Are happy people boring?

[luka]

Plus they look all haggard like medieval peasants from being outdoors and over exerting themselves all the time.

 

[luka]

Landscape gardeners that is not tree surgeons.

 

[william kent]

You'd have to be mad to be a tree surgeon. Incredibly dangerous job.

His boss is a lunatic.

 

[william kent]

Plus they look all haggard like medieval peasants from being outdoors and over exerting themselves all the time.

Yeah, it takes a toll. Also being in the sun all the time ages you.

 

[yyaldrin]

it's difficult to be self employed. you know you will die if you can't get enough assignments. when you're sick you're fucked. you don't build a pension, etc, etc. maybe thats why they are depressed?

 

[entertainment]

tree surgeon, that's a funny phrase

 

[Simon silverdollarcircle]

My friend was telling me about his friend who chucked in this high-powered financial job to be a butcher, apparently he loved meat and food and stuff and thought it would be rewarding. But it turned out to be bollocks, there was stuff about tricking people to buy more expensive cuts and disguising the old bits etc same cynicism but less money basically. Also a guy from my school, left big accounting job to open a cafe in the New Forest, did it for a year and went back to accounting.

As I was saying to Luka the other day I think it can be disastrous to do something you enjoy for a job. I certainly found that anyway.

(I wasn't a gardener btw)

Jobs generally are shit. If you do something you love for a job you can just end up turning it shit

 

[luka]

Jobs generally are shit is pretty much the crux of it. It's the repetition and it's the compulsion. Whatever it is, sitting at a desk or manual labour it will fuck your body just because you do it all the time. Whatever it is will get boring just cos you do it all the time.

 

[william kent]

I've always found that when I have to do something I previously chose to or get good enough at something to take it seriously, I lose interest and can't work up the enthusiasm to continue with it.

 

[Simon silverdollarcircle]

I've always found that when I have to do something I previously chose to or get good enough at something to take it seriously, I lose interest and can't work up the enthusiasm to continue with it.

Does this go back to Luka's idea of the censor may be.

If someone is paying you then you have an external censor overseeing you, judging you.

If you get good at something the censor is internal, but still overseeing you and judging you.

Amateurism is a precious and fragile gift.

 

[craner]

I always imagine that the worst things about writing for a living is having to conform to a house style, having to pitch ideas, work out and sell a hook. That would make me hate doing it. It should be a discipline, but everything has such a shit house style these days, it's more like a punishment.

 

[craner]

Tim Finney could have been the greatest music journalist of his generation, but he decided to make lots of dough as high-flying solicitor instead. This means that he can at least enjoy his holidays. I thought this was a wise choice.

 

[william kent]

Does this go back to Luka's idea of the censor may be.

If someone is paying you then you have an external censor overseeing you, judging you.

If you get good at something the censor is internal, but still overseeing you and judging you.

Amateurism is a precious and fragile gift.

I think it's partly to do with familiarity. When you're learning to do something and can see the progress you're making, it's fun and exciting. Once you become familiar enough with it, you settle into routines and patterns and it flattens out a bit. The surprises and discoveries don't come as often, progress isn't as noticeable and it can start to feel like stagnation.

 

[luka]

I like what I do but I don't do very much of it there's no compulsion I don't wake up before I want to wake up. It won't last forever but it's been a really amazing respite from the real world and came at a time when I really desperately needed some respite from the real world. It's very hard out there. I don't think that can be overstated. It's a meat grinder.

 

[luka]

I think it's partly to do with familiarity. When you're learning to do something and can see the progress you're making, it's fun and exciting. Once you become familiar enough with it, you settle into routines and patterns and it flattens out a bit. The surprises and discoveries don't come as often, progress isn't as noticeable and it can start to feel like stagnation.

Computer games are like that. In the first stage you haven't internalised all the cues so you're in a hyper alert state, ears twitching for each tiny sound. Quite stressful actually. Then you have a period of enjoying your mastery. Then it's just a joyless mechanical routine

 

[william kent]

There's a sweet spot where you're good enough to enjoy it and do it to a certain level without it becoming just another series of unconscious gestures and motions.

 

[luka]

Tim Finney could have been the greatest music journalist of his generation, but he decided to make lots of dough as high-flying solicitor instead. This means that he can at least enjoy his holidays. I thought this was a wise choice.

Simon Silverdollar kept going on about how much he loved Tim Finney. He was really good there's no doubt about it. But he made the right choice.

 

[Simon silverdollarcircle]

Perhaps actually it's people who say "I love my job" who are the boring people.

A friend of a friend had a pretty cool job. Worked on films, got to go Cannes and all that. But she loved it so much she was pretty much insufferably dull.

There's a monomania to it, a lack of curiosity. An inability to relate to the frustrations of other people.

The exception to this, of course, is gardeners

 

[luka]

There's a sweet spot where you're good enough to enjoy it and do it to a certain level without it becoming just another series of unconscious gestures and motions.

Exactly. And like all sweet spots it is exceptionally short lived.

 

[craner]

Fucking gardeners again.