On the Nature of Meaningless Work

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chubs wrote this? nah i'm not reading all that then 😭

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In life, there is work. Work scientifically is force over a distance, and in one's life, this can be interpreted as effort over time. With limited time, effort should be meaningful, lest that time is wasted. This is the main quandary with meaningless work.

You must first contend with the ephemeral nature of “meaning”. Sometimes work that is meaningless does not always start out as such. Suppose you are writing a “Beans Token” for an “Object Camp-Styled Game” hosted by “The Divine Goddess”, in which your ailing friend can toil no longer. You write the “Beans Token” such that when your friend plays the “Beans Token” on themself, they will be able to gracefully exit this “Object Camp-Styled Game” on their own terms. This is the purpose—the meaning—of your work: to give your friend a proper sendoff. Now suppose that your work had a horrible, unintentional side-effect. Such deep and sophisticated ceremony instead backfired. The executor of the graceful exit, dealt with an incomprehensible gamut of details proving too intricate to faithfully deliver, chooses instead to ignore several bytes of your work and immolate your friend with no fanfare. No fireworks, no introspection on the holidays, nothing. The wasted work of the token writer, the wasted time of the token interpreter—a tale as old as time. Now replace “Beans Token” with “Coyote v. ACME” and “The Divine Goddess” with a certain “David Zaslav”. As you can see, the specter of meaningful work-turned meaningless pervades every facet of our lives.

Once work becomes meaningless, you must face the consequences of such designation. Like the continuous increase of entropy in the universe, meaningless work is energy lost that may never be recovered. Fuel spent chasing an oasis that turned out to be a mere mirage. Often, one tries to circumvent this by buying into the “sunk cost fallacy”. According to The Decision Lab, the sunk cost fallacy “describes our tendency to follow through on an endeavor if we have already invested time, effort, or money into it, whether or not the current costs outweigh the benefits.” This adds to the sinister nature of meaningless work, as its costs on the worker do not simply end when the work ends, but instead can continue to compile for long after. Left unchecked and uncountered, meaningless work may very well consume all your available time and effort and leave you dry like a raisin.

So what is there to do? If the meaningless work has already been toiled on, then you must begin by recognizing that what is done is done. There is no benefit by stopping one’s life to complain and mope about the mistake; it will only make the loss of work greater. Instead, cut losses and move on. Find work that is meaningful, energized by the frustration, anger, and despair. Build up a great repertoire of accomplishments, so that when you are mired in meaningless work yet again, you do not think yourself someone with nothing but pointless baubles to your name—no, you are a decorated veteran of life!

The nature of meaningless work is wasteful, yet not insurmountable. It can harm multiple parties, not merely limited to the unfortunate laborer given a task. Meaningless work can sprout out of formerly meaningful work like a devious mushroom. Taken on the whole, meaningless work is one of the many hands of the world. It is an obstacle that can be vaulted, which very well may send you sending higher than you thought possible.