Bullshit Jobs

A Theory

Hardcover, 335 pages

English language

Published Oct. 7, 2018 by Simon Schuster.

ISBN:
978-1-5011-4331-1
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Goodreads:
34466958

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4 stars (5 reviews)

Bullshit Jobs: A Theory is a 2018 book by anthropologist David Graeber that argues the existence and societal harm of meaningless jobs. He contends that over half of societal work is pointless, which becomes psychologically destructive when paired with a work ethic that associates work with self-worth. Graeber describes five types of bullshit jobs, in which workers pretend their role isn't as pointless or harmful as they know it to be: flunkies, goons, duct tapers, box tickers, and taskmasters. He argues that the association of labor with virtuous suffering is recent in human history, and proposes universal basic income as a potential solution.

11 editions

Lo que todos sabemos y decimos con la boca chica

No rating

Pues para decirlo más y con palabras más ajustadas está este libro, para dinamitar desde la comprensión y el ofrecimiento de alternativas uno de los grandes fantasmas que nos afecta de diferentes formas a todes: el trabajo, sus características y sus efectos en nuestra vida. Me ha parecido uno de esos libros que te abren la percepción, que ponen palabras a sospechas y te hacen conectar circunstancias de tu día a día, darles un sentido global. Obras que nos amplían el horizonte y ayudan a comprender algo del fondo de nuestra angustia. Despierta las ganas de hablar con quienes nos rodean para preguntar si a ellos también les pasa esto que nos corroe. También sorprende cómo desde una forma expresiva más que accesibles es capaz de plantear sus ideas y dejárnoslas ahí candentes, incitantes. Seguiré leyendo a Graeber, eso seguro.

A very interesting book about work

4 stars

It took me some time to enter into the Bullshit jobs book. At first, it appears as some leftist light essay. The book started when David Graeber wrote a first opinion piece about the fact that a significant percentage of the population is doing work that is useless to society and they know it. This first essay made a lot of noise, and some media made some polls : in UK, more than 35% of people say that they are doing a useless bullshit job. Based on these numbers and lot of testimonies, David Graeber wrote this book to elaborate on this concept. The first chapters appears as quite light : some definitions, some testimonies, some categories of bullshit job. Overall, I wasn't convinced : radically leftist but also pretty light theoretically, not real analysis of what is happening, no stats, everything described in a pretty broad context. But I …

Interesting Critique of the World of Work

4 stars

This is an interesting read. It was interesting to me as someone aspiring to not have a job and close to making that happen. The look at "why have jobs?" and "why treat them as so sacred?" really hit home.

I have long said that this reverence for having a job is rooted in Puritanism. Recently I am wondering if it is more deeply internalized capitalist frames. Graeber's viewpoint is that it is some of both, which I found interesting.

This book was a good companion piece to Chokepoint Capitalism

A very interesting book about work

4 stars

It took me some time to enter into the Bullshit jobs book. At first, it appears as some leftist light essay. The book started when David Graeber wrote a first opinion piece about the fact that a significant percentage of the population is doing work that is useless to society and they know it. This first essay made a lot of noise, and some media made some polls : in UK, more than 35% of people say that they are doing a useless bullshit job. Based on these numbers and lot of testimonies, David Graeber wrote this book to elaborate on this concept. The first chapters appears as quite light : some definitions, some testimonies, some categories of bullshit job. Overall, I wasn't convinced : radically leftist but also pretty light theoretically, not real analysis of what is happening, no stats, everything described in a pretty broad context. But I …

Subjects

  • Nonfiction
  • Economics
  • Sociology

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