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Bullshit Jobs: A Theory: Difference between revisions
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{{a|book review|[[File:Brazil.jpg|thumb|center|450px|Some people doing [[bullshit job]]s, yesterday]]}}This book is ''such'' a missed opportunity. The [[bullshit job]]s phenomenon is real: there ''are'' [[bullshit jobs]], they are endemic, but in his polemic, {{author|David Graeber}} mischaracterises them, for large parts of his book confuses them with other phenomena which, while odious enough, have a different character (namely good jobs in unscrupulous businesses<ref>Unscrupulous businesses were around long before Dickens, as any old-school Leftie should know. They go with the capitalist running dog territory.</ref>, and [[survivor]]s<ref>[[Survivor]]s are harder to rationalise, except as the small group “defectors” that get away with free-riding in any large scale game of [[prisoner’s dilemma]]. </ref>: the piss-takers and grifters who hide in plain sight, without doing any work at all, in every large corporate organisation. | {{a|book review|[[File:Brazil.jpg|thumb|center|450px|Some people doing [[bullshit job]]s, yesterday]]}}This book is ''such'' a missed opportunity. The [[bullshit job]]s phenomenon is real: there ''are'' [[bullshit jobs]], they are endemic, but in his polemic, {{author|David Graeber}} mischaracterises them, for large parts of his book confuses them with other phenomena which, while odious enough, have a different character (namely good jobs in unscrupulous businesses<ref>Unscrupulous businesses were around long before Dickens, as any old-school Leftie should know. They go with the capitalist running dog territory.</ref>, and [[survivor]]s<ref>[[Survivor]]s are harder to rationalise, except as the small group “defectors” that get away with free-riding in any large scale game of [[prisoner’s dilemma]]. </ref>: the piss-takers and grifters who hide in plain sight, without doing any work at all, in every large corporate organisation. | ||
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But neither capitalist pig-dogs nor the survivors are, necessarily, owners of bullshit jobs. Bullshit jobs are real jobs, that require acuity, dedication, patience, expertise and elbow-grease, only to achieve an end which, in the wider scheme of things, just cannot be justified by resources consumed in carrying it out. | But neither capitalist pig-dogs nor the survivors are, necessarily, owners of bullshit jobs. Bullshit jobs are real jobs, that require acuity, dedication, patience, expertise and elbow-grease, only to achieve an end which, in the wider scheme of things, just cannot be justified by resources consumed in carrying it out. | ||
[[Internal audit]]: now ''that'' is a bullshit job: these people must turn stones, analyse data, write [[PowerPoint]] presentations, jockey [[spreadsheet]]s, and sanction the compilation of [[MIS]] against which they must measure formal, but ''never'' substantive [[KPI]]s and [[deliverable]]s. [[In the weeds]] which are their natural habitat, these are perfectly sensible, prudent, and plausible means of managing systemic risk. From a | [[Internal audit]]: now ''that'' is a bullshit job: these people must turn stones, analyse data, write [[PowerPoint]] presentations, jockey [[spreadsheet]]s, and sanction the compilation of [[MIS]] against which they must measure formal, but ''never'' substantive [[KPI]]s and [[deliverable]]s. [[In the weeds]] which are their natural habitat, these are perfectly sensible, prudent, and plausible means of managing systemic risk. From a birds’ eye view they disappear from view altogether, but render really as a gray, sticky sheen over the whole organisation. In performing their role, internal auditors consume not only their own resources, external resources, but those of (usually) productive people whose functions they are employed to audit. That is bullshit squared, especially if they’re auditing other people who themselves are carrying out largely bullshitty roles: [[ISDA negotiator|ISDA negotiators]] or [[Mediocre lawyer|netting opinion compliance personnel]]. | ||
Nor is it any part of the bullshittery of a [[bullshit job]] that its owner knows or suspects it to be so: most [[mediocre lawyer|financial services lawyers]] believe sincerely that theirs is a critical contribution to the organisation’s — nay the financial world’s — continued prosperity. They believe their contribution to be self-evident, if ineffable, but in any case beyond question — possibly beyond the very descriptive ''capability'' of a question; certainly beyond any question a [[management consultant]] or an [[internal audit]]or could confect. Only a knave would put a price on legal services<ref>Of course, one can very easily evaluate the ''cost'' of legal services; evaluating the risks and costs one’s legal team ''avoided'' is harder: that is the dog that did not bark in the night-time.</ref> | Nor is it any part of the bullshittery of a [[bullshit job]] that its owner knows or suspects it to be so: most [[mediocre lawyer|financial services lawyers]] believe sincerely that theirs is a critical contribution to the organisation’s — nay the financial world’s — continued prosperity. They believe their contribution to be self-evident, if ineffable, but in any case beyond question — possibly beyond the very descriptive ''capability'' of a question; certainly beyond any question a [[management consultant]] or an [[internal audit]]or could confect. Only a knave would put a price on legal services<ref>Of course, one can very easily evaluate the ''cost'' of legal services; evaluating the risks and costs one’s legal team ''avoided'' is harder: that is the dog that did not bark in the night-time.</ref> | ||