this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2023
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I often daydream about how society would be if we were not forced by society to pigeon hole ourselves into a specialized career for maximizing the profits of capitalists, and sell most of our time for it.

The idea of creating an entire identity for you around your "career" and only specializing in one thing would be ridiculous in another universe. Humans have so much natural potential for breadth, but that is just not compatible with capitalism.

This is evident with how most people develop "hobbies" outside of work, like wood working, gardening, electronics, music, etc. This idea of separating "hobbies" and the thing we do most of our lives (work) is ridiculous.

Here's how my world could be different if I owned my time and dedicated it to the benefit of my own and my community instead of capitalists:

  • more reading, learning and excusing knowledge with others.
  • learn more handy work, like plumbing and wood working. I love customizing my own home!
  • more gardening
  • participate in the transportation system (picking up shifts to drive a bus for example)
  • become a tour guide for my city
  • cook and bake for my neighbors
  • academic research
  • open source software (and non-software) contributions
  • pick up shifts at a cafΓ© and make coffee, tea and smoothies for people
  • pick up shifts to clean up public spaces, such as parks or my own neighborhood
  • participate in more than one "professions". I studied one type of engineering but work in a completely different engineering. This already proves I can do both, so why not do both and others?

Humans do not like the same thing over and over every day. It's unnatural. But somehow we revolve our whole livelihood around if.

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[–] pjhenry1216@kbin.social 115 points 1 year ago (13 children)

Let's not be confused here. Specialization is what allows for free time. If everyone has to farm and hunt, that's all you'd do. Specialization is a good thing for humanity and diverse institutions and industries to arise.

[–] CrimeDad@lemmy.crimedad.work 35 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes, but if we only have to work on our specializations for 16 hours a week each instead of 40+, we would have a lot more time for other good stuff, whether it's personal development, supporting other specialists, or just hanging out.

[–] Rescuer6394@feddit.nl 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

i've worked for 20h/w and 40h/w. i think 30/32 is a good balance

[–] CrimeDad@lemmy.crimedad.work 10 points 1 year ago

People are entitled to their preferences. They should also be entitled to overtime after some amount of hours per week that's lower than forty, I think whatever it takes to bring the rate of unemployment to practically zero.

[–] Glide@lemmy.ca 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, OPs got the spirit but misses the point. We are being pressured to sell our time at a minimum of 40 hours every week. It's thanks to specialization (and the technology that developed from it) that this quantity of of time is grossly over-allocated. Trade and travel allowed people to create better products in less time, so people were no longer very literally working to live, day-in, day-out. Unfortunately wages are kept low, wealth is kept centralized and culture continues to place value on excess so that we're continually convinced that we "have" to work as many hours as we can find.

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I'd still be a programmer. I'd work on open source projects 100% of the time. It's something I love to do.

Man's got to eat though. I still work in an area that makes the world slightly less shitty though, so it's not all bad.

[–] cubedsteaks@lemmy.today 23 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I'd have more time to become a better artist.

edit: what the fuck was that unwarranted shitty comment.

[–] matcha_addict@lemy.lol 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

dont worry about that other commenter. They're angry that their argument in another comment was argued against, and now they look stupid.

[–] cubedsteaks@lemmy.today 8 points 1 year ago

Thanks. It was so out of left field. Like damn, I've never even posted my art on lemmy for anyone to know.

[–] metaStatic@kbin.social 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)
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[–] coltorl@programming.dev 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Humans do not like the same thing over and over every day.

Speak for yourself, I like routine and being rewarded for working hard.

[–] ComradePorkRoll@lemmy.ml 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Do you really get rewarded for working hard? Every time I've gone above and beyond for my job it becomes and expectation with no increase in pay. There is no reward for us "no skill" jobs that somehow are the very foundation of this god forsaken societal system we uphold.

[–] coltorl@programming.dev 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I’ve left jobs when I don’t get rewarded for hard work. Thankfully we live in a free market that allows me to also freely choose my employer and occupation.

[–] bermuda 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

freely choose my employer and occupation.

As long as you meet the dozens of credentials to work for a place, as well as the 5 to 10 hidden ones they don't tell you about in the job listing or the interview.

[–] coltorl@programming.dev 6 points 1 year ago (6 children)
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[–] AlexWIWA@lemmy.ml 18 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I'd rewrite the game engines for Command & Conquer games so that they could be modernized.

It's a perfectly doable task, but not with the amount of free time I have.

[–] AlexisFR@jlai.lu 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

OpenRA is already a thing, you could contribute to that.

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[–] OceanSoap@lemmy.ml 18 points 1 year ago

I like my job. It's not a hobby, but it also ensures I don't burn out in my hobbies, which happened when I initially tried to make a hobby my job.

[–] Sarazil@kbin.social 15 points 1 year ago

I run a goth night once every other month.
I visit friends quite often whenever I want to.
I get up and start my day when I feel like it.
I play with code and build web toys.
I'm a freelance IT guy. I could, if I wanted to, earn a lot more than I do, but my time is worth more than money. It is possible to do, even in this world where everyone is told that you need a 'career' and to work for a company, although a lot more work is needed to freeing other careers from the obligation of the grind.
Don't give up hope, unionise, demand respect, ~~buy a guillotine,~~ and keep an eye out for a way to get what you need and to contribute to society or your community without signing your life away.

(Yes, some people will never get the opportunity. And that, frankly, pisses me off no end. But don't lose hope until you're dead.)

[–] Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'd do what I'm doing now but I'd be helping hospitals and schools instead of companies.

[–] matcha_addict@lemy.lol 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I feel the same about my job. I love what I do, I just wish it was targeted towards helping my community rather than generating profits for rich capitalists

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[–] luke 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Jesus Christ this post sucks

[–] hoodatninja@kbin.social 16 points 1 year ago (2 children)

If only we had a voting system to express whether we thought a post meaningfully contributed or not!

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[–] matcha_addict@lemy.lol 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm sorry that a harmless question on askLemmy bothers you so much :(

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[–] DogMuffins@discuss.tchncs.de 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think I would travel or wander a lot more. Not in an instagram backpacker kind of way, just in a dawdle from town to town road trippy kind of way.

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[–] hoodatninja@kbin.social 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Produce documentaries, develop a video game

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[–] Fizz@lemmy.nz 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If I wasnt working a job for money I wouldn't be doing anything that contributed to making food or providing infrastructure. What I did with my time would probably be considered useless by society and that's why I'm not doing it as a job currently.

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[–] metaStatic@kbin.social 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

my world could be different if I owned my time

Self ownership is the basis of capitalism and you're already playing the game, you're just playing it bad.

if you're on hourly I want you to ask yourself if you would pay someone else what you earn at work to do whatever you just did in the last hour.
if not why not? did you explicitly set aside this time to be unproductive? do you think people doing better than you let themselves slide like that?

Humans do not like the same thing over and over every day

Speak for yourself, I love having a routine and getting in the zone. Autonomy and Mastery are worth more to me than money.

[–] darq@kbin.social 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

What a nonsense reply. Describing any rest as "slipping".

The number one thing, by FAR, that earns money under capitalism is investment. Not work, not skill, not merit. Just having money to invest and shave off your share of someone else's work.

The "people doing better" actually rest far more than your average worker. They just have money, so they get to make more money even while they are "unproductive".

[–] metaStatic@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I said slide not slip. and managing your time is the takeaway. can't slip, or slide, if you are being intentional about your time.

People who don't think they have the time to do anything are usually not being intentional. you get home from work and kick back with a cold one and that's the whole plan, then the next minute you're back at work again and you don't know where the weekend went.

and if you know how to make money under capitalism without working why exactly aren't you doing that?

[–] nicktron@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Were you too busy doing a capitalism that you forgot to read the comment they made?

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[–] darq@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago

and if you know how to make money under capitalism without working why exactly aren't you doing that?

You cannot be serious.

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[–] DrQuint@lemm.ee 10 points 1 year ago

I would sleep a lot more, that's for sure.

[–] nxdefiant@startrek.website 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'd be that guy that makes all those useless inventions, except they'd be incredibly useful to me and like 2 other people.

[–] matcha_addict@lemy.lol 6 points 1 year ago

That's how many great inventions benefitting the entire world happened :)

[–] sculd 8 points 1 year ago

Reading. I have lots of books I want to read but not enough time / energy to do so.

[–] reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago

Im fortunate. I love my career. I've been doing since I was 12 what I do for a living now at 39. I'd still do what I do if income were a non-issue.

With that being said, I'd probably only do it three days/week or so, being able to pick a more realistic balance between productivity and burnout would be great. I'd also spend that time making something I want, for me, rather than doing what I'm told. I feel like that's significant here as well.

[–] ATQ@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

You can do this right now, OP. If you don’t like living in a society just fuck off into the wilderness and do you. There are enormous swaths of land in this world where nobody will ever bother you. What’s stopping you?

[–] matcha_addict@lemy.lol 17 points 1 year ago (26 children)

Did you read my post? Where did I say that I don't like living in a society? I said the exact opposite.

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[–] greyscale@lemmy.sdf.org 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Where is all this free real estate you're talking of.

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[–] Plibbert@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago

Imma be honest I have no idea. I might legit just sit here and be a leech on society playing video games and watching shows. But I'd like to imagine I would go back to school and try and do freelance repair/maintenance for various things. I just honestly don't know if I'd do enough to consider it a fair contribution to society.

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