A side effect of all of this is the profilerarion of make work administrator and bureaucratic jobs that are a drain in everyone but exist to employ the people too dumb for the rare jobs that require intellect and creative power but too "credentialed" to work labor.
This is *exactly* what elite overproduction is. Seriously, who is going to employ those Grievance Studies graduates if not for HR/DIE? It's not like they have actual skills or intelligence.
The other thing I’ve noticed in many of the credential-blinded around me and the better off - they really do hate manual labor. I had seriously suggested to someone that maybe their kid should spend some time in the oil fields, make some serious cash, and consider trades before going to college since he didn’t have hard plans for an engineering degree or a field that required a degree.
That attitude is the worst. “You’re too good for the trades!” Again, I reiterate: you want a nation of middle-managers, lawyers, spreadsheet shufflers, and insurance salesmen who can’t build anything? You got one.
However, the one questions nobody who matters ever asks is, “Are we better off?”
“We,” of course, is society at large. The people in charge and their families? Oh, they’re doing GREAT. The hoi polloi? Who cares. That’s the attitude. Noblesse obligee has turned into open contempt for the masses. That might be a great way to run thing if your only aim is to squeeze out every fucking cent of possible profit, but it’s no way to run a civilization. How do I know? Because I’m living in it.
I flat out tell a lot of my clients - I'm overhead. My job is to make sure that you can do yours.
If I do my job right, lawyers can help people (or not), architects can design homes and do the surrounding landscaping and print and send the respective drawings. People can send designs to cutters. Cars get sold. My focus is not on the shiny new thing but what works best for the mindset and workflow of my client.
And yeah, I still feel the pull of going fishing, kayaking, hiking, built my own kayak rack, do work on my home, replace electrical outlets, and so on. Doing something that is not only useful but concrete.
I’d say what you do has more of a concrete effect than what I do. I know the grass is always greener and all that, but I think I’d find IT more fulfilling than being a professional middleman who just double-checks other people’s work and tells them to follow the rules or else.
The other thing I hate about being an attorney is how weaselly it makes you be. You’re an “advisor,” and you don’t make decisions. You’re supposed to just wash your hands of everything and create plausible deniability FOR YOURSELF. Never stake out a position you can get pinned down on—not even a LEGAL one! Be slippery. Shift positions at the drop of a hat. Have no convictions except expediency. It requires no leadership, no courage, nothing except the ability to slide in between ambiguity and make arguments as the arise as ing as they help your cause. People like this used to be hanged, now they’re credentialed.
Yes, I know I oversimplified the barber example. I made mention of that that everything would have to be perfect for my numbers to be accurate. You’re right that I didn’t take the barber’s overhead into account. That oversight was mine.
“ Making something is fulfilling. Closing a deal is shortlived and you’re off for your next dopamine hit.”
Right? I also hear well-meaning people tell me, “Because of that contract you reviewed and approved, XYZ got built,” and that makes me feel lamer because I, as an attorney, am basically an artificial roadblock preventing builders from actually building. I know it’s a commie slogan, but I feel “Men in denim built this country, and men in suits destroyed it.”
A side effect of all of this is the profilerarion of make work administrator and bureaucratic jobs that are a drain in everyone but exist to employ the people too dumb for the rare jobs that require intellect and creative power but too "credentialed" to work labor.
This sounds like the elite overproduction (“elite,” haha!) I hear so much about.
This is *exactly* what elite overproduction is. Seriously, who is going to employ those Grievance Studies graduates if not for HR/DIE? It's not like they have actual skills or intelligence.
We’ve got to put them somewhere, and since no one wants to be a monk or a nun, into the corporate world you go!
The other thing I’ve noticed in many of the credential-blinded around me and the better off - they really do hate manual labor. I had seriously suggested to someone that maybe their kid should spend some time in the oil fields, make some serious cash, and consider trades before going to college since he didn’t have hard plans for an engineering degree or a field that required a degree.
“Why would he stoop to that?”
That attitude is the worst. “You’re too good for the trades!” Again, I reiterate: you want a nation of middle-managers, lawyers, spreadsheet shufflers, and insurance salesmen who can’t build anything? You got one.
However, the one questions nobody who matters ever asks is, “Are we better off?”
“We,” of course, is society at large. The people in charge and their families? Oh, they’re doing GREAT. The hoi polloi? Who cares. That’s the attitude. Noblesse obligee has turned into open contempt for the masses. That might be a great way to run thing if your only aim is to squeeze out every fucking cent of possible profit, but it’s no way to run a civilization. How do I know? Because I’m living in it.
I'm in IT.
I flat out tell a lot of my clients - I'm overhead. My job is to make sure that you can do yours.
If I do my job right, lawyers can help people (or not), architects can design homes and do the surrounding landscaping and print and send the respective drawings. People can send designs to cutters. Cars get sold. My focus is not on the shiny new thing but what works best for the mindset and workflow of my client.
And yeah, I still feel the pull of going fishing, kayaking, hiking, built my own kayak rack, do work on my home, replace electrical outlets, and so on. Doing something that is not only useful but concrete.
I’d say what you do has more of a concrete effect than what I do. I know the grass is always greener and all that, but I think I’d find IT more fulfilling than being a professional middleman who just double-checks other people’s work and tells them to follow the rules or else.
The other thing I hate about being an attorney is how weaselly it makes you be. You’re an “advisor,” and you don’t make decisions. You’re supposed to just wash your hands of everything and create plausible deniability FOR YOURSELF. Never stake out a position you can get pinned down on—not even a LEGAL one! Be slippery. Shift positions at the drop of a hat. Have no convictions except expediency. It requires no leadership, no courage, nothing except the ability to slide in between ambiguity and make arguments as the arise as ing as they help your cause. People like this used to be hanged, now they’re credentialed.
your time is money.
Not really. Your time is a measure of the energy you used.
Time is energy, which is paid in dollars, pounds, lira, etc.
You sort of simplified your barber. He has overhead, rent (if he didn't buy his building,) out of the 288k he might get to keep 100k or so.
Yes, I know I oversimplified the barber example. I made mention of that that everything would have to be perfect for my numbers to be accurate. You’re right that I didn’t take the barber’s overhead into account. That oversight was mine.
“ Making something is fulfilling. Closing a deal is shortlived and you’re off for your next dopamine hit.”
Right? I also hear well-meaning people tell me, “Because of that contract you reviewed and approved, XYZ got built,” and that makes me feel lamer because I, as an attorney, am basically an artificial roadblock preventing builders from actually building. I know it’s a commie slogan, but I feel “Men in denim built this country, and men in suits destroyed it.”
I have a follow-up post touching on this idea of actually doing versus “facilitating.”
I’m amazed, as a lawyer, I can still sleep at night.