What the m*nd?

Getting a job.

Getting a job. That is something that an army of people (usually led by your mom) are expecting you to do. Getting a good job was what I went to the university for. However, half-way through my education (and I studied at some of the best universities in the world) I realized that the concept of a “job” works like “you attend this place from 9 to 5 and in exchange you get money”. Even those with the most prestigious and well-paid jobs often say that they could teach a dog to do their job in a week. Essentially they get paid for showing up. What you do there and whether you really bring something to the world for 8 or more hours a day doesn’t matter.

Don’t get me wrong - it’s a great way to organize people and diminish unemployment. The best working system so far. The troubles start when people are out of job - they got too much time to think then and the trouble is around the corner. I am fine with this system as without it we’d be living in a total anarchy, and that’s really not good.

However, for me personally the concept of a job sounds like a very poor alternative to all the other things that I could be doing. It would mean that I’d have to be a cog in someone else’s machine. However, I believe that I can add more value to the world and live a more interesting and adventurous life by inventing my own “machines”. “Machines” that would help people, that would solve problems, add real and direct value to the world. Not having a career-job allows me to have enough time to work on those “machines” of mine and when not - learn about the world, read, get inspired, train myself. If I think of what I’ve done in the end of the day at least I could think of things that truly mattered to me.

Too bad that doing things differently from masses makes you feel like such a lonely outsider and - although you know that you’re right - constantly make you doubt if you’re really doing the right thing.

• 16 May 2012
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