No Motivation to Work?

[JasonM]

I have to be honest with you, I have little motivation to work. The skills I have don't transfer well to the practical world, so most of the work out there seems boring to me. I majored in computer science, but right now, I'm a philosophy major. My hope is that I can get into graduate school and that will take me somewhere, but there are no guarantees. I also have a decent idea for a book I'd like to write, and I'm thinking of writing it during the periods I have off. But that's the problem for me. Practical, structured 9 to 5 jobs just don't hold my interest the way writing and doing research does. But, if nothing pans out, I have a back-up plan. I might go to teachers college and become a substitute high school math/computer science teacher. I wouldn't really like the work, but I wouldn't hate it, either, and it has several advantages to it:

- I won't necessarily have to work everyday.
- I will only have to work about six hours a day.
- I won't have to mark tests or prepare lessons on my own time.
- The work can be easy; sometimes teachers just make it so the kids figure it out on their own, leaving you free to do something else, such as read a book.
- I'll get the summer off.
- I'll make enough money to get by. I don't have strong material desires. All I need is enough money for necessities and a cable and Internet connection.

That's it. That's how lazy I am ;D. Hopefully, though, my other plans will work out, so I don't have to do something that I only tolerate.

[vaguely dissatisfied]

Jason

If it makes you feel any better, I've spent most of a half century working my ass off and been bored for probably 3/4 of that time. It seems INTJ's get bored easily. The ES world is not set up for our personality type so there are few 'jobs' that can hold our interest for very long. You may want to think about self-employment.

[Fej]

wow jason, we have a lot in common. I also have a back-up plan of becoming a teacher or sub if I don't like my future jobs once I major in finance.

[Uberfuhrer]

I have no motivation to work, either. I can't handle a formal work setting and having to deal with stupid and incompetent people.

Every job I've applied for this year and last I was turned down for whatever reason, so I pretty much gave it up.

I remember back in high school, I had ambitious dreams of being a film director or being involved in art and design in some way, and it was, in fact, my focus when I was attending college. But then I was required to take all the academic bullshit and everything became so much more depressing.

Now I'm not even interested in anything anymore.

[Mafiaangel180]

I'm at work everytime I'm on this site. So that should say something. I've always hated work. It bores me. I spend like...3 hours here, and the rest of my time daydreaming. My p-ness never gets anything done.









Warning: I take no responsibility if others use my last sentence to divert this thread.

[Uberfuhrer]

I'm at work everytime I'm on this site. So that should say something. I've always hated work. It bores me. I spend like...3 hours here, and the rest of my time daydreaming.

May I ask what kind of work you do and what your academic credentials are? I need a job like that.

My p-ness never gets anything done.

Warning: I take no responsibility if others use my last sentence to divert this thread.

Point taken.

[Mafiaangel180]

May I ask what kind of work you do and what your academic credentials are? I need a job like that.

First my credentials: In third grade I was too lazy to read the whole book for book reports. So I read the back and bullshitted my way through to receive an A.

That's what I do for a living. Summarize new books and movies. Once a month I get to interview an author to write an article. That's the only creativity there is in my job.

[Double Victory]

Jason

If it makes you feel any better, I've spent most of a half century working my ass off and been bored for probably 3/4 of that time. It seems INTJ's get bored easily. The ES world is not set up for our personality type so there are few 'jobs' that can hold our interest for very long. You may want to think about self-employment.

I very strongly agree. Like others here, I also seem to have an incredibly weak work ethic. My brother and some of my friends work upwards of 20 or 30 hours a week while they're in school--I don't understand how they do it. I have had several fast food jobs, and then I was a waitress for a year. My last day of waitressing I completely lost it on everyone. I'm usually very composed in public, but I had a lot of crappy tables, several of which stiffed me, and I just broke down and started yelling at everyone about how stupid they were and that I couldn't understand people, and that I was done with that job.

Part of that anger was directed at my bosses and the people I worked with, because they were all worthless. Every place I've ever worked.... no one has cared a lick about the actual job. They do nothing, get paid, go get drunk, and then come in the next day telling everyone very loudly how wild they were the previous night. I was just so disgusted with it all; I can't handle those kinds of jobs any more, they make me want to kill myself.

I knew for a fact that these places did not deserve my labor--I was the only person who worked, I was the only person who actually cared about how well the job got done, and I did a damn good job. And the jobs were so incredibly boring. There was no thinking required at all. (Expect for my waitress job--I had to think very hard about how to talk to the customers--not the kind of thinking I was hoping for).

After I quit all of my "real" jobs I started selling action figures on eBay so I could choose when I felt like working. I only have to talk to people online now.... and I get to play with action figures.... so I'm fairly content with it, until I can go find a "real" job.

But the motivation part--that's partly why I went into AFROTC. They have rules for everything, and very strict standards, which I absolutely love. And some of the people actually seem to be somewhat intelligent, so it's pretty nice. Whether or not I'll enjoy my actual job, I don't know. But this whole working subject is something that's been on my mind for a very long time. I'm so relieved to hear that there are other people out there that just can't seem to make themselves work useless jobs. When I think about jobs like those, that's the only time I'm appreciative of how many stupid people there are. They can go handle all those jobs, and get drunk and do nothing with their lives, while I go do something important.

[Chisos]

Jason,

I hear you, man.

And I find myself in a position very similar to vaguelydissatisfied--having been self employed since 1995 (which was preceded by 11 years of being an indentured servant with several law firms, and then a corporation).

Those places were Hell for me. An ES world on steriods, for sure.

Self-employment is better. But I still have major problems with motivation to work. In the past couple of years, it has hit me hard. I think the boredom factor is what is killing me now. As I think about vaguelydissatisfied's comment regarding boredome, I see that boredom as a significant factor in the "air stall" that has gradually enveloped me during the past few years.

I am realizing I must find something new (and yet be able to afford food, shelter, healthcare--and somewhat to my chagrin, satisfy a family that has an overinflated sense of entitlement and little desire to help float the boat :) )

So here I am, about to turn 50. And instead of doing work that will bring in some bread, I'm finding it more rewarding to read and post.

Dude, figure out what drives you. And I will openly acknowledge that is not an easy path to blaze.

I'm still trying to find that answer.

[ElstonGunn]

That's it. That's how lazy I am ;D.

"It's not that I'm lazy. It's that I just don't care." -Peter Gibbons

[errrzarrr]

I have little motivation to work. I even think it is enslaving.

[alone]

I'm the same way. I have only managed by basically staying at work until I get enough done, which sometimes means 16hrs for 6hrs of work. The best thing to do is to change up your work when you get too burned out on something. Do something different that requires you to learn something new, or at least get up and about.

I have found that dictating is much better than typing, because it keeps you engaged and prevents the boredom from getting too extreme.

[Monte314]

I love what I do. I go home at night and hammer away at it... for fun. Sometimes it's so exciting that I get chills thinking about what could be just beyond the next idea; catching that fleeting glimpse of a truth not yet conciously known.

Have you ever had the experience of being the one to find, for the first time in the history of humanity, a new bit of the truth? Drawing out of the swirling mists of your own mind a shiny pebble of reality beheld by no other human mind before you? I know that feeling. And I take that pebble, polish it as best I can, and present it to the world for others who are able to wonder at and enjoy. It doesn't get any better than that.

That's what my job is like. I'm a mathematician. I "work" by day, and I "work" by night. When I go to the Saturday evening church service, I sit on the floor in the back of the auditorium, where I use my mind to brush the dust from unseen bits of the universe of truth while the music plays and the people sing... and God talks to me about things that no one else knows; but He tells me, and I tell them (another conference paper is born, and my vita gets a little bit longer!)

Mathematicians are never bored. How could they be? We close our eyes and the tools of the trade are there waiting to be taken up in whatever fanciful pursuit engages our interest. The "pi" that I pick up is the very same one held by Newton, Gauss, Fermat, Lagrange, Euler.... Anything I can see, think, or feel can become the topic of an hour's musings... some problems I've worked on for decades, while others give way with a moment's reflection... often with very unexpected, and very useful results.

For the last 20 years, I've spent most of my time in the formal mathematical modeling of human thought. The avatar you see at the left is a swatch from a 252-dimensional ray-traced graphic of a "performance manifold" generated by a neural network (it's a manifold from a non-linear dual space). It's the subject of my next paper. I don't know where this will go, and NOBODY knows where this will go... but we are already using it in our research.

So, HOW COULD I EVER GET BORED WITH "work"???? And why, why, why, would anyone ever conciously CHOOSE for their "work" something that's not worth their three-score and ten?

[Jakalwarrior]

Ive only ever had 3 jobs, and haven't liked any of them. We sort of have to work to survive in this money driven world though.... So.. work work work.

[Linza]

Be careful about that substitute teaching plan. You won't get any kind of insurance or benefits, and the pay sucks. My roommate is a sub teacher who hopes to coach basketball, and he hates his job; this is in part because the kids don't take him seriously or want to learn, and in part because he has to drive all over the city to different schools. When you live in the Houston area, that's like waterboarding (even though the government likes using it, it IS torture). ;)

But yeah. If the economy goes the way it's going, teachers will be pressed to not take days off, and substitute demands will drop substantially. Additionally, you're not going to be able to afford some basics. Once you're 23, most insurance plans drop you from your parents' plan (which is its own special breed of suckage). Be a real science or math teacher instead. Or a college professor.

With your requirements, being a research assistant and teaching 100 and 200 level college courses sounds a little more stable and enjoyable. Consider it?

[mkay]

I'd also check out demographics before planning a career in teaching. If I remember right, the "swell" of kids in school is going to start tapering off soon, so there probably will be a bunch of unemployed teachers and competition for remaining jobs will increase.

[bmartinl]

Work is something that you learn to love. Why do you think we make kids do chores? Because a work ethic must be created. It does not come naturally. Work is work, but you can enjoy it too. It helps if your job is to help people directly.

[Jaycen]

I have to be honest with you, I have little motivation to work. The skills I have don't transfer well to the practical world, so most of the work out there seems boring to me. I majored in computer science, but right now, I'm a philosophy major. My hope is that I can get into graduate school and that will take me somewhere, but there are no guarantees. I also have a decent idea for a book I'd like to write, and I'm thinking of writing it during the periods I have off. But that's the problem for me. Practical, structured 9 to 5 jobs just don't hold my interest the way writing and doing research does. But, if nothing pans out, I have a back-up plan. I might go to teachers college and become a substitute high school math/computer science teacher. I wouldn't really like the work, but I wouldn't hate it, either, and it has several advantages to it:

- I won't necessarily have to work everyday.
- I will only have to work about six hours a day.
- I won't have to mark tests or prepare lessons on my own time.
- The work can be easy; sometimes teachers just make it so the kids figure it out on their own, leaving you free to do something else, such as read a book.
- I'll get the summer off.
- I'll make enough money to get by. I don't have strong material desires. All I need is enough money for necessities and a cable and Internet connection.

That's it. That's how lazy I am ;D. Hopefully, though, my other plans will work out, so I don't have to do something that I only tolerate.

Jason

Jason, you sound just like my boss. You sound exactly like an INTP. You ought to Google that personality type and try to take advantage of the typology. You'd be well suited to an advanced instructional position or possibly a R&D position if you have a technical mind.

[Lagawrd]

Just because others post saying that they do not like working does not make it okay. No one has motivation to work, but everyone must work to gain some money and be somewhat successful. It is okay to be lazy as I am, but it is not okay to let it affect you.

Self employment? No, I do not think that is a good idea, because that requires alot more work and responsibility.

[ElstonGunn]

Work is something that you learn to love. Why do you think we make kids do chores? Because a work ethic must be created. It does not come naturally. Work is work, but you can enjoy it too. It helps if your job is to help people directly.

"Love" seems like too strong a word to me. Unless your job is to test the taste of beer while inspecting lingerie or something like that. ;)

You can definitely get satisfaction out of work, though. The more I accomplish, or the crappier the work is, the more I tend to be satisfied when I'm done with it. It's not really the work that I enjoy, but rather the sense of, "Yeah, that sucked but I was enough of a badass to finish it. I betcha that you couldn't, ya wuss."

[errrzarrr]

well, the smart and oportune question now is: what kind of work fits better for us then?

[Fej]

^Yes, we really need some good answers for that question. Detailed answers.

[searcher]

I never want to do anything until I have to do something else.
Kind of tricky.

[MichaelH]

The problem is that INTJs need a sense of direction. "Work", as in some semi-mindless task you do to meet someone else's needs, is not a motivator for us. Personally, if I can eat and put a roof over my head, I'm fine.

I'm still working on finding something I'm heavily self-motivated for. I actually enjoy teaching when the students want to learn. When they don't, meh...fuhgetaboutit.

[errrzarrr]

agreed with MichaelH.

Colaborations needed.

[Marcus]

Have you ever had the experience of being the one to find, for the first time in the history of humanity, a new bit of the truth? Drawing out of the swirling mists of your own mind a shiny pebble of reality beheld by no other human mind before you?
(...)
So, HOW COULD I EVER GET BORED WITH "work"???? And why, why, why, would anyone ever conciously CHOOSE for their "work" something that's not worth their three-score and ten?
Sure, "going where no man has gone before" is a big motivation factor. If you don't have such feelings frequently enough, then work can be boring. I have a research/teaching job, but our group gets most of the money from development projects which are kind of boring. When chosing your work you have to consider the constraints of reality (your qualifications/money/geographic location/etc...). You can end up with a suboptimal choice regarding your intrinsic motivation.

[Monte314]

No job is exciting all the time... but I can't recall the last week I had where something really cool didn't happen.

One of the ways I foster this is to "keep the pipeline full"... I've always got several ideas brewing, so that when things get dull or tiresome in one area, I pick up something else.

I have an "idea valise" that has about a dozen or so compartments inside... and I have a different idea going in each one. If I'm going to a boring meeting, or getting on an airplane, I take it along. If necessary, I can reach in and pick up one the threads in progress.

I was in Washington, D.C. today (day trip; I live in Florida) briefing the director of one of the national research labs on work my team has been doing in machine cognition. This work has so many facets that you can't run out of fascinating experiments to run. There is just no way for me to become bored with it. I believe there is something like this for everyone... soemthing about which they can be passionate, and make a life's work. The trick is to find it, or, MAKE IT. As it says in the Bible, "A man's gift maketh room for him."

[mkay]

Hey, that's great to hear. I like your enthusiasm.

I'd like to think that there's a great job for everyone, but I wonder if that can happen if you're a lazy person. ... I got work ethic from my dad. I don't know whether it's something that's necessarily taught, though. Some people are hard workers even though they grew up in lazy families and even though they have what I would consider so-so jobs. I'm always impressed by those people -- that they can stay upbeat and work hard nonetheless.

[jesse]

I have little motivation to work. I even think it is enslaving.

I tend to agree with this statement. Many, if not most, service-sector jobs are repetitive, mind-numbing and often lead by terribly incompetent people who live in perpetual fear of someone better than themselves.

I've been in business studies for a few years and in the beginning it seemed like a very dynamic and innovative field. Unfortunately this is a high-minded ideal which is difficult to spot in practice. Instead it often presents itself as an uptight, conservative environment mortified by change. The other component being that workers do not get to keep much of the fruit of their own labor, instead a few fat cats in high places reap the bounty without doing too much. Governments take their hefty "share" of the pie as well.

I really wonder why work bores INTJ's ;D

[Motor Jax]

i don't mind work. i love it

grew up welding an ax and carrying logs on my shoulders


what really boils my balls (sorry, just a bit passionate about this) is working next to someone who displays no motivation whatsoever and acts like they just don't want to be there. i mean why the hell put in an application only to sound like it is just life draining you 3 weeks later.

oh, i absolutely cannot stand lackluster workers. leaving the work for someone else...


ok, i'm done here... headed to the anger management thread... :angry:

[eMachine]

I had a few jobs as a teenager and I was able to get the job done efficiently. At that time I had no bills of my own really, so everything that I earned was mine. It troubles me now to think that I could go out and get a job which would actually lower my quality of life and leave me with less money and probably more debt. Now, almost every penny that I would make would line the pockets of the rich man who probably never had to work for a day in his life.

For most jobs I would have to buy more appropriate clothes, pay for transportation and more vehicle upkeep on my P.O.S car, pay for childcare, therefore not decreasing financial stress one bit, adding social stress about interacting with others daily, leaving me no time to spend with my kids who are being influenced by strangers all day and I'd have no idea what their little heads are being filled with.

It does bother me that I don't really feel a sense of purpose. I don't feel like a constructive member of society making meaningful contributions. It bothers me that when I was in school I was told I could be anything that I wanted, but they didn't explain to me the inevitability of becoming a mother someday. Yes, of course there was sex education, I learned from it and I was not promiscuous, but I love my husband and we accepted our children. Some days I just wish that someone would have told me that I am not less of a woman for being a housewife in today's feminist society.

[cBorg]

So how do we reconcile this thread with the one on INTJs taking leadership roles?

[Monte314]

So how do we reconcile this thread with the one on INTJs taking leadership roles?
Excellent question.

I think that as children, we see those older than ourselves as being more "free":

a. they can stay up late
b. they can drive
c. they can eat what they like
d. they don't have to go to school.

As we get older we realize that:

a. they stay up late worrying about the rent
b. they drive to *work*
c. they have to diet to manage their weight
d. they long for the "freedom" they had when they were in school!

A taste of what "being the leader" is really like (e.g., doing all the work when underlings decide to goof off) opens our eyes.

Therefore, I make this assertion: INTJ's are natural leaders; their first experience with it is often distasteful (e.g., it involves dealing with the shortcomings of others), causing them to become "lazy" for awhile; and, most ultimately roll up their sleeves and learn to enjoy it.

This means that we have the younger and older INTJ's wanting to lead, and the middling INTJ's not wanting to lead.

[cBorg]

Excellent question.

I think that as children, we see those older than ourselves as being more "free":

a. they can stay up late
b. they can drive
c. they can eat what they like
d. they don't have to go to school.

As we get older we realize that:

a. they stay up late worrying about the rent
b. they drive to *work*
c. they have to diet to manage their weight
d. they long for the "freedom" they had when they were in school!

A taste of what "being the leader" is really like (e.g., doing all the work when underlings decide to goof off) opens our eyes.

Therefore, I make this assertion: INTJ's are natural leaders; their first experience with it is often distasteful (e.g., it involves dealing with the shortcomings of others), causing them to become "lazy" for awhile; and, most ultimately roll up their sleeves and learn to enjoy it.

This means that we have the younger and older INTJ's wanting to lead, and the middling INTJ's not wanting to lead.

This makes sense, but most of the posters in the leadership thread took their roles because of the shortcomings in others. That implies they valued getting the job done in the first place. Otherwise they would not have stepped up into the leadership role.

[hauteur]

The problem is that INTJs need a sense of direction. "Work", as in some semi-mindless task you do to meet someone else's needs, is not a motivator for us. Personally, if I can eat and put a roof over my head, I'm fine.

I'm still working on finding something I'm heavily self-motivated for. I actually enjoy teaching when the students want to learn. When they don't, meh...fuhgetaboutit.


I do think this is really the key. I know that I have to have a sense of direction; I have to know where I want to go. I got into the IT industry about 12 years ago. For the first eight years, I took off like a lightning bolt - the world of programming was exciting to me because there was so much to learn - and so many people to compete with.

Four years ago, I left development and went to Enterprise Architecture. It's not nearly as cool as I thought it would be. The biggest problem is the S nature of our world. Everyone is so busy focusing on where we are today that they can't or won't focus on getting to where we need to be. This makes it very difficult to make the future state goals a reality.

I have reached the top of the technical food chain at the company I'm at and it's the 8th largest company that is headquartered in the city - so not much choice in going to a bigger company.

Long story short(ened), I'm bored with my job and I don't know what to do next. Going back to programming bores me - been there, done that. This kills my motivation to work. I still work and some of the projects are exciting - I'm the lead architect for a $3.2 million project. But, even that is not nearly as exciting to me as it should be.

But, without a goal or ambition, my motivation wanes. I'm talking with a software vendor to possibly take on a position in software product management. I'm hoping that will throw me into a position where I have to start learning again.

But, for those of you that are struggling with motivation, I would bet that the answer lies in finding something that really interests you and that you can set tangible goals around. The trouble is finding that thing.

[minimalostentat]

I have little motivation to work. I even think it is enslaving.

Second.

In a society where the monetary system is based on a promissory notes, those who print the money control the value of it. In what way is that not slavery if we only receive units with controlled value?

Not that I find gold or silver directly useful either.

[Monte314]

Second.

In a society where the monetary system is based on a promissory notes, those who print the money control the value of it. In what way is that not slavery if we only receive units with controlled value?

Not that I find gold or silver directly useful either.
If only we did recieve units with controlled value! What bothers me is saving a dollar this year that will be worth half as much when I retire. Yes, controlled value would be very nice.

[Aronnax]

Second.
In what way is that not slavery if we only receive units with controlled value?


You're still free to decide if you want to work to collect those units. The alternative may be distasteful but there is an alternative, a slave has no choice in the matter.

I'm not a fan of fiat money because of the inflation problem but there's a difference between slavery and an unpleasant choice.

[augustus]

I have a different problem. I have always wanted to be an entrepreneur but I have already failed a couple of times.

When I work for other people, I do just about enough to make them happy. But, I find it hard to start again after failing a couple of times earlier.

[AceFace]

I'm always looking for ways to motivate myself. I'm already self employed with business partners (I tried on my own but the finisher in me is dead), with a business plan that could make us rich and I have the office space to myself all day so can't ask for much more but I still manage to go off seeking and reading information when I need to be coding (like being here, I found this because 4 out of 5 of the founders are INTJ and we need to find some people who aren't!)

I liked this quote off another motivation thread that is locked:


Isn't everybody now like this? I am too.

I believe it is a cultural issue, even if it seems like it's just your own unique thing.

You cannot really imagine it, I'm sure, but try to see yourself in a world without Internet, or any other media, without easy access to libraries, without many opportunities to gather knowledge.

Your motivation will be affected, guaranteed. We are mostly bored, because we are overwhelmed, and our hunger for knowledge is fed up (effortlessly).

My own cure is to run with heavy shoes.



Trouble is I do need internet access for to help with the coding. I can do physical work for a while no problem and have days where I can work 18 hours straight, it's trying concentrate on stuff that's hard some days. I'm not sure how the heavy shoes are going to help.

[r Don]

I have to be honest with you, I have little motivation to work. The skills I have don't transfer well to the practical world, so most of the work out there seems boring to me. I majored in computer science, but right now, I'm a philosophy major. ... You lack a 'work ethic' (perhaps your parents indulged you and forgot to instill the value of trading off effort for rewards?). And I'm not seeing how your now being a 'philosophy major' with aspirations of drifting into graduate school will help matters other than serve as 'marking time', at the end of which you'll still lack a 'work ethic'.

Suggestion: if security and control over the material things in your life matter to you (along with the benefits such as healthcare, safe housing and good food), then train yourself to become more ant-like and less grasshopper-like (Aesop fable). Project the benefits of that perspective over the coming decades.

Work is not meant to be 'entertaining' (so, work certainly cannot compete on that level and you should look at after work activities for that imo). Work merely serves a function: trading off time and skills, for money and benefits. Do entry level work well and once you're able to say you've some notable work experience, (more than zero, anyway) you ought to become qualified for more challenging and rewarding work.

[pravda]

Motivation to work

It's all about finding a way to stay motivated. To do that you need to find a job which has a lot of variety.

As a kid I always wanted to become a journalist. Then I went astray and studied business. Doing my MBA right now. If I stay in business I have two options, either I work for someone or I start my own thing.

Now the problem is, whatever I start doing, I get straight into it, I almost become obsessed with it, and in a few days I lose my interest.

Probably the best option for me would be to return to journalism and do business journalism. New subjects every day, a lot of analysis, getting to the bottom of it - it almost sounds like the perfect job for me. While I don't really like that fact that there's a lot of communicating with others involved, and also at some point I might feel that I'm doing something meaningless, the variety and analysis involved in it is a HUGE magnet for me.

I suggest you find something that keeps you entertained all the time.

[JGordon]

I absolutely love my job. I show up, sit around for 8 hours and then leave. The whole time I am getting paid for it. Not a lot, but I have almost 8 uninterrupted hours to work on my own project or do things I'm actually interested in--read books, computer games, whatever I want.

Yes, jobs like that do exist, and I did graduate from college, not that it matters. If you have your parameters straight, and are persistent, you can find the job you want and be happy with it--like I am. Or you can spend your working life suffering, like most of these other posters :D For me, I am happy and relaxed every day.

---------- Post added 03-22-2012 at 01:07 PM ----------

Work is not meant to be 'entertaining' (so, work certainly cannot compete on that level and you should look at after work activities for that imo). Work merely serves a function: trading off time and skills, for money and benefits. Do entry level work well and once you're able to say you've some notable work experience, (more than zero, anyway) you ought to become qualified for more challenging and rewarding work.

I am not really sure what work was "meant" to be, but I sure didn't get born into this world to live as a slave to the corporate state. Anyway, you seem to be ignoring the fact that the global monetary system is on the verge of collapse. What will all your fancy skills and motivation get you when you go to the supermarket and there's no food there? At least I have the time to see the big picture and plan accordingly.

[Axion004]

I love what I do. I go home at night and hammer away at it... for fun. Sometimes it's so exciting that I get chills thinking about what could be just beyond the next idea; catching that fleeting glimpse of a truth not yet conciously known.

Have you ever had the experience of being the one to find, for the first time in the history of humanity, a new bit of the truth? Drawing out of the swirling mists of your own mind a shiny pebble of reality beheld by no other human mind before you? I know that feeling. And I take that pebble, polish it as best I can, and present it to the world for others who are able to wonder at and enjoy. It doesn't get any better than that.

That's what my job is like. I'm a mathematician. I "work" by day, and I "work" by night. When I go to the Saturday evening church service, I sit on the floor in the back of the auditorium, where I use my mind to brush the dust from unseen bits of the universe of truth while the music plays and the people sing... and God talks to me about things that no one else knows; but He tells me, and I tell them (another conference paper is born, and my vita gets a little bit longer!)

Mathematicians are never bored. How could they be? We close our eyes and the tools of the trade are there waiting to be taken up in whatever fanciful pursuit engages our interest. The "pi" that I pick up is the very same one held by Newton, Gauss, Fermat, Lagrange, Euler.... Anything I can see, think, or feel can become the topic of an hour's musings... some problems I've worked on for decades, while others give way with a moment's reflection... often with very unexpected, and very useful results.

For the last 20 years, I've spent most of my time in the formal mathematical modeling of human thought. The avatar you see at the left is a swatch from a 252-dimensional ray-traced graphic of a "performance manifold" generated by a neural network (it's a manifold from a non-linear dual space). It's the subject of my next paper. I don't know where this will go, and NOBODY knows where this will go... but we are already using it in our research.

So, HOW COULD I EVER GET BORED WITH "work"???? And why, why, why, would anyone ever conciously CHOOSE for their "work" something that's not worth their three-score and ten?

I believe the OP hates his future job because he views it as the typical 9am - 5pm office job in which you really don't do anything to advance human kind(Although maybe you do make the company an extra $100,000 which is just great in relationship to nothing). Of course if you actually did something interesting such as solve independent problems or riddles then this would be much more interesting. For about 95% of the population it is probably like the 9am -5pm office job.

[Autumnleaf]

This makes sense, but most of the posters in the leadership thread took their roles because of the shortcomings in others. That implies they valued getting the job done in the first place. Otherwise they would not have stepped up into the leadership role.

Actually, I got annoyed at being told what to do by idiots so I worked hard to get promoted.

---------- Post added 03-24-2012 at 07:24 PM ----------

Second.

In a society where the monetary system is based on a promissory notes, those who print the money control the value of it. In what way is that not slavery if we only receive units with controlled value?

Not that I find gold or silver directly useful either.

This is part of it. We all need those to trade for food and pants unless we are willing to trade freedom for 3 hots and a cot and healthcare. Come to think of it maybe freedom isn't so important.

Its good to identify what you are good at and interested in and to apply it to work.

[Causa Mortis]

- I won't necessarily have to work everyday.
- I will only have to work about six hours a day.
- I won't have to mark tests or prepare lessons on my own time.
- The work can be easy; sometimes teachers just make it so the kids figure it out on their own, leaving you free to do something else, such as read a book.
- I'll get the summer off.
- I'll make enough money to get by. I don't have strong material desires. All I need is enough money for necessities and a cable and Internet connection.

That's it. That's how lazy I am ;D. Hopefully, though, my other plans will work out, so I don't have to do something that I only tolerate.

I don't think there's anything wrong with that, but why not go and get a credential? You'd make 40-50k per year, cushy benefits, lots of time off, and relatively rewarding work. You work about 8-9 hours per day for 180 days per year, and its only as stressful as you make it. Slow ride to retirement.

I've considered quitting the rat race, working as a sub here and there, working as a catastrophe adjuster whenever a hurricane hits, and finishing my book.