot of medical jobs would be satisfying (not the ones that manage people, though). I'm glad you got to have those jobs!

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3 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so