284 - being human in a corporate world 🤦♂️🤦♀️🏙️💹
be a bug at work, be human in life
Dear Future Kids/Past Vince,
I don't know when I'd send you this one, but it'll either be:
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Just before you start in a job
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After you burn out from a job
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When I remember to
This piece is about how you gotta sit up, think about what the system is pointing you towards, and ensure that, with all things, you can experience being human rather than being a bug.
(P.S. Honestly, this one is mostly for Past Vince in an attempt to help you understand what's to come. Forgive the preachiness ❤️)
I worked in corporate Australia for quite a while. You start from the bottom, you spend time working on your skills so you can be useful for those above and around you, you try and impress as many people as possible, and you climb the rungs of the ladder to get to a higher position where people trust you and assume that you know what you're doing.
In big companies or places that have a lot of people, it's natural that you become deep, and you become expert in a particular area of the job. In most organisations that I know about, they call it the 'T-shaped person'. In my metaphor, I'm just gonna call them ladders that grow from...uh...ladder soil.
It makes sense! You should really just climb one ladder, because with all the different ladders required at an organisation, it would take so long to climb them all at the same time. It's better to just rely on others who do decide to climb those different ladders so that collectively, you have enough knowledge to be able to discern what's right and wrong to do, together!
I learnt this from a crap ton of self-help books and leadership programs and working for a big company and it just kinda fell on me like dandruff. There were just so many frameworks about focusing on your strengths rather than your weaknesses that essentially boiled down to "rely on others to do what they're good at, so that you can focus and work on what you're good at". Since you're relying on others to be good at what you're not, trust and collaboration are paramount - together, as a team, you can get shit done!
However, because we work so much of our lives, and we learn about how people in the corporate world think, I think that these frameworks bleed into what we do when we're out of the job as well.
- 'Why would I cook when I know I can get delivery? My time is worth more and they're specialists at what they do so just get them to do it'
- 'I'm not really good at cleaning, so I can just pay someone to do it for me'
- 'Oh, you're learning to write? How does that make money? What do you get out of it?'
I'm not saying everyone's like this, and to be clear, I have been, and often say and act, like this too. That's because I'm capitalism-pilled and it's the way that I've been brought up (both upbringing and career-wise). Trust me, I'm trying to find my way out :D
I think my main argument is that there is a definite bleed in of value, and efficiency, and productivity in our everyday lives outside of work, in situations that don't require those to be the end goal. It causes us to think that focusing on what we're good at is all that we should do, and doing things we're not as good at can be supplemented by others. It promotes an environment where the creation of something valuable should be the end goal of everything we do.
Bollocks to that.
There are lots of goals that you can go for in life, but I think that when you're a person, when you're an individual, when you're trying your best to be a human - experiencing the world and everything in it that you can (warts and all, as some might say) is the 'goal' of being human.
Why? Well, the main reason is because you only get one shot. ONE. OPPORTUNITY. There's no dress rehearsal, there's no practice game, there's no restart (that we know of, at least), there's no 1-up and there's no appeals if you think it's unfair.
You can only go through it once, and every experience is going to be the first, and last time you have it. Can't dip your toe in the same river twice kinda vibe, y'know? I'm sure someone said it better...
And since you only have one shot, I feel like it would be a waste to only deepen yourself in the space of your comfort zones and just climb up the same ladder for your life. There' so much to experience in the world - there's so much to do! Good, bad, happy, sad - every experience tells us more about being human, and each step of learning (about others, about hobbies, about the world) helps us learn about how human we are, as well.
It's why I have moved towards dabbling in a little of this, a little of that...slowly increasing the base of the T so that I'm getting as much out of life as I can, and understanding myself through action.
I'm not at all close to where I want to be in terms of experiencing the world, but that's because I'm a flaming hypocrite handing out advice like it's candy that I rarely eat myself :D
Truth is, I used to be scared, and anxious of coming out of my comfort zone.
I still am, but I used to be, as well. Ba-dum TSH!
It just felt so hard to deviate from a very well set Path that defined my life, to go out and just try new stuff. I'm comfy and I like to just do what I do right now.
Change, it turns out, is hard!
Which is why I write 2000 word essays (with pictures made on Google Slides!) to try and convince myself, and you, Future Kids, that life needs to be more than this.
And look, I guess there's nothing wrong with climbing the comfort ladder if that's what you want to do, but looking back on my life, I think it's a shame that not enough people (myself included!) go and even see that there are other ladders to climb. And try a few rungs. And fall off, and come back. Or keep going on them. Who knows how high you could climb?
[picture: ladder pointing to one, but there are so many other ladders!]
And I mean, well, doing more things means doing more things - whether they're boring, or exciting, or fun, or scary, or weird - because they'll help to broaden out your T and help you be more human.
I 100% agree with the people who told high school kids like myself to take a gap year before jumping into work - and I'm going to make sure, Future Kids, that if you want to, you should go take one too.
Robert A. Heinlein, a great science fiction writer of the 60's, once wrote:
“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”
I guess we're all insects to the machine of capitalism, hey?
Regardless, it takes effort, and to just like...simplify this all, I think it's good to be broad for three main reasons:
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Since you only get one shot, why not try everything that you can? It would be silly to hold back on things since you're unlikely to be able to bring it with you when you pass away, and conversely, you wouldn't take all your time and effort and bet it all on one thing, right?
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Novelty makes your life feel longer. You know how your childhood and teenage years feel really long? Perhaps it's some sort of pseudo-psychology, but it makes sense to me! The days are long but the years get shorter, so fill them with milestones and things you've done to make it, at least, feel longer.
- The extension on this is to try and find things that increase your perception of time longer - for me, I've found that it's either a flow state of doing things that you enjoy, or spending time with those you love. In those cases I find that time rarely matters, and it makes life feel long.
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Okay the third reason is bug-related but I couldn't find a good way to put it anywhere so yeah: I don't wanna be a bug because bugs are icky.
Anyway, I digress. I wonder if people are, well, re-finding out about how to be human and grateful - Tiktok has recently had the I almost forgot this is what it's all about trend - a little bit more of an antidote to the drudgery of capitalism and enjoying the little (and big!) things in life.
I remind myself every so often to remember that we're all made of stardust and we'll go back to nothingness of an existence some day (which, for me, is a scary thing to think about).
Make your own decisions, try things for yourself, point yourself towards the things that are hard, and appreciate the good as much as the bad, so you can experience more of what being human can mean.
...then again, I'm never gonna go skydiving so we all got our limits 😂😂😂
Chat soon :)
(P.S. If you've got any feedback for the newsletter, just hit the reply button!)
📋Today's Questions in The Story
Results:
- Name of ship: Borrowed Time
- Time-suit: ON
- Accessories: denim bandana, and red silk scarf TIE
- Feeling: Cocky
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As you speed through the red swirls of the time vortex, there's the familiar, soothing sound of a time-jump as everything in the ship sounds like it's being torn apart. Metal screaming unearthly protests, makeshift wooden walls groaning under the pressure...the sound grows slowly, just on the edge of deafening everyone in the ship.
Considering how rough-shod, slap-dash, and thrown together the Borrowed Time was, that made a lot of sense, but even using the cobbled together parts, she'd faithfully taken you through many missions unscathed...
...well, mostly unscathed. A scar or three never hurt anyone, right?
You hum a merry tune as you play with your red, silk scarf, flicking it this way and that. This mission was going to be so easy - Pyongyang's known to be a walk in the park because of their shoddy security due to years of isolation, and the money was gooooood. You bring up the menu display for Tony's.
"So," you shout over the din to Jimmy, "How many drinks will you be shouting me? I think I'll have a couple of negronis on you, eh? Or maybe an expensive champagne?"
"Huh?"
"Oh, sponsored from all the winnings I take off you tonight!"
Jimmy laughs, "Ha ha ha - while you've been out doing who knows what with your money, I've been investing. Packs don't crack themselves - you and that dirty denim rag on your head are gonna see some hot FIRE tonight."
"It ain't dirty, it's got character! And I been doing just fine things with my money, thank you very much!"
"Ugh, you're still playing that shitty ass card game? Go get some culture!" Sayla pops up a video of the latest ballet on the main screen, temporarily shielding us from the red vortex. "This was on last week - and you didn't have to pay an arm and a leg for it!"
"Humans? Really, Sayla?" Jimmy retorts. "We're way past that old humdrum nonsense. Get on to Haven already - if you ain't spending on the screen, you ain't being seen!"
"Hah," you shoot back, "Let's see if you're in such a good mood tonight - I've got many aces up my many sleeves."
"Or what, you'll get Grandit to help you again?"
Suddenly, as Sayla takes the ballet off the screen, you see the red vortex suddenly take on longer streaks of blue, cyan and cerulean.
"Uh...Cap, I don't think we're that close, are we?" Sayla is suddenly all urgency, as the time vortex seems to be decaying right in front of your eyes.
"No...this is weird. Jimmy, Sayla, can you-"
You're interrupted by a loud BANG! that sounds marginally louder than the groaning and creaking of the ship's normal functions, and the ship lurches violently, left and right.
"Jimmy," you screw your eyes shut and clutch on to the captain's chair as the ship gets tossed across the vortex. Nauseous, you notice the symptoms of time-sickness seeping into the cabin.
"Yeah, it looks like it," you hear a faint reply. "About 2 seconds or so each I think?"
"Okay got it - lucky we've got our time suits on, eh, Cap'n!"
"No, I think it's time turbulence! We're jumping in and out of sync!"
"Sounds like something's wrong with the ship - probably the stabilisers; we need someone to go check!"
"Yeah, it looks like it, about 2 seconds or so each I think?"
"Cap'n, turn off the blhxuhrkdk!" they both shout in unison but it's muddled by the time turbulence.
You look around and the different time-images of Jimmy and Sayla are shifting in and out of phase as they jump out of their seats and scramble around different control panels. You try to shout some orders at them.
Blearily, you look down at your control panel. The time vortex is decaying by the second, and who knows what will happen if you don't do something.
✔️Real Life Recommendations
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Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning - 4 stars - if you like the MI franchise, then this is exactly what you'll like to see to end the series. I mean goddamn Tom Cruise is 62 and still doing his own stunts. It's heavy on action, light on plot, high on nostalgia, and light on any characterisation. If you don't like Mission Impossible then you probably won't care for this one.
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The Phoenician Scheme - 3.5 stars - the newest Wes Anderson is a pretty film, combined with some unique, rich characters and extremely great actors. The plot is a bit slipshod for me...a little less plotted and more like a progression of really well put together scenes. Will probably deserve a rewatch for me to really dig into it, but regardless - recommended!!
🚌 Adventures on the Information Super-Highway
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Cockatoos have learned to operate drinking fountains in Australia - smart buggers!
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Internet Roadtrip - thank you Tina for the rec; join the Internet Roadtrip, currently in Canada!
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If you are useful, it doesn't mean you are valued - an interesting short reflection on being useful vs being valued.