Think your job sucks?

link in case it isnt showing: http://i.imgur.com/7BYTm.jpg

dteowner said:

If we take this as truth rather than yet another empty ivory tower platitude, then how do you justify your ongoing campaign for equality (bring up the bottom by stealing from the top)? Your entire structure is based on comparisons and you both recommend and take actions based on those very comparisons.

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First of all, it might be helpful if you learned how to think objectively. Imagine that people actually mean what they say, rather than somehow wanting to appear as something they don't actually think they are. It's not interesting for me to try and "convince you" that I mean what I say, but for the actual exchange of opinions - we have to at least assume we mean what we say, or it's a waste of time for both of us.

Once you understand how that's helpful when communicating, then you might begin to actually read what the people you previously responded to with aggression and the "fill-in-the-blanks" attitude for all those words you really don't care to read, you will find that some of what I say makes sense - at least in some way.

My suggestion is that we share everything equally, because not everyone has what he/she needs. Once that is established, we can stop bothering about what other people have (ideally what they need) - because we all have our needs met. That's the theory.

Yes, I suggest "taking from the top" - not because of any actual comparison, but because that's the only place to take from. I'm not against the concept of comparing in its entirety. I think comparing what you have to what others have, as the sole basis for any need - is very unhealthy for us all. That's what I mean.

If we could somehow meet the needs of the entire populace, I wouldn't care about where any surplus went. The idea, though, is that people would stop caring when they understood that they didn't really need all those things - because happiness is about something else.

Just a theory.

Sounds to me like you're talking out your ass, although it's very pretty and uses lots of syllables.

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Of course that's what it sounds like. You sound like your words should matter to me in a way that would make me think about whether you have a good point, and they will when you start communicating as I suggest above.

Be nice boys it is Christmas soon!

I'm always nice

DArtagnan said:

I feel that way (though I typically feel bad that others are worse off), and I understand that other people feel better about their jobs when they hear this sort of thing.

What I don't understand, is that you're letting a feeling guide you towards the statement "I should feel better about my job."

When I feel bad for others, I don't really think of it as a guide about what's right for myself - or that it should somehow restrict what I'm doing - if I'm convinced I'm doing the right thing.

So, if I think something is genuinely wrong with my job - I don't think it's a good idea to accept it just because there are more things wrong with jobs held by people in other places.

It is entirely possible that a job can be crap, even if another job is ten times worse.

However, if your job REALLY is good and you're happy with it - then of course you should feel "good" about it. But I don't see why you should need to compare it to that of another. But that's how we differ.

That's actually the crux of my point. Almost everything that's wrong with the world is based on the fact that we compare what we have to what others have. I think we should compare what we have to what we need, and only care what others have when it prevents everyone from having what they need.

See my point?

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I do, though I think you are over-thinking things. All I was meaning to convey was a momentary relief after a stressful day — "others have it much worse, maybe things aren't that big of a deal after all." I have a tendency to get swallowed up in my own world sometimes, where the frustrations of the day feel very large and significant. So it helps to get some perspective. It's like what I get when I look up in the night sky sometimes — "it's not that big of a deal." Just a momentary perspective shift and relief from stress because I'm taking the matter less seriously, that's all.

What I don't understand, is that you're letting a feeling guide you towards the statement "I should feel better about my job."

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I believe what I said was "I should complain less about my job," something like that (i.e., I was talking about my behavior, not my feelings). I know you can't should/ought feelings into or out of existence, so I wouldn't be telling myself I ought to feel differently than I do (e.g., love a job I hate, in your example).

I don't see anything misguided about using feelings to guide moral choice, btw; I do it all the time. In this case, my sense that other people had it worse generated a feeling of compassion, which made me a bit embarrassed to be taking my (comparatively puny) stresses as so significant.

Just to clarify, I like my job. I find it rewarding, challenging, and meaningful. It uses my strengths, I work with good people, and it pays well. I learn a lot and have grown as a person because of it. I'm grateful for my job. I just had a stressful day, that's all.

Thanks for the clarification