I love Louis CK -- especially this bit above. He makes a valiant point that we've lost a sense of wonder for the miraculous things (i.e., flying and cell phones) that have become common place in our modern day world.
In a similar way, Alain de Botton explores some of the same mysteries in his book, The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work.
"We are now as imaginatively disconnected from the manufacture and distribution of our goods as we are practically in reach of them, a process of alienation which has stripped us of myriad of opportunities for wonder, gratitude and guilt." - Alain de Botton
(Source: Rub Kandy)
Alain de Botton takes the position of an "alien" -- investigating a myriad of professions throughout the supply chain from the state of childlike wonder and curiosity.
What exactly are all those ships carrying into the docks of London?
How does the average supermarket keep 20,000 items (4,000 of which require chilling and replacement every 3 days) on its shelves?
How are strawberries available all year around in the aisles of Tesco?
How was that tuna caught in the Maldives and who ate it for dinner tonight?
He takes the reader on a fascinating journey to understand the step-by-step process and characters involved with bringing us our fish or our chocolate-covered biscuits. It made me bow at the altar of our transportation & logistics systems
In juxtaposition to the pleasures, Alain also looks at the sorrows of work -- the tedious day-to-day tasks that make up our existence.
"The brightest minds spend their working lives simplifying or accelerating functions of unreasonable banality"
The brightest minds from our top educational institutions are kidnapped into professional service jobs and kept captive by the allure of money and status -- i.e., the management consultant that adds a few cents of profit per every widget sold, or the private equity associate that buys a biscuit company with plans to flip in 3-5 years.
In order to further elaborate further on the sorrows or work, Alain goes on to examine a range of professions from a painter to an accountant to a serial-entrepreneur to a life-coach to a power-line engineer.
"It's surely significant that the adults who feature in children's books are rarely, if ever, Regional Sales Managers or Building Service Engineers. They are shopkeepers, builders, cooks or farmers -- people whose labour can easily be linker to the visible betterment of human life"
Towards the end of the book, I had mixed feelings -- a greater appreciation for the industrial structures we've created in the last 100 years and a sense of sadness at the lack of purpose in our everyday existence (a thing I struggle with, regardless).
He concludes with a few redeeming aspects of tedious work -- the distraction from bigger questions, the bubble it allows us to play out our needs for perfection and mastery, and its ability to make us tired at the end of the day and put food on our table.
So, what are my final thoughts?
I whole-heartedly endorse this book. It was one of the more thought-provoking pieces I've read recently, and it conquers an overly cliche self-help / business genre typically found at your airport bookstore.
It left me with more questions than answers, but I think that's a good thing. I think I'll continue to search for purpose (or at least general happiness) with my labour, even if it bears little fruit.
"Of all wastes, the greatest waste that you can commit is the waste of labour."
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