> I want a job without unnecessary friction, without interpersonal drama, even one that's low stress.
Doesn't matter if the actual job is filling glasses of water or building rockets; as long as I can focus on it for 100% of my working hours, I'd see it as an "easy" job.
I get what you’re saying, but I wouldn’t say easy is the opposite of challenging. As a quick example, I would surely find a day job of manual labor harder and significantly less enjoyable than a day job of software engineering challenges.
(And please note that I do not mean to imply that there are no challenges in manual labor or that software engineering is more important.)
They’re just hypothetical examples, not meant to apply to everyone.
Re:Mario Meets Pareto
by Georgelemental on Thursday August 06, 2026 @11:55AM
(#49198413)
Well then, you would prioritize "fulfilling" in your utility function. Others might make a different choice; e.g. a single parent who needs to save time and energy for family might prefer "easy" at the cost of boring drudgery
I think what I am saying is more that "easy" is too broad a vector to optimize along because it combines too much - both good and bad. I don't want a job without challenges of any kind.
But I definitely want a job without stress, danger, or physical strain on my body. Perhaps I am just looking for a similar word which doesn't imply anything about the complexity of the task at hand.
Re:Mario Meets Pareto
by StilesCrisis on Thursday August 06, 2026 @11:46AM
(#49198257)
It sounds like you're saying "easy" and "fulfilling" cannot coexist, and obviously they are in tension, but a Pareto frontier still exists there.
Felt like covert advertisements.
Re:Mario Meets Pareto
by jpfromlondon on Thursday August 06, 2026 @12:41PM
(#49199075)
what you choose for the dimensions is arbitrary, they only chosen thusly to prove the point.
I don't think I've ever seen an example of pareto that wasn't pseudo scientific drivel.
Maybe instead of "easy" what they really meant that axis to convey is something more like "low stress" or "not frustrating"
I think the author didn't want to go too in depth for the sake of simplicity, very similar to the blog post itself, which just hit the surface. That being said, many more dimensions can be made out of easy - when I think of easy, I think of technically easy, management easy, drama levels, west coast nice vs east coast nice easy, etc... Depending on the individual they could probably split the word easy alone into 5 to 15 dimensions.
"We're often faced with similar trade-offs. You want a meal that's both cheap and delicious? A job that's both well-paid, easy, and fulfilling?"
I really don't feel like "easy" is a dimension I wish to optimize for in a job. It almost feels opposite to what I've actually optimized for - since for me a fulfilling job usually means full of deep technical challenges. I want a job without unnecessary friction, without interpersonal drama, even one that's low stress. But definitely not easy.