Archive for the 'work' Category
Why work?
The definition of work in our complex economic world is difficult to establish, biased by cultural prejudice and the effects of money. Let us go back to basics with my reductionist model. Imagine a fictitious tribe of prehistoric humans, with little specialization and no currency. Let us try to sort their activities between what was work and what was not:
- Hunting and gathering: work
- Knapping flint tools: work
- Hut building: work
- Ritual dancing: not work
- Cave decorating: not work
- Bathing: not work
- Making love: not work
- Sleeping: not work
- Eating: not work
- Standing guard: work
From the above classification, I could try the following definition: work is any activity that is necessary for survival and that involves unpleasant effort.
It seems fair enough, and yet, even in a very primitive society, I can find activities that fit the definition and yet can hardly be considered work: [more]
The laundry break
Everybody takes a coffee break or a cigarette break at some point in their work day. I just fulfilled a fantasy I have had for as long as I have been reading Emily’s Telecommuter Talk: a laundry break. Yep: today, for some obscure family-logistics -cum- frost-on-the-winshield -cum- baby-sort-of-feverish-reasons, I missed two trains in a row and decided I’d stay home to work.
I’ve had my office phone redirected to my home phone, and at 10:30 AM, I took a laundry break and spent ten minutes in the sun to hang out the bed sheets. That was some treat!
It was so grand that I boldly decided I’d indulge in an even grander treat: the 20′ after-lunch nap. Now I know what it is I will be asking from my boss at the next yearly interview: it won’t be a bonus, it won’t be a raise, it will be one day of telecommuting each week.
A useful hobby ain’t no hobby
Lorelle’s blogging challenge strikes again: ‘blog about your hobby’. This immediately triggers the question: ‘what is my hobby ?’. If you had asked this question fifteen years ago, I could have answered right away: [more]
Why Airbus and Boeing will soon go bust
Be careful when mixing information
One day in early February, I opened one of these innocent e-mails that colleagues absent-mindedly forward around to whomever they can think of. It was the minutes of a conference on the candidate technologies to replace kerosene for commercial airliners. The conclusions was that none was a credible alternative for the next few decades at least.
I could have just pressed the ‘delete’ button and forgotten about it, but before I could, this piece of info collided with another one about how much oil prices had increased in just over two years. It was like mingling glycerine with nitric acid: kabloo ! As a result, I quit my job as an R-and-D engineer for future commercial aircraft projects.
What I know best
This post is an answer to Lorelle’s blogging challenge. I found the theme so exciting that I decided to start blogging just to be able to participate. Lorelle says:
Think about all that you know and choose the one thing you would arrogantly assume you were the master of. Then write about it.
And then I thought: I know a lot about many things, but [more]