Thoughts on Work

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Are you Jobless/unemployed?

Everyone I speak to when they are giving me advice for job applications inevitably says one thing: More focus, more direction.

What do they really mean by this?

It seems that the meaning behind this harmless and general advice is this: Find out what position (such as CEO, etc) you want to be, and then become a one-track mindless drone attempting to achieve that goal or die trying. Meanwhile do not dare to look at the big picture, or standard of living or anything else.

Example, a person we shall name A wants to be a physicist. Then the expectation found amongst people I am writing this against is that A will spend hours on end reading physics and will eat, sleep, breathe, think and shit physics with no room for anything else except social skills and a basic working general knowledge focusing on current affairs.

This type of one track mind does not work for me. My field is not my one and only reason to continue breathing the polluted air. I have varied interests and passions which are equally strong. The only thing that sets my career above others is the earning factor. Finances dictate that.

However it does not mean that one should conform to society and become a mindless drone just to get a job and then stay in it till retirement. Why should one? Why can one not broaden their horizons, and work on all their goals simultaneously? Simply because society demands that one should be a Master of a single trade? Simply because society fears ‘Jack of all’ trades? Why can one not be multi-disciplinary (example a chemical mechanical sustainability renewable energy engineer poet martial artist philosopher blogger in one, all in equal measure)? Why can one not be just above average in several trades rather than being a master of one and zilch in the rest?

This fear of different that the society holds so dear has strangled the rise of ‘polymaths’ (read people who were close to masters of several sciences and arts simultaneously). Today I have seen several people deny the very concept of polymaths claiming that any field is now so large that no one could possibly be a polymath, but don’t they realize the basic principles of any field are the same regardless the increment in detail.

So why does one have to conform to being a mindless drone targeted in a single direction? Why does one have to sell their interests, passions, mind, body and soul to land a job which doesn’t pay well and instead mires one all sorts of ill-health?

Over time, I have known people who started out their 9am-5pm perfectly well and according to the contract. In the end one and all ended up working at least 14 hours a day thanks to mobile phones and now smart phones. They work from the moment they are awake till the moment they fall asleep exhausted. They no longer have more than a handful of hours every week to spend with family. Family emergencies are understood and time off given, but frowned up on due to ‘all that time spent not working’. Even considering 2 hours a day of socializing on facebook and other social media, this lack of time for self and lack of face time with people is hindering the natural health and order of everyone. Sitting for long hours as is required in the modern world for work is not natural for the human body and hence so many diseases have been conclusively linked to it in one way or another.

But to jump to the end as I can’t type very long while hanging upside down. Why does one have to be a mindless single direction drone just to be able to land a job? Why can’t one be creative and combine all their interests when and as they require to do a task when one does land a job?

Personally I feel suffocated with the need of the industry to smother all my other things and focus only on one! It seems my role model has become Phunsukh Wangdu from 3 Idiots an engineering genius who wanted to liberate knowledge from the stranglehold of the world trying to win a race it is running alone towards its own death. The other inspiring person would be Kaveh who is a musician, an electrical engineer, a thinker and a sustainability & renewable energy engineer. And Elyas who is a civil engineer, a philosopher, a potential scholar in some religious matters and a thinker. They do not just exist in life, they live it! 

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