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Oh, boy, do I have feelings for this book. Errr … and thoughts. One thought is that the data, “38-40% of jobs are bullshit” is inaccurate. When I looked up the stats, the number is one in twenty—much lower.
That said, I’ve had bullshit jobs before, and I’ve known people who have bullshit jobs. Which brings me to another problem with the book. Dr. Graeber believes that bullshit jobs (which he describes as a job where you feel like you do nothing, or you feel what you do is “pernicious”) corrode your soul and your health. I agree with this … sort of … I knew a lot of people who loved their bullshit jobs.
Still, I found it interesting, and it was written from a perspective I don’t normally hear, that of an anarcho-socialist.
Anyway, here’s the blurb:
From David Graeber, the bestselling author of The Dawn of Everything and Debt—“a master of opening up thought and stimulating debate” (Slate)—a powerful argument against the rise of meaningless, unfulfilling jobs…and their consequences.
Does your job make a meaningful contribution to the world? In the spring of 2013, David Graeber asked this question in a playful, provocative essay titled “On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs.” It went viral. After one million online views in seventeen different languages, people all over the world are still debating the answer.
There are hordes of people—HR consultants, communication coordinators, telemarketing researchers, corporate lawyers—whose jobs are useless, and, tragically, they know it. These people are caught in bullshit jobs.
Graeber explores one of society’s most vexing and deeply felt concerns, indicting among other villains a particular strain of finance capitalism that betrays ideals shared by thinkers ranging from Keynes to Lincoln. “Clever and charismatic” (The New Yorker), Bullshit Jobs gives individuals, corporations, and societies permission to undergo a shift in values, placing creative and caring work at the center of our culture. This book is for everyone who wants to turn their vocation back into an avocation and “a thought-provoking examination of our working lives” (Financial Times).