Do we like our jobs?

Commenter “uselessidiot” wrote something I can agree with (and I wish I had written myself):

[re: ]"I thought we all pursued work in our fields of interest because we wanted to do that work?"

If this is really a question, the answer is "No, we don't." I would unscientifically guess that about 5-10% of the population actually has the job they want. Maybe 25% if you include people working "near" their field, like a make-up artist who wants to be an actress or a wannabe doctor working as a receptionist at a hospital. I'd even bet that about 50% of the population wouldn't "enjoy the work" at any job, unless you include things like wine taster, bikini contest judge, food critic, etc.

Do you really believe that most accountants just love accounting? If they got a check from the government for the same amount of money without having to work, how much of their time would they spend accounting?

What happens more often is that people get sucked into this or that field, then justify after-the-fact that they "like it" so they don't have to admit to themselves that they spend half of their waking hours doing something they do not particularly enjoy. This is why welfare is such a dangerous concept for a society - most of the jobs that contribute to our well-being require someone to do something that they wouldn't otherwise do.

Comments

[Abe]

Self-delusion is a form of self-defense.

If you coax, rather than force, people into doing something, the majority of them will rationalize that they wanted to do it in the first place. People like to believe they have control over their lives.

[pete]

100% agree
truer words were never spoken

Our society has to say to adults that refuse to work that they will get no long term welfare payments - they have to work if they want money

The way our society is set up today - if a young woman doesn't want to work, but does want her own apartment with cable TV and air conditioning, all she has to do is have a kid or two and the government will supply the goodies.
This creates the wrong incentive

That is why I favor a rule putting all the children of such women in lavish day care - day care that teaches them middle class values - and requiring the moms to work a solid 8 hours a day

It should be clear that for women that don't want to work, having kids is not the answer.

[Linda]

I believe self-made super-rich people love their jobs because:

A) If you're super rich, you wouldn't keep working unless you got some enjoyment out of it. Money alone can't motivate you to work hard once you already have billions.

B) Many on this blog have argued it takes hard work to get rich. I don't totally agree, but the hardest working people I know are the people who most love their jobs & get intrinsic satisfaction from it. Once you have intrinsic motivation the extrinsic rewards like money & status start to come. That's why the rich always advise young people to follow their passion.

[HS: People like doing what they are successful at. The super rich are very successful at making money, therefore they are going to like it.]

[The Engineer]

There are lots of jobs that people do just for the love of it. It's called open source software. ;)

And Wikipedia entries.

And blogging. How much you making from this blog, Sig?

[HS: It makes a few hundred dollars a year from the ads. Yes, I wish I could get paid a solid upper-middle-class salary to blog, something I'd do anyway for free.]

[Linda]

[HS: People like doing what they are successful at. The super rich are very successful at making money, therefore they are going to like it.]

How do you know it's not the other way around? People are successful at what they like doing. The causation probably flows in both directions. And I wouldn't say making money is the primary thing the super rich are successful at; instead I would say that if you are successful enough at anything, you tend to become super rich.

[HS: "if you are successful enough at anything, you tend to become super rich" it's because of lies like that that so many kids are enrolled in useless college majors.]

[Linda]

"HS: It makes a few hundred dollars a year from the ads. Yes, I wish I could get paid a solid upper-middle-class salary to blog, something I'd do anyway for free."

I'm surprised it doesn't make a lot more since this is one of the most successful blogs. Always lots of people, always shows up first on google searches & you were even cited by the NY Times. I figured this blog would make at least 5 figures a year. If blog as successful as yours only makes 3 figures a year, then what does that say about all the other bloggers?

[HS: It's hard to make money when the content is given away for free. Internet advertising is only profitable if users of a site are, for some reason, likely to buy something. For example, a site about digital cameras will make money because its users are likely to buy a digital camera, and thus will make money from the advertising. People reading my blog don't want to buy anything, they just want free entertainment.]

[Blinders Off]

Linda, Half Sigma probably isn't in the top 50% of active (regularly updated) blogs. If you want successful blogs, you need to look at celebrity gossip, fashion, pictures of animals, or aggregators.

To use Half Sigma terminology, almost all of the very successful blogs are value transferrers, not value creators. Blogging about ideas that come out of your head instead of posting up pictures of cute petz that readers submit? A losing proposition for sure.

[HS: My blog is in the top 1%, which isn't enough to make money. Being in the top 1% of tennis or golf players is also worthless, and those fields are a lot more profitable for the top 10 players than blogs. Tiger Woods makes probably 100 times as much from golf as Glenn Reynolds makes from Instapundit.]

[a_c]

Still, hopefully there are at least some elements of your job that you enjoy. The doctor may hate writing up tedious case reports but like interacting with patients, or looking at pathology slides. The receptionist may hate reminding people to pay up, but enjoy making copies. The accountant may prefer excel work to any other drudge job. Etc.

[Robert]

HS -

here is a way to make this blog pay -

Sell sustaining memberships -
some of us on this blog have the cash to support the blog by sponsoring it

basically set it up so that people who donate $500 a year to the blog get all of our posts to show up as BLUE and the peopel that do not donate have all of their posts show up as black

I personally would donate $500 and I would show respect for the other posters that donated $500. I am not saying I would ignore the posters who did not donate $500, but I would certainly weigh that fact.

For example, you have people who post here claiming to be very wealthy - well if they claim to be wealthy but don't donate $500 a year to this blog why should I believe them or respect their opinion as much as someone who claims to be wealthy and also donates $500 a year

I for one am willing to mail you the $500 right now if you commit to giving me a code that lets me post in blue rather than black - I value this blog enough

[HS: Thank you for the compliments. The blog is run on Typepad, which provides no way to sell blog memberships which give special posting privileges.]

[green bay]

I'm the one who asked the original question that set off this response. I'm still trying to figure this out. Do we work hard to establish respectable careers only because we don't want to be around people who have lower class values? It has nothing to do with job security, seeking out a challenge or being able to buy nice things like a new Toyota or high speed internet?

Of course, that's what the socially acceptable answer is but on a more subconscious level, we're really trying to avoid lower class people and not necessarily the lower class itself? That means none of us wouldn't mind working at easy jobs that paid crap but what if we'd be working around people who had middle class values?

[Linda]

"[HS: It's hard to make money when the content is given away for free. Internet advertising is only profitable if users of a site are, for some reason, likely to buy something. For example, a site about digital cameras will make money because its users are likely to buy a digital camera, and thus will make money from the advertising. People reading my blog don't want to buy anything, they just want free entertainment.]"

I see your point, but the audience you have here might be valuable to some advertisers (those who wish to sell books about HBD for example).

[The Engineer]

Dude, you don't make any money because you don't sell HBD themed "ironic" t-shirts.

If you did, you'd make money. That's how all the cool guys make money on the 'net, selling ironic t-shirts.

Hell, even SWPL has a t-shirt for sale.

Get with it, man.

[Kevin K]

"People reading my blog don't want to buy anything, they just want free entertainment."

For the record, I bought a fountain pen based on your advice. Still use it all the time!

[HS: I presume it was a Pelikan. They're great pens.]

[chris]

"Do we work hard to establish respectable careers only because we don't want to be around people who have lower class values? It has nothing to do with job security, seeking out a challenge or being able to buy nice things like a new Toyota or high speed internet?"

Subscribing to high-speed internet doesn't require a well-paying job, although a brand new car might.

I think people do it in part to establish respectability among people of a certain class standing, but also if they have locked themselves in -- or plan to lock themselves in -- to a family situation with a wife, kids, mortgage, car, etc.

As a person of middle-class background, I have gone through spurts where I have thought that I "should" advance my career, but usually fall back into not giving a shit. I spent about a year trying to get into the IT industry, but once I succeeded, I stopped caring. Why? Because I have no wife (I do have girlfriends), no kids, no car, no mortgage, and don't plan to ever have any of those things. I can fund my lifestyle with any garden variety low-responsibility job. There's no reason for me to care about my career, unless I wanted to win friends among people with yuppie values. However, I have no interest in doing that either.

I am getting laid off next month, and am looking forward to it -- it will pose no financial difficulty to me. Nobody else in my department is looking forward to it, as they all have spouses, kids, cars, a mortgage, etc. Consequently, they have a much larger stake in being constantly employed, in addition to advancing their careers.

[BrunoBrazil]

Personally, I had very enjoyable and very detestable jobs.

Today I am a college professor and very happy with it. There are downsides (like students who complain for silly things) but I am very happy with my work.

I also liked working as a taxi driver in the past, when I needed to. The job was pretty mundane, but I enjoyed performing it.

But I also was an accounting assistant, salesman and I hated it. When I don´t like my job, I simply can´t function in it. But when I love my job, I am very good on it.

That was my experience. Don´t get into anything you really detest doing. If you are like me, you simply can´t function in it.

[BrunoBrazil]

The jobs you like doing are not necessarily glamourous. You can detest a glamourous work but be happy doing mundane work.

[BrunoBrazil]

Probably Siggy detests programming and wants to find a reason to just keep doing it.

Siggy´s dream was being a Skadden partner and he want to rationalize his frustration with that.

[dearieme]

Here's a tee shirt design for you. Picture a capital Sigma. Cut it in two with a horizontal line. Now you have a "half sigma", looking rather like an approximation to a v on its side.

There you are, gratis, just because I love this sort of work.

[Commodore]

Eh, the original point is even more powerful than that 50% number. I'd go nuts without a job, but if my finances were unconected with my work I'd probably be in a field like carpentry or smithing over my current engineering job. It's not that I hate being an engineer, it's that I love working with my hands. If society was paying me for existing, they'd be getting considerably less value out of my mind.

[The Engineer]

Well shit, if we're going to do t-shirt ideas, let's do t-shirt ideas.

What WOULD a HBD t-shirt be like?

"Don't hate me 'cause I scored 2 SD above the mean".

Picture of a bell curve. South Park/ Anime charicature face of NAM at 1 SD below mean. White face at mean. Asian at 1SD above mean. Jew at the tail.

Heh?

[OneSTDV]

"If you get a job you like, you'll never work a day in your life."

I can see that, but most people can't do something they like and actually make a decent living (well a good enough one to live the typical suburban life). The working world is full of Ivy League English majors wishing they were writing the great American novel or actually thinking they have written it, the latter being more common probably.

[Rob]

I read that vdare takes in about $350,000 per year. How do they do that?

[A Receptionist]

"The receptionist may hate reminding people to pay up, but enjoy making copies."

So true! I'm never more fulfilled than when I'm in front of a Xerox machine. Happily, the masses can now enjoy this rewarding pastime at the Kinko's amusement empire, where you can read exhilaration or quiet bliss on the faces of everyone copying to their heart's content.

[Josh]

Just wanted to say I really enjoyed the latest book reviews. I think you should do an update on the main section of your blog so people know about the new reviews.

[Richard Hoste hbdbooks.com]

I enjoy blogging. Could I make money off that? Sigma, how much do you make off of the Persian rug ad and those ones trying to get me to date ugly Muslims?

[CK]

Good post.

[Richard Hoste hbdbooks.com]

Oops, looks like you already answered that. Maybe I'll be a smarter business man than you.

[Shawn]

"[HS: It's hard to make money when the content is given away for free.]"

I am guessing that one of my favorite bloggers, Steve Sailer, manages to scrape up a middle class living between writing for VDARE, Taki, & his Blogger site. Of course he writes prolifically for free at this blog. Essentially, readers feel guilty about reading information that is so entertaining and excellent, all for free, so, when Steve has to run his money drives, people donate. I have a hard time imaging how Steve can make decent money from self-publishing "Half-blood Prince" on Lulu; I think it just helps to encourage more donations.

Jerry Pournelle has a hybrid style where he gives info away for fee yet has the option for a subscription to his writings.

Getrichslowly.com makes about $50k a year I guess but J.D. works full-time on it. I agree with the previous commentator who wrote that celebrity sites (Perez) tend to do well--of course some politics sites do as well. I am not sure how Matt Drudge can keep his sanity as he performs his repetitive hyperlinking all day every day.

Because most HBD sites or quantitative sites appeal mostly to the top 15% in IQ, as opposed to the lowest common denominator like to many others, it is tougher to achieve a mega-high traffic level.

[Dr. Horsemeat]

"What happens more often is that people get sucked into this or that field, then justify after-the-fact that they 'like it.'"

I suspect the same phenomenon is at work with a lot of people who have to relocate for career reasons. Often, they are the biggest boosters of the place they move (or have been transferred) to, far more so than those who've lived there for decades. Part of this may be an attempt to fit in, but I think part of it is also the wish to believe that you somehow chose what you might actually have been forced by circumstances into doing. Of course, there's also the possibility that if someone makes such a move, and as a result they have fewer worries about bills and cost of living, the place actually does look better to them than whatever they left behind.

So far as liking your work goes, I don't know anybody who enjoys every aspect of his or her work, but I think the vast majority of people are better off working, purely from a psychological standpoint. So long as you're in decent health, you're probably far happier having a place to go to and something to focus on 5 days a week, rather than watching daytime TV in your pajamas. I was unemployed for a few months about 15 years ago. Apart from the financial stress, I didn't enjoy it. At all. Maybe it's the puritan work ethic. Plus, work gives us something to bitch about, which most people enjoy.

[Lawful Neutral]

>Picture of a bell curve. South Park/ Anime charicature face of NAM at 1 SD below mean. White face at mean. Asian at 1SD above mean. Jew at the tail.

Cute, but why not just go whole hog and wear a picture of Bin Laden urinating on an American flag, surrounded by swastikas, reversed crosses, and aborted fetuses? It's just such a pain keeping all your teeth.

Wearing something like that in public gives anyone and everyone license to assault you with no consequence. Heck, half the population will feel it's their duty to assault you.

[king obama]

Most people hate their jobs, but the pay keeps them chained to the job. I truly am envious of people who love their jobs since I really hate mine. I work for pay and nothing else. I would not do my job for free, not even for a day (I work in accounting).

I would love nothing more than to spend the rest of my days at the beach playing volleyball and checking out babes, and to spend my nights in bars chatting it up with the ladies and hanging out. If I could also afford for travel every now and also have a place of my own (preferably near the beach) without having to work, I wouldn't. Period. End of story.

I am sick of people who pretend to love their job. The fakers are so full of it. Who in their right mind likes to be stressed out and/or bored for a majority of the day, only to have it happen again and again and again, day-in, day-out? I can't stand when people aren't honest to themselves.

Simple fact is that most people hate or at least dislike their job to some degree.

[king obama]

"I am guessing that one of my favorite bloggers, Steve Sailer, manages to scrape up a middle class living between writing for VDARE, Taki, & his Blogger site."

Steve's wife works and Steve has had to dip deep into his personal savings over the years just to make it (he has mentioned this before on his blog). Plus, he lives frugally and his family expenses are on a budget.

My educated guess is Steve barely scrapes by as a blogger and writer, but he does it because he likes to write and he no longer wants to work as a business man.

The fact is that it is a fairy tale to say that you can make big money doing what you like. Only a lucky few have that option (e.g., hollywood actor). For the rest of us, work is a "daily grind."

[Peter A]

Even Hollywood actor isn't that great. I sure wouldn't want Tom Cruise's life. When you're on top you have the pressures of fame and knowing every next move could be the one where you fall off. Plus you always have young turks gunning for you. Being an actress is even worse as you watch your looks fade away day after day. Being a mid-level sitcom actor sounds like a good gig if you can keep your ambition in check and just enjoy a good life. I would guess the happiest people on earth are successful entrepreneurs. They can truly say they chose their profession and make money at it.

[Richard Hoste hbdbooks.com]

[HS: My blog is in the top 1%, which isn't enough to make money.]

How did you figure out you were in the top 1% of blogs? Looking at the stats, you're ahead of Sailer but behind Auster and Roissy and even running neck and neck with Majority Rights. Are all those people top 1 percent too?

If I were guessing, I would say that the top one percent of blogs was made up of predominately entertainment, celebrity gossip, celebrity blogs, cultural phenomena like Stuff White People Like, etc. and only the most famous political blogs like Huffington Post. Also there's probably stuff out there like blogs on video games and pro wrestling that is way more popular than HBD.

[HS: For every million blogs, 10,000 are in the top 1%. I think my blog is a top 10,000 blog, even if Technorati places it lower.]

[Jacqueline]

Job tasks aren't the only factor -- what about the people?

My job tasks are unexciting, but my coworkers are awesome, and so I sincerely love my job. If I won the lottery I would probably continue to work there to continue to enjoy their company. I've tried not working when it wasn't a financial necessity and I get bored and lonely.

Alas, one day I will have to leave this job for something that pays better. I hope I can find awesome people again.