> there are a variety of options between the extremes.
There are a variety of options completely outside of that continuum.
Like, how about a democratically planned economy where we intentionally work on things that actually help society instead of just whatever happens to make the most profit for the current owners?
I think a big part of burnout is that the work we're doing is clearly pointless. I'm stuck writing debugging shitty Android apps all day. Can I please go plant some forests or something?
> I'm stuck writing debugging shitty Android apps all day. Can I please go plant some forests or something?
If this was the status quo, there'd be just as many people thinking "I'm stuck outside doing manual labor planting trees. Can I please spent time doing something mindless sitting at a desk in a climate controlled workspace instead?"
Someone out there is deriving value from the android app you're debugging or else it would not be economically viable to keep paying you to do that job.
> Someone out there is deriving value from the android app you're debugging or else it would not be economically viable to keep paying you to do that job.
Where does this sort of axiomatic economic thinking come from?
Tons of software projects really are completely pointless and will never turn a profit or generate value. And not even in a "the bet was worth making way" -- walk into any Fortune 500 and you'll find whole armies of people doing pointless busy work. Not confined to enterprises, though -- "special projects" are a thing in startups too. I've seen 10% layoffs -- literally workforce decimation -- without a single meaningful change to the economic output of the business. And that's the private sector. Anything defense-related is at least 100x worse in terms of pointless busy-work.
I don't quite understand how these sorts of neo-classical micro-econ axioms have such huge mindshare. Business managers are not omnipotent, and many aren't even competent.
> there'd be just as many people thinking "I'm stuck outside doing manual labor planting trees
Then we could trade jobs for a while. Part of the problem (for us knowledge workers) is that we get pidgeonholed into doing one thing because that's where we have enough experience to convince someone to pay us to work on their thing. Not to mention that switching jobs or taking breaks is more annoying than it ought to be because health insurance and other benefits are tied to employment.
> Someone out there is deriving value from the android app you're debugging
The CEO. Who already has enough money that he could retire if he wanted. I don't think people in general would miss our buggy app if it disappeared tomorrow. I do miss the trees when they disappear, though.
There are a variety of options completely outside of that continuum.
Like, how about a democratically planned economy where we intentionally work on things that actually help society instead of just whatever happens to make the most profit for the current owners?
I think a big part of burnout is that the work we're doing is clearly pointless. I'm stuck writing debugging shitty Android apps all day. Can I please go plant some forests or something?