I like it! Life's too serious and people need some chaotic ambiguity to spice it up.
> Don't work hard. Try to reduce your productivity.
Sounds good. Most people aren't as productive as they think they are, imho. I'd rather not buy into their facade and just be as productive as I need to be when I need to be!
> Don't work long hours. Reduce your working week to the minimum necessary. Most university graduates earn enough to live comfortably on 10 or 20 hours work per week.
Eh, I don't know where you live, but 10-20 hours of work would be a straight path to homelessness. Unless you mean actual hours of productive work (in a nominal 40 hour work week). Then it's a good target.
> Have less stuff. Go outside more, even if it's to play Pokemon Go.
Completely agree. Going outside in the summer and staying inside (a suburban home) has changed my life for the better more than any other single thing.
> Do things for other people.
Any suggestions? What do you think most people would like done for them?
> Seek to abolish the existing world order.
I think the world order is doing a pretty good job in that on its own.
Seems like abolishing world orders takes a lot of work. At least more than ten hours per week.
If you want to abolish something, at least make a suggestion with what you want to replace it.
Odd in a good way. Yes, let's smash capitalism, but let's not replace it with a more oppressive system, as often happens in revolutions.
This belongs to point 4: "do things for other people". Doing things for others often works best when joining existing efforts. Many projects with a social agenda don't have enough funds or supporters, because they operate outside of the simple profit model.
You will find a lot of meaning and joy in giving, in focusing on the well-being of others. Your own well-being will follow.
Yes to 3, 4 and 6! 5 Never hurts.
With great power comes great responsibility.
There are many people even in developed countries[1] who need help of those who made it through.
[1] http://slatestarcodex.com/2015/12/24/how-bad-are-things/
1 & 2 are different for everyone. I get an energy boost from working a certain amount of really productive hours during the week. Be self-aware, meditate, and identify the symptoms leading up to burnout. Err on the side of caution when it comes to preventing exhaustion, but let yourself binge on productivity if you're excited about the work you're doing. After you're done with that project, if you have a chance, take some time off and do something completely different. Surround yourself with people, opportunities and environments that make you excited to take a break.
I've never been happier and more clear-headed than I've been since I stopped using pretty much all social media (except Snapchat with close family).
By the way, we need more people working on #6.
I live in Europe where self employement is not common but the most happiest friends of mine are all somehow self employed.
If people own essentially all the livable land on the planet, then there isn't really a way to retreat from society to live on your own terms. The owner of the land will eventually stop you from using it. So in a sense, you're being forced to participate in a human society to some degree, and forced to provide benefit back to that society. Consequences for not doing so usually end up to be having some form of violence or another done to you.
But when it comes to an actual contract, willingly signed, then "oh but you have to sign to survive". Well yes, except I don't. I can go live in the middle of nowhere and live off the land. You try doing that with the anything state-related, and then tell me how voluntary it is.
</rant>
>> A free man sells the results of his work. A free man cleans someone's house and bills him when the work is done. A free man drives passengers from the airport to their home and bills them when they get there. A free man creates a software module and bills the client when it's ready. A free man translates a document and bills per page. A free man cooks a cake and bills for it.
A free man sells results, not time.
Also, a free man takes care of the food and security on his or her own.
Is it more risky? Yes. Is it more stressful? Yes. But that's what freedom is about.
Source: http://www.yegor256.com/2015/07/21/hourly-pay-modern-slavery...
Of course it is optional, because no one is holding a gun to your head, right?
But "everybody knows" that 1. if you don't work, you'll sooner or later (perhaps sooner!) be homeless and 2. homelessness can lead to sudden, violent death.
Just because the trigger and the barrel are far apart doesn't mean it isn't a gun.
Having a job is the cost of living in society. It sucks and needs improvement, but it is not as bad as slavery where you have no choice and not much gain.
In other words, we are born into debt and must work all our lives to pay off that debt. This is true in so many ways, and makes what we're talking about amount to at best a kind of bonded child labor.
You don't have to think of it as slavery, but it's very very far from COMPLETELY OPTIONAL. There is no deserted island to live on!! There are no guarantees of universal housing, or healthcare, or much else that is needed to survive. Until there are, working vs. not working can never be a real choice. The working class by definition must work in order to live.
It might take some work, but it seems possible to me.
A person either needs to use his parent's cash or to work for a number of years and save before leaving. The "choice" isn't available to him until that happens, so either his parents must work to purchase their child's freedom, or he must work to purchase it himself. In either case this is one of the very definitions of slavery.
There is no living outside of society, outside of private property and the rule of law. There is no real choice here.
This is sort of a proxy conversation about money. I'd like to point out that manufacturing your own money from scratch is a good way to get shot.
The majority of people need to work if they want to survive, that's true. So "jobs" aren't voluntary. But "a job" is. You don't have to pick plants out in a field if you don't want to. If you don't like your position, or boss, or pay, you can quit and look for work elsewhere. Or even have multiple jobs!
A slave doesn't get to say "This other company is nicer and pays better, so I'm leaving here and going there instead." But you can.
Thing is, neither do most people.
SELECT TOP 1 job,residence
FROM jobs JOIN residences
WHERE jobs.pay > residences.rent
ORDER BY jobs.pay DESC, residences.rent ASC
AND jobs.category NOT IN ('murder','prostitution')
AND residences.crime_factor < 0.4
But that doesn't change the fact that LOTS of people believe in their hearts that they have absolutely no choice but to continue doing exactly what they are doing.
I'd hazard the guess that almost all of us have actually removed WHERE predicates because during the initial searches (back in late childhood), zero rows were returned. Predicates like
jobs.category = 'helping_people'
residences.climate = 'tropical'
Why exactly is it so hard to survive without a job, in 2016? I mean, physically. You need air and water and food and shelter. Those are listed in decreasing order of necessary frequency.
Seems to me that the problem is rent and the social framework that enforces eviction via violence--even if the space isn't otherwise being used.
I, for one, would not die without a job--not from starvation. But I would eventually be arrested, beat up, stripped of my possessions, etc, and that would eventually lead to death. The jobless don't die--they are killed.
Slavery.
> Why exactly is it so hard to survive without a job, in 2016?
Why should it not be, for a sufficiently broad definition of "job"?
> [Suppose] we are enslaved by the
> existence of personal property ...
> [Maybe we are enslaved] by the
> existence of society, in general.
This topic is a hobby of mine.
>> for men change their rulers willingly, hoping to better themselves [...] they are deceived, because they afterwards find by experience they have gone from bad to worse
Not being a slave means not having a ruler.
I ate a banana once. I will die some day. Bananas are guns.
That market economy is running only on voluntary trade is one of the biggest and weirdest misconception that's being spread. Most of the transactions we make are ones we cannot reasonably choose not to make. We can at best choose the vendor we're dealing with.
But let's suppose that force is involved in a market economy. I would agree that it should be there. And its because I'm not from a wealthy background. I've worked with the people that would benefit from this kind of change, and a large majority of them would waste it.
I recommend:
1. Don't work hard. Try to reduce your productivity.
2. Don't work long hours. Reduce your working week to the minimum necessary. Most university graduates earn enough to live comfortably on 10 or 20 hours work per week.
3. Have less stuff. Go outside more, even if it's to play Pokemon Go.
4. Do things for other people.
5. Try to lead an innovative life. Don't wear a tie.
6. Seek to abolish the existing world order.