Modified: February 25, 2022
most work is bullshit
This page is from my personal notes, and has not been specifically reviewed for public consumption. It might be incomplete, wrong, outdated, or stupid. Caveat lector.(see David Graeber https://www.strike.coop/bullshit-jobs/)
Most work is oriented towards achieving instrumental goals. But most instrumental goals are pretty far from being aligned with any final goal that matters.
Selling a product optimizes an instrumental goal of making money for shareholders. But are you actually contributing value to the world? Maybe your product is worse than the competition's. Maybe the product category as a whole doesn't need to exist. Maybe the person you're selling to doesn't need it.
Much administrative work has this property. Coming up with 'plans' and 'strategies', and hiring other people to help with this work, ensuring that all i's are dotted and all t's are crossed, can be (though is not always) a source of endless work that is largely disconnected from the ultimate mission of the organization.
Bullshit jobs tend to be alienated: it's not easy to see how your labor is making the world better, because it's not. But not always: plenty of people enjoy optimizing instrumental goals without caring whether they lead to a final goal. Playing sports is fun, even if it's pointless. Similarly, you might enjoy being a police officer suppressing protesters, because you get the feeling of helping your team win. Or you might enjoy writing strategy memos that apply 'principles' that you 'know' in a way that other people think is insightful, without realizing that you're having no impact at all.