Unemployed Fishing(drakemag.com)
drakemag.com
Unemployed Fishing
https://www.drakemag.com/back-issues/2019/summer/2032-unemployed-fishing.html
64 comments
The trouble with corporate jobs is that we tend not to cultivate a social support network and activities outside of it because many of these jobs are a kind of slavish race to the bottom where people compete to show their sacrifices in exchange for managerial favor. Some ways to hedge the (arguably, insane) social risks of your corporate job are, before you are unemployed:
- learn to fish, as the author mentions. Hunting is similar, and good for relationships, as is canoeing, camping, and general outdoorsmanship.
- buy a year+ membership at a cheap gym so you have somewhere to go a few days a week while you are off. The cheaper it is, the more social it will be. Think of it as social and mental health insurance.
- join volunteer, church, or fraternal organizations to develop cheap activity based relationships. if you are a committed atheist, join a secular volunteer organization, and barring those, a theatre or activist group.
- No matter what you hear about others, your severance will be a nasty insult and you will very likely have to spend to hire a lawyer to get what you are owed. Find one now and agree on a rate while you have a job.
- keep lines to recruiters open while you are still employed, even if they are obnoxious. Don't let them know your current/past salary ever, because they will just use your lack of job to pressure you down on the next one. For them to "have your number," literally means being at a disadvantage.
If you are unemployed or just about to be, it's very stressful, but it builds character, and for everyone I know who experiences it, living through it is always better than living in fear of it.
- learn to fish, as the author mentions. Hunting is similar, and good for relationships, as is canoeing, camping, and general outdoorsmanship.
- buy a year+ membership at a cheap gym so you have somewhere to go a few days a week while you are off. The cheaper it is, the more social it will be. Think of it as social and mental health insurance.
- join volunteer, church, or fraternal organizations to develop cheap activity based relationships. if you are a committed atheist, join a secular volunteer organization, and barring those, a theatre or activist group.
- No matter what you hear about others, your severance will be a nasty insult and you will very likely have to spend to hire a lawyer to get what you are owed. Find one now and agree on a rate while you have a job.
- keep lines to recruiters open while you are still employed, even if they are obnoxious. Don't let them know your current/past salary ever, because they will just use your lack of job to pressure you down on the next one. For them to "have your number," literally means being at a disadvantage.
If you are unemployed or just about to be, it's very stressful, but it builds character, and for everyone I know who experiences it, living through it is always better than living in fear of it.
> - No matter what you hear about others, your severance will be a nasty insult and you will very likely have to spend to hire a lawyer to get what you are owed. Find one now and agree on a rate while you have a job.
While it's a nice sentiment for thought, severance pay isn't mandatory in the U.S. and there's no requirement for it in the Fair Labor Standards Act[0]. Severance seems more like a customary courtesy, like tipping.
[0]: https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/wages/severancepay
While it's a nice sentiment for thought, severance pay isn't mandatory in the U.S. and there's no requirement for it in the Fair Labor Standards Act[0]. Severance seems more like a customary courtesy, like tipping.
[0]: https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/wages/severancepay
I don’t think the GP was implying that everyone gets severance. Generally employers are often in legal grey areas when they are letting people go; particularly in cases where there is no legal or policy violation. In these cases they often try to bully you into giving up your rights. Severance is payment for agreeing to waive your right to sue for wrongful termination.
Fair point; severance pay can certainly act as a sort of "hush money". Not to mention how it can be used to keep ex-employees from exposing trade secrets with a competitor in the same industry.
Very wise; excellent advice. Any adult who has faced the prospect of unemployment can probably hear this fairly well, but is there any way to communicate this concept to younger people? I'd have loved to come out of college with a better perspective on what "employment" means for a life.
Thank you. I think the point of an undergrad degree is to produce credulity. My recent comment history has one about about how money is made, and that's the perspective I think young people should have. tl;dr: it's a scale of dependency, labour, time, skill, risk, capital, power.
STEM people are not typically taught negotiations, sales, political science, marketing, or business and we're often given this conceit that we're above all that, which I think keeps us stupid and cheap.
STEM people are not typically taught negotiations, sales, political science, marketing, or business and we're often given this conceit that we're above all that, which I think keeps us stupid and cheap.
> STEM people are not typically taught negotiations, sales, political science, marketing, or business
Yup!
> we're often given this conceit that we're above all that, which I think keeps us stupid and cheap.
I was thinking along these lines some years back after finally realising that (i) I was underpaid; and (ii) I had no idea how to negotiate effectively; and (iii) that there are many opportunities in life to negotiate, and getting better at negotiation from "I don't even recognise that this situation is a negotiation" to "this situation can be negotiated, here's my very awkward and mediocre effort at doing that" would have a much higher return on investment than learning yet another technical or mathematical thing.
> point of an undergrad degree is to produce credulity
I went through a period of suspecting similar things: if there's a STEM education pipeline that products highly specialised technicians and engineers who aren't equipped with knowledge and skills to navigate and exploit a commercial environment or hierarchical political organisations, isn't the pipeline doing what employers might want? Producing very useful and focused and naive "resources" who don't understand their own value. Tools to be applied.
I'm not sure how much I genuinely agree with this. But perhaps some part of it is true, with the STEM pipeline being tuned to serve the interests of employers and universities and government, but not necessarily the people going through it.
If you're thinking along these lines, check out the book "disciplined minds". The author's argument is roughly that the major part of graduate education is political: demonstrating that you can serve the interests of your masters and perform creative and intelligent work on the problems you are assigned, within the constraints you are assigned.
It's a good read but probably far less actionable than cracking open a few books about how to get better at negotiation, or marketing, etc.
Yup!
> we're often given this conceit that we're above all that, which I think keeps us stupid and cheap.
I was thinking along these lines some years back after finally realising that (i) I was underpaid; and (ii) I had no idea how to negotiate effectively; and (iii) that there are many opportunities in life to negotiate, and getting better at negotiation from "I don't even recognise that this situation is a negotiation" to "this situation can be negotiated, here's my very awkward and mediocre effort at doing that" would have a much higher return on investment than learning yet another technical or mathematical thing.
> point of an undergrad degree is to produce credulity
I went through a period of suspecting similar things: if there's a STEM education pipeline that products highly specialised technicians and engineers who aren't equipped with knowledge and skills to navigate and exploit a commercial environment or hierarchical political organisations, isn't the pipeline doing what employers might want? Producing very useful and focused and naive "resources" who don't understand their own value. Tools to be applied.
I'm not sure how much I genuinely agree with this. But perhaps some part of it is true, with the STEM pipeline being tuned to serve the interests of employers and universities and government, but not necessarily the people going through it.
If you're thinking along these lines, check out the book "disciplined minds". The author's argument is roughly that the major part of graduate education is political: demonstrating that you can serve the interests of your masters and perform creative and intelligent work on the problems you are assigned, within the constraints you are assigned.
It's a good read but probably far less actionable than cracking open a few books about how to get better at negotiation, or marketing, etc.
> The author's argument is roughly that the major part of graduate education is political: demonstrating that you can serve the interests of your masters and perform creative and intelligent work on the problems you are assigned, within the constraints you are assigned.
This is usually said as criticism, but I worked wit few people who could not above. It was special kind of hell.
Working with someone who can't serve interests of team, can't work on assigned problems somehow switching to problems nobody needs or can't fit into constrains we have is not all that useful.
This is usually said as criticism, but I worked wit few people who could not above. It was special kind of hell.
Working with someone who can't serve interests of team, can't work on assigned problems somehow switching to problems nobody needs or can't fit into constrains we have is not all that useful.
i can appreciate that: being able to understand and internalise the objectives of the team, org, etc is part of the job, when the job involves deciding what to do and tasks cannot be completely specified.
I know it pretty popular to bash George Mason University these days... But one positive thing is our applied information technology program has courses requiring business skills, ethics and understanding of the global economy and culture. If you paid attention, and listened to the guest speakers they had come out weekly for the senior capstone project lectures, you'd learn quite a lot about navigating the worlds of commerce and government.
it's good to hear that at least one university is making some effort to equip graduates with a more broader view of the world.
i ended up doing mostly pure-math in undergrad -- because i found it interesting, with no view on how it might contribute to a career -- so my naivety is arguably partly self-inflected!
i ended up doing mostly pure-math in undergrad -- because i found it interesting, with no view on how it might contribute to a career -- so my naivety is arguably partly self-inflected!
What I want to read more about are people in industries in steady decline and why they didn't or couldn't get out before the end of the road. And maybe about those who did.
There wasn't a sudden ban on journalism. And the story behind why he stuck around until the end is what interests me.
There wasn't a sudden ban on journalism. And the story behind why he stuck around until the end is what interests me.
Judging by the quality of his writing, I’m going assume he felt it like a calling, stronger than any other.
A. We currently have worse income inequality than in the Gilded Age. It's so bad, we have terms like The 99 Percent to describe the poverty and disempowerment of the vast majority of people.
So there's really no place to go. There are no safe harbors.
B. I left a corporate job in part because I was having nightmares that I was on a sinking ship. I've done freelance work and similar since then.
All things considered, I feel like I made the best choices available to me. But see A above. I'm still not rolling in dough, though I'm no longer homeless.
Go, me.
So there's really no place to go. There are no safe harbors.
B. I left a corporate job in part because I was having nightmares that I was on a sinking ship. I've done freelance work and similar since then.
All things considered, I feel like I made the best choices available to me. But see A above. I'm still not rolling in dough, though I'm no longer homeless.
Go, me.
What else can he do? There's not many high demand industries.
Love his writing style. As for fishing, I use multi-week road trips for the same purpose instead. In this day and age, driving is one of the few remaining activities where you are unable to use a cell phone at the same time, and it really helps to clear my head. Scenery can be pretty amazing in the US, but mostly it's the endless miles, sleeping at rest stops when I'm dog tired, and then endless miles again. It's therapeutic.
Fishing is such a relief from the world, it really is. I've never fully understood why it of all things had such a powerful draw and effect. As a kid it kept me away from the things that tend to trouble you as a kid. Deep in the woods on a river bank, digging through the stones to see what's hatching, tying knots, whittling while your bobber whirls in an eddy. It's an escape.
As an adult I've turned to spearfishing as well. It's an even more immersive escape, loaded with all of its own techniques, tricks, wonders, surprises, and challenges. Getting in the wetsuit is a hassle but no worse than hooking up a boat and getting it in the water. Really, once you spend your first comfortable moments 10-20 meters under water you might wish you never had to come out.
I've always thoroughly enjoyed reading about the satisfaction and joy others get from fishing as well. I guess it's a mix of vicarious experience and a sense of belonging or familiarity.
As for the unemployment... I don't envy anyone for having time away from work due to not having work. It's the worst, and hard to handle if you have a family when it happens. As a developer I've been incredibly fortunate due to work being so readily available, but 2 brief layoffs are probably the most stressful work related experiences I've had. It just feels terrible.
I wish I went fishing when it happened, haha.
As an adult I've turned to spearfishing as well. It's an even more immersive escape, loaded with all of its own techniques, tricks, wonders, surprises, and challenges. Getting in the wetsuit is a hassle but no worse than hooking up a boat and getting it in the water. Really, once you spend your first comfortable moments 10-20 meters under water you might wish you never had to come out.
I've always thoroughly enjoyed reading about the satisfaction and joy others get from fishing as well. I guess it's a mix of vicarious experience and a sense of belonging or familiarity.
As for the unemployment... I don't envy anyone for having time away from work due to not having work. It's the worst, and hard to handle if you have a family when it happens. As a developer I've been incredibly fortunate due to work being so readily available, but 2 brief layoffs are probably the most stressful work related experiences I've had. It just feels terrible.
I wish I went fishing when it happened, haha.
Have you ever played an individual sport like tennis? I get a similar feeling, especially when you’re just in the zone and you can’t seem to make a mistake. Very therapeutic.
I had a couple of sudden bouts of unexpected unemployment (altho it didn't take me long to find new work) & I (mostly) managed to see it as temporary vacation.
Of course I had the advantage of earning enough that I was able to live off of unemployment benefits and savings for a couple months without much worry or compromise to my quality of life.
Of course I had the advantage of earning enough that I was able to live off of unemployment benefits and savings for a couple months without much worry or compromise to my quality of life.
There is something truly therapeutic about fishing. It might be because it helps us connect back with our evolutionary roots - out in nature, focusing on the task at hand to the exclusion of all else, and then experiencing the dopamine rush that comes with a good catch.
I must be weird. I find fishing, sunning on the beach, sitting in a lawn chair, etc., extremely dull, and last about 5 minutes at it.
This was true for me long before the internet :-)
This was true for me long before the internet :-)
Surf casting (fishing off the beach) is as passive as you make it. You can just cast and let it leave, or you can work the water, moving up and down the beach looking for fish.
But there are lots of ways to fish. I enjoy being mobile, looking for fish is part of the fun. And since you generally can't see fish, you have to look for other signs.
See this link for a video on reading the water. It's about trout and streams, but similar ideas apply for lots of other types of fishing (including from shore, wading, and from a boat).
https://youtu.be/X2egNshRU2A
Even if you find them, there is still a physical and intellectual technical component. Can you put your lure on the fish, can you present it, did you choose the right one, etc.
Lots of things are dull of you only invest a minimum amount of effort.
But there are lots of ways to fish. I enjoy being mobile, looking for fish is part of the fun. And since you generally can't see fish, you have to look for other signs.
See this link for a video on reading the water. It's about trout and streams, but similar ideas apply for lots of other types of fishing (including from shore, wading, and from a boat).
https://youtu.be/X2egNshRU2A
Even if you find them, there is still a physical and intellectual technical component. Can you put your lure on the fish, can you present it, did you choose the right one, etc.
Lots of things are dull of you only invest a minimum amount of effort.
Depends on the type fishing and type of fish. Sitting there watching a bobber can get boring. Precisely throwing lures into tight spots when bass fishing is challenging and exciting. Fly fishing is an art, regardless of the type of fish. Offshore fishing is definitely peak fishing excitement IMO, but there is nothing cheap about it.
Let me also add, that the beach is made to surf and/or play games on. Sunning is boring :)
Let me also add, that the beach is made to surf and/or play games on. Sunning is boring :)
> I must be weird. I find fishing, sunning on the beach, sitting in a lawn chair, etc., extremely dull, and last about 5 minutes at it.
I'm the same way, but for fishing it depends on the type of fishing. Bait/lure fishing I tire of quickly. But fly fishing was vastly different, at least the one time I did it. It seemed a bit more technical and required more focus and finesse.
I'm the same way, but for fishing it depends on the type of fishing. Bait/lure fishing I tire of quickly. But fly fishing was vastly different, at least the one time I did it. It seemed a bit more technical and required more focus and finesse.
Fly fishing for trout is the standard, but I strongly recommended getting some poppers and trying for bass/pan fish. Same fly fishing engagement but more strikes.
> Fly fishing for trout is the standard, but I strongly recommended getting some poppers and trying for bass/pan fish. Same fly fishing engagement but more strikes.
Thanks, I'll see if I can give that a shot. I have a fly rig mostly put together, but I need to update the flies and get new line (it all belonged to a long-dead great uncle).
Thanks, I'll see if I can give that a shot. I have a fly rig mostly put together, but I need to update the flies and get new line (it all belonged to a long-dead great uncle).
I think the dullness is a feature, not a bug. For me, these activities are a time of emptying the mind of things that are "busy", self reflection, etc. I find it a very important part of my mental health.
There are several kinds of fishing, and most of them are very active - not at all like sunning on a beach. Favourite one is more like hiking.
I went crabbing for the first time recently and it was just ludicrously enjoyable.
Oh my, he has a way with words. This is a delight and I'm only a few paragraphs in.
In the comment section was “learn to code.” Totally Insensitive... and not that I agree, but nonetheless close to the point. The consolidation and automation of news is here to stay, and not just journalists/writers — all of us, in fact — need to be very careful to learn the new skills it takes to compete in an increasingly automated world.
The reason why that person said "learn to code" to the journalist was because when coal miners were losing their jobs, many articles were written condescendly implying that miners should "learn to code" and abandon the profession they've spent their entire lives in. Some examples [1]. It's less of an insensitive position and more of a reminder that what goes around comes around, that writing articles isn't any more secure of a profession than mining coal, and to not expect sympathy when you didn't show it to others who were previously in the same situation. I'm not saying that this writer was insensitive towards coal miners, but this is the sentiment behind the phrase.
[1] https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DyC-qmDWkAAKJvU?format=jpg&name=...
[1] https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DyC-qmDWkAAKJvU?format=jpg&name=...
As someone who does code, I think most people would be worse off by learning to code.
It can be a rewarding job for someone who enjoys constantly solving crazy puzzles but, even for those who love to code, it can still be a miserable experience. Most people aren't particularly grabbed by the ability to control what a computer does the way that we "geeks" are. They would be bored out of their minds the second they have to do Fizz Buzz, which is why a lot of people never get off the ground with coding in the first place. The starting salary is barely livable; the national average is ~65k, and though I now make six figures, I started in the low 40ks. You won't get rich quick, perhaps at all, and unless you're talented or pick the right technologies, you might be stuck making mediocre pay while suffering the bad code of other learn-to-coders who are in it to strike it rich. After about 4 years, you begin to realize that your job is just like every other job, and that is to clean up the mess made by someone else. Unless you're part of the <10% that actually builds brand new stuff, your purpose is to be frequently astonished and make sense of the chaos. How fun.
Some people enjoy all of that, but it's a fallacy to believe that anyone could do it if they _just learned_. More people aren't coding(or choosing unemployment over coding) for the same reason that I and many of us didn't learn to become aerospace engineers, or CEOs, or HVAC technicians. Most of us probably wouldn't be that good at those things because we don't all have the drive for them, and I don't think that having more people who are mediocre at their jobs is a good thing for anyone.
It can be a rewarding job for someone who enjoys constantly solving crazy puzzles but, even for those who love to code, it can still be a miserable experience. Most people aren't particularly grabbed by the ability to control what a computer does the way that we "geeks" are. They would be bored out of their minds the second they have to do Fizz Buzz, which is why a lot of people never get off the ground with coding in the first place. The starting salary is barely livable; the national average is ~65k, and though I now make six figures, I started in the low 40ks. You won't get rich quick, perhaps at all, and unless you're talented or pick the right technologies, you might be stuck making mediocre pay while suffering the bad code of other learn-to-coders who are in it to strike it rich. After about 4 years, you begin to realize that your job is just like every other job, and that is to clean up the mess made by someone else. Unless you're part of the <10% that actually builds brand new stuff, your purpose is to be frequently astonished and make sense of the chaos. How fun.
Some people enjoy all of that, but it's a fallacy to believe that anyone could do it if they _just learned_. More people aren't coding(or choosing unemployment over coding) for the same reason that I and many of us didn't learn to become aerospace engineers, or CEOs, or HVAC technicians. Most of us probably wouldn't be that good at those things because we don't all have the drive for them, and I don't think that having more people who are mediocre at their jobs is a good thing for anyone.
65k is barely liveable now? What percent of the US do you think makes over that amount?
You're right. You can live on that amount, perhaps well depending on how and where you situate yourself. It's basically middle-income. How far that income will get you in a place like San Francisco, Los Angeles, or New York is another thing.
And sitting at a desk in a heated/air conditioned office is not just like every other job - especially those that involve cleaning.
But I agree that if you don't enjoy programming, you're probably not going to be especially good at it.
But I agree that if you don't enjoy programming, you're probably not going to be especially good at it.
A dozen years from now, I'll be reading on HN(Health insurers' New - or a message board for professionals of some other parasitic tumour which still has a few years of decent living in our economy) a comment about how the consolidation, commodification, and semi-automation of programming is here to stay, and that not just software engineers - but all of us, in fact - need to be very careful to learn the new skills it takes to compete in an increasingly automated world.
Why one of those new skills is never 'march your politicians out, and make them mandate a 25-hour work week, to guarantee that anyone capable of working is able to find moderately dignified and remunerative work', is a question that will continue to haunt me.
Why one of those new skills is never 'march your politicians out, and make them mandate a 25-hour work week, to guarantee that anyone capable of working is able to find moderately dignified and remunerative work', is a question that will continue to haunt me.
If a job is guaranteed by the government under all circumstances, I think you’ll find the worst of the worst in many cases for co-“workers”.
Many people would prefer to work 50+ hours/week for 15-20 years rather than 25 hours/week for 40-50 years.
Many people would prefer to work 50+ hours/week for 15-20 years rather than 25 hours/week for 40-50 years.
How many people working 50 hours a week are being compensated such that they can retire in 15-20 years? I’d guess vanishingly few.
Very few for sure. Even if it were only 1 person, I would still object to a government mandate to bar that.
1. Mandate 1.5x overtime pay for any hour worked over 25, and companies will very quickly be incentivised to hire more people, instead of overworking the ones they have.
2. You'd rather take all the social ills of 30-40% of the population being out of work, or doing shitty gig economy jobs?
2. You'd rather take all the social ills of 30-40% of the population being out of work, or doing shitty gig economy jobs?
I’d happily pay a good SWE 40 hours for 35 hours of work. Less coordination and a smaller comms network is a win. Good SWEs would happily take that deal as they’d be making 4x the median instead of 2.5x the median and could live better and save more.
I don’t believe in restricting freedom of employees to work. If that means the hardest working and most skilled live meaningfully better than the median or 10th percentile, then yes I’m totally ok with that.
I don’t believe in restricting freedom of employees to work. If that means the hardest working and most skilled live meaningfully better than the median or 10th percentile, then yes I’m totally ok with that.
Just...I mean, really?
You have to feed the troll ("orange man") from a different website? It's so irritating that this shit still needs explained to people.
You have to feed the troll ("orange man") from a different website? It's so irritating that this shit still needs explained to people.
"I hit the wilds of Prince George’s County, forgotten fishing trails with jungle undergrowth and hand-liner litter where catfish-seeking Central Americans seem to have constructed altars of beer-can empties to the Lords of Modelo."
When I was living in Piscataway, NJ, I used to roam along Raritan River during the bad period of my life. I used to see lots of central Americans who fish there. I hardly saw any one who is fully employed (40 years a week, with benefits). Just undocumented workers, and those who are out of luck.
When I was living in Piscataway, NJ, I used to roam along Raritan River during the bad period of my life. I used to see lots of central Americans who fish there. I hardly saw any one who is fully employed (40 years a week, with benefits). Just undocumented workers, and those who are out of luck.
There's a great horror novel called The Fisherman by John Langan that heavily involves fishing and the catharthic solitude it can bring, even (or especially) in times of tragedy or stress. I highly recommend it, but besides that, this piece reinforces to me that the author of The Fisherman was conveying some wider and real truth in that. Coupled with beautiful scenery and good weather, fishing can become transcendental somehow.
Gathering wild fruits and spearfishing are my favorite things to do when I'm needing some reassurance that I am going to be okay.
Sounds a lot like cycling and cyclists. We call it "funemployment".
This sounds more like sabbatical.
I would invite everyone here to get into fishing. It's an amazing sport and pastime.
I'm reminded of a monologue (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5zShnoU5GY) by an Italian actor. It's called, The Story of a Broken Man. This is my, more or less literal, translation.
I'm reminded of a monologue (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5zShnoU5GY) by an Italian actor. It's called, The Story of a Broken Man. This is my, more or less literal, translation.
This is the story of a man broken by power, commitments, and responsibilities.
I've been thinking about how many years it has been since I've last gone fishing.
I used to love fishing so much, but I don't go anymore.
Perhaps, I had more important things to do, even though right now I couldn't tell you which.
I haven't been back.
We always have more important things to do that don't make us feel better,
as if feeling better wasn't important enough.
When I used to fish, I was so excited that I would wake up before the alarm went off.
Actually, I was the one waking up the alarm. Wake uuup!
And you're there fishing and you are alone, and if you're alone, you'll be at one with yourself,
you don't think about anything else anymore.
You don't think about having to pay the mortgage, or about the current war.
You don't think about having to pay the mortgage to fund the current war.
You hear a gentle, polite voice
A voice we've all heard at least once in our life; a voice from within that tells you...
hey, hey...
You're so lucky!
I'm so lucky... I'm so lucky!
To me, fishing is like washing, a baptism.
The water of the river, if you let it work, will take away all your thoughts
and perhaps even all your sins.
Including the original sin which is the one that pisses me off the most, pure judicial harassment.
The water of the river, if you let it work, will wash away all your thoughts
and perhaps even all your sins and put you back into the world anew,
it fixes everything for you.
And so I thought, let's give a fishing rod to all these people who are paralyzed by power.
Let's give them the possibility to be alone with themselves,
let's help them forget that they're irreplaceable.
It will help them. It will help us.
Fishing might seem a small and trivial thing, but it's a return to simple things,
to the fundamentals we are losing.
Well, fishing gave me a great chance to hear that polite voice,
that gentle voice, that voice that tells you...
Hey, you're so lucky!
I'm so lucky, I'm so lucky!
We're so lucky, we are so lucky!
But...
But every time I hear that voice I'm a little ashamed and I'm almost embarrassed.
So then I thought, we must be really messed up if we are ashamed of feeling good.
Maybe this is why I'm broken, perhaps this is why I don't go fishing,
because I'm afraid of realizing that if I want...
if I really want...
I can feel good.Wow. Thank you for sharing that.
Thank you for your encouraging comment. It motivated me to make it into an actual video: https://youtu.be/4aK6_0psCW4
In one paragraph:
>85 percent of workers worldwide hate their jobs
>Anything that restores hope becomes worth the exercise.
In other words: Many may hate their livelihoods, but liberation can be scary.
Personally, I was once of the benefit of having mediocre tech skills and an employer who paid ridiculously well for them. But when I started having problems with stalking, break-ins and intentional ill will, they told me to just leave. Obviously, a nightmare situation in life.
The journey since has led me around the world on experiences I'd never have had being stuck in office buildings and airports, and I actually wouldn't trade them. And while I wouldn't wish tyranny on anyone else, with a certain mindset you can look evil and misfortune in the face and decide you are not going to have your fate decided by it. I suspect that even without living on the receiving end of psychopathy, this is still the worst part of unemployment for many: the hopelessness in having your fate be determined by what can seem like external forces.
>85 percent of workers worldwide hate their jobs
>Anything that restores hope becomes worth the exercise.
In other words: Many may hate their livelihoods, but liberation can be scary.
Personally, I was once of the benefit of having mediocre tech skills and an employer who paid ridiculously well for them. But when I started having problems with stalking, break-ins and intentional ill will, they told me to just leave. Obviously, a nightmare situation in life.
The journey since has led me around the world on experiences I'd never have had being stuck in office buildings and airports, and I actually wouldn't trade them. And while I wouldn't wish tyranny on anyone else, with a certain mindset you can look evil and misfortune in the face and decide you are not going to have your fate decided by it. I suspect that even without living on the receiving end of psychopathy, this is still the worst part of unemployment for many: the hopelessness in having your fate be determined by what can seem like external forces.
If you don't have the means, it's not really "liberation". We are only nominally "free". You have to pay real estate taxes even if you do absolutely nothing, never get out of the house, and don't use any infrastructure or services. And if you don't, you'll very quickly find yourself under the bridge. My fantasy (which my wife doesn't share) is to one day find a place so deep in the boonies that no government official would even know about it, and live there Agafia Lykova style with no connection to the outside world. I doubt places like that exist in the US anymore. But they do exist in other countries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agafia_Lykova
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agafia_Lykova
Not so attractive once you need medical attention, which most people will at some point. Also, lots of hard work.
> In 2014, she wrote a letter that was published online, requesting anyone to come to her home to be her helper as her "health is waning".
I wonder if anyone came
I wonder if anyone came
I wonder if it's part of the social contract that everything society provided to get you here, one of the many payments is you have to stick around and be part of society for the next young you.
I'm thinking about: what would happen if droves of people fled into the forest to live. Could society function without them? How many?
I'm thinking about: what would happen if droves of people fled into the forest to live. Could society function without them? How many?
I'm pretty sure it would still function. If nothing else they aren't a drag on societal resources anymore. If society is so useful, it should only be better off when people leave for the greener pastures or Siberian tundra.
My main issue is not with societal contract. It's with the notion that we're somehow "free" when we're most certainly not free. Stop paying the state and men with guns will show up on your door step and take your shit. That doesn't sound like freedom to me.
My main issue is not with societal contract. It's with the notion that we're somehow "free" when we're most certainly not free. Stop paying the state and men with guns will show up on your door step and take your shit. That doesn't sound like freedom to me.
> I'm pretty sure it would still function. If nothing else they aren't a drag on societal resources anymore. If society is so useful, it should only be better off when people leave for the greener pastures or Siberian tundra.
A lot of these people would come crawling back to the civilization begging for help if their life depended on it. Which it probably will as they get older and sick. On a large scale, millions of people who contributed nothing to the society, but then demand expensive medical help would not work well.
A lot of these people would come crawling back to the civilization begging for help if their life depended on it. Which it probably will as they get older and sick. On a large scale, millions of people who contributed nothing to the society, but then demand expensive medical help would not work well.
Most would not last very long I agree. But I don't think that those that find the hermit existence more to their liking (and can sustain such an existence for an extended period of time) would "come crawling back" or anything like that. Once my kid is out of the house, I don't really care about not kicking the bucket a little sooner if by doing so I could live out my last decade or two in peace and without having to deal with the daily stream of bovine manure that "civilization" entails.
Quick death in old age is one of the better scenarios. Worse things are: chronic pain, slowly losing ability to function (be it neurological or just joints giving up etc.) and also witnessing the same things in your spouse. Traditional cultures deal with it to a degree by children taking care of sick/senile parents, but here it won’t be the case.
Fair. And as was suggested, there's parts of the world where if you don't want all those government and societal benefits, you can totally just fuck off into a forest somewhere. I'm pretty sure you can do that up here in Canada but there's lots of ways that can kill you. It is a pretty romantic concept, I'll admit.
It was outdoors, physical, and cheap. It was art and science, and a moment where skill and control could lead to accomplishment. It was solitude, and a moment away from the internal stress of thinking of what you were going to do next, how you were going to cover bills, or even worse; talking to wife/parents/friends about those same things.
In the end I was fine, and in some ways I am grateful for that time. It gave me a healthy dose of perspective, and a certain amount of self confidence that I now know how to find additional work/clients if I need to. Getting knocked down sucks, but looking back after a successful climb back up is something I wish everyone could experience.