Comments on: What do you do for a living?

By: JamieO

JamieO — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 21:55:40 +0000

If you want to appear all wise and stoic, you could memorize this passage which is a Yiddish proverb about Foolish Behaviour but told in such a way that you could re-use it to challenge your families' perception that working by the clock is the best way to use your time on this planet. You know…. 'eff with 'em a bit.

"A fool has a fine world."

The harder we strive to avoid working, the more flak we take from the unenlightened majority who actually think that work is important. We Men Who Do Next to Nothing know that although the grasshopper and the ant lead very different lives – one a creature of leisure, the other a creature of endless toil – they come to the same end, either squashed under somebody's boot or fried by a kid with a magnifying glass. So why work so hard? Why work at all?

So some people call us fools. Why? Because we don't have a six-figure salary, a stock portfolio, or furniture in our apartment? But while we're gorging on Little Debbie cakes and perusing the new swimsuit edition, what are all those wise guys doing? They're working. So we must ask ourselves: ourselves: Who is the fool, and who is the wise man?

The moral of the story, "What good is furniture if you're too busy to sit on it?"

By: Jonathan Street

Jonathan Street — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 20:27:01 +0000

wwstewart, except for that and the other three (can anyone find more?) errors.

I'm lucky in that I'm primarily a full time student. In theory how I spend my days should be easy to explain. In practice after six years pursuing my university education, when the norm is three, it is getting harder and harder.

I think there are two issues here. Firstly the idea of being paid to study is difficult to get across (and you John Leschinski, imagine being paid to design websites. How extraordinary!). Secondly, the longer I spend in university the more specialised my area of expertise becomes.

It is rare that people understand what it is we do. Then, even after lengthy explanation (filled with many ummm's and ahhh's from us as we try and dumb down our descriptions) we have to get across the notion that we can even make a prosperous and fulfilling career out of what we do.

I wish you luck. Though if your family is anything like mine it won't be enough

By: wwstewart

wwstewart — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 18:42:20 +0000

Very true. Good post…

except for this…

"It’s probably partly my fault for not having the patients to explain what I do till they understand, but it’s not easy to quantify for everyone."

By: Vincent

Vincent — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 16:58:06 +0000

Why not just have a laugh with your family about the fact that you get people to give you money because you know how to write really good letters to the public? To them it may seem that all the people whom are paying you are pretty silly to give you money for that reason, but as you might say, it's money and that your not really complaining… you enjoy it really?

There's my 2 cents for this blog post. Nice way to finish it, start and finish with pretty much the same sentence.