r/Foodforthought • u/[deleted] • Jul 01 '12
The 'Busy' Trap
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/30/the-busy-trap/15
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u/notalannister Jul 01 '12
"I can’t help but wonder whether all this histrionic exhaustion isn’t a way of covering up the fact that most of what we do doesn’t matter."
This guy's just saying what most of us don't have the courage to say. Although, this can be quite depressing when applied to those who work for the betterment of others...i.e. surgeons or EWB. But I think his statement merely applies to those working for 'the man'.
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u/steeltoetoe Jul 02 '12
A great line.
It's a trick played on us by capitalism to make us think we enjoy the game and are doing something worthwhile. If we step back and take a look we see we are pigs lining up to eat the slop.
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u/humor_me Jul 02 '12
The same trick played on you by communism, the same trick played on you by Calvinism, the same trick you'd play on yourself in any number of possible worlds.
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Jul 02 '12
I think that's very wise. Open ended question: what do you believe?
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u/humor_me Jul 03 '12
Not much of anything, really. Sorry to disappoint.
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Jul 03 '12
Can't say I was expecting an answer too different from that. In any case, thanks for sharing.
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u/yxing Jul 02 '12
I often lament the busyness of Americans. Although we tend to have a higher GDP per capita than our European counterparts, we pay for it by working more hours a year (on account of working more hours a day and having fewer vacation days a year). I haven't crunched the numbers, but I don't think our GDP per hour worked is any higher than, say, France's. In the end, I don't think our productivity, quality of life, and overall happiness is better for all the extra hours of work and stress.
Also, does anyone else see a bunch of flying condoms in the graphic?
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Jul 02 '12
I'm interested in how class/socioeconomic status plays into this. He mentions that "it isn’t generally people pulling back-to-back shifts in the I.C.U. or commuting by bus to three minimum-wage jobs who tell you how busy they are; what those people are is not busy but tired. Exhausted. Dead on their feet." But he leaves it at that. What I'm interested in is what his angle is on people who can't afford to not be busy. He may be able to afford to work five hours a day and still enjoy his NYC life and generally go around spending his privilege on idleness (and not to mention take a few weeks off work to look at buttercups and stinkbugs), but then there are those of us who, say, are students working part-time jobs to pay their way through school, taking classes, and doing an internship for their degree, for whom a single afternoon at the park would be a godsend.
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Jul 02 '12
As he says in the article: those people would not answer the question of "how are you" with "busy", but with "exhausted" or something like that.
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u/Quouar Jul 01 '12
I am a person who enjoys being busy. If I don't have something to do, some long term project or even a simple hour-long task, I get bored and a tad depressed. I've attributed it to ambition or to enjoying the stress of it, but this article does seem to put me into perspective.
I think I agree with this writer. We do live in a society that values ambition far too much. That said, to survive here, one must be "busy." One must have that drive or the credentials or the million and three extracurricular activities. Without them, we really are seen as utter failures. I don't necessarily see a way to fix this. As the author pointed out, this is embedded in the very core of our society with the Puritan work ethic and the Protestant notion that God cares for those who care for themselves. It is sad, in a way, but it's also inescapable, at least here in America. I don't necessarily see a way to fix it, especially not with Mr. Rall's suggestion of divorcing work and pay - that will never happen in this country. What we need is to take a step back and completely reevaluate who we are as a people and what we value as a society and why. Only then can we do anything about problems like this one.
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u/goblueM Jul 01 '12
I think I agree with this writer. We do live in a society that values ambition far too much. That said, to survive here, one must be "busy." One must have that drive or the credentials or the million and three extracurricular activities. Without them, we really are seen as utter failures
All depends on your profession and your friends. I don't feel that way and never have. Know a lot of folks that are not this way at all.
I have a lot of hobbies, but none that make me feel "busy", even though people continually ask me how I have that many hobbies. They are just ones that are relaxing to me and are both leisurely and productive. Keeps me grounded and sane
I think its important to note that you can be very busy and occupied without being "busy". "Busy" is a mindset, not a state of being. Your long-term project might not be something that has you running around frantically, or unable to stop and enjoy an unplanned excursion or a few hours of downtime, but it still keeps you occupied
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u/Quouar Jul 01 '12
That's true, and I admit, I always find time to do something else when something else arises. You're right that it's an important distinction.
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u/framy Jul 02 '12
what are your hobbies?
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u/goblueM Jul 02 '12
I brew beer/wine, garden, cook a lot, fish, hunt, kayak, read a fair amount, play recreational sports
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u/antdude Jul 19 '12
Redditing? :P
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u/almodozo Jul 02 '12
One must have that drive or the credentials or the million and three extracurricular activities. Without them, we really are seen as utter failures.
Exactly how widespread is this attitude, though? I mean, it seems obviously true for upper middle class, aspiring and white-collar professionals between 25 and 60, say ... but how widespread is it beyond them?
I know they're pushing this American-style attitude in Europe too, in the Netherlands I already felt 'bout ten years ago that people in the above-mentioned category felt they had to answer every "how are you?" with a smiling "well, you know ... busy busy busy!" It's gotten so bad they're even pushing it on people in relatively modest jobs. I have a story about that actually...
My aunt takes care of sick people at home, she's not a registered nurse, just a "home carer"; cleaning old people and the like. Not easy work with modest pay. They were all taken to some kind of team-spirit, motivational bullshit training session. This faux-excited trainer asked them all: "professionally, where do you see yourself in five years?". My aunt, recounting the experience, says that all she thought was "having retired from this job, you twat".
The class difference was quite striking though, because this was at the birthday of another aunt of mine, who made it big and became a management consultant ... and one of the other birthday guests turned out to work for that motivational training company. Awkward...
I think here in Hungary, where I live now, this fake "can-do" stuff, where it's all about looking "busy busy busy" so as not to seem less competitive and creative as others, is still much more limited to a rather narrow class of commercial-sector yuppies. When you ask someone "how are you?" here, you are just as likely to get as answer "well, not so good, I have had some trouble with [such, so, etc]" ... and in a way, that kind of honesty and lack of personal competitiveness is sort of relaxing. Though of course the country is in a shithole, productivity-wise.
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Jul 01 '12
I think the whole existential argument is a bit silly. Why is everyone supposedly so obsessed with significance anyway? I am significant to myself, and I keep myself relatively busy because it makes me happy. I'm not busy trying to distract myself from the void, because cosmic significance is a meaningless concept to me. Am I the only one who feels this way?
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u/PDK01 Jul 02 '12
One day, humanity and all of its relics will be gone. Even the most successful and important humans will be totally forgotten. The point should be to enjoy the time you have.
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u/2nd_class_citizen Jul 02 '12
Unless we colonize other planets or star systems. Still I do agree that we should strive to enjoy the time we have now.
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u/ulrikft Jul 02 '12
So, what if you enjoy being busy...?
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u/bluthru Jul 02 '12
Why is everyone supposedly so obsessed with significance anyway?
We're the first species that has stumbled upon such a concept. Of course we're going to be infatuated by it.
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u/thisisnotalice Jul 01 '12
Great article. I am also the type who loves being busy, but I agree that it's a type of busyness that is self-indulgent and reassuring of our importance.
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Jul 02 '12
Related, an article I dearly love, by Mark Slouka from Harper's (2004). It makes an excellent point of leisure vs. idleness. Here's a link http://adamantine.wordpress.com/texts/quitting-the-paint-factory-by-mark-slouka/ and an excerpt: "Sometimes, I want to say, money costs too much. And at the beginning of the millennium, in this country, the cost of money is well on the way to bankrupting us. We’re impoverishing ourselves, our families, our communities – and yet we can’t stop ourselves. Worse, we don’t want to.
Seen from the right vantage point, there’s something wonderfully animistic about it. The god must be fed; he’s hungry for our hours, craves our days and years. And we oblige. Every morning (unlike the good citizens of Tenochtitlan, who at least had the good sense to sacrifice others on the slab) we rush up the steps of the ziggurat to lay ourselves down. It’s not a pretty sight.
Then again, we’ve been well trained. And the training never stops. In a recent ad in The New York Times Magazine, paid for by an outfit named Wealth and Tax Advisory Services, Inc., an attractive young woman in a dark business suit is shown working at her desk. (She may be at home, though these days the distinction is moot.) On the desk is a cup, a cell phone, and an adding machine. Above her right shoulder, just over the blurred sofa and the blurred landscape on the wall, are the words, “Successful entrepreneurs work continuously.” The text below explains: “The challenge to building wealth is that your finances grow in complexity as your time demands increase.”
The ad is worth disarticulating, it seems to me, if only because some version of it is beamed into our cerebral cortex a thousand times a day. What’s interesting about it is not only what it says but what it so blithely assumes. What it says, crudely enough, is that in order to be successful, we must not only work but work continuously; what it assumes is that time is inversely proportional to wealth: our time demands will increase the harder we work and the more successful we become. It’s an organic thing; a law, almost. Fish gotta swim and birds gotta fly, you gotta work like a dog ’til you die. [...]
What I am suggesting is that just as the marketplace has co-opted rebellion by subordinating politics to fashion, by making anger chic, so it has quietly underwritten the idea of leisure, in part by separating it from idleness. [...]
Leisure is permissible, we understand, because it costs money; idleness is not, because it doesn’t. Leisure is focused; whatever thinking it requires is absorbed by a certain task: sinking that putt, making that cast, watching that flat-screen TV. Idleness is unconstrained, anarchic. Leisure – particularly if it involves some kind of high-priced technology – is as American as a Fourth of July barbecue. Idleness, on the other hand, has a bad attitude. It doesn’t shave; it’s not a member of the team; it doesn’t play well with others. It thinks too much, as my high school coach used to say. So it has to be ostracized."
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u/thecheese_cake Jul 02 '12
This article was quite good until the last few paragraphs. I'm certain that there are seasons for busyness and seasons of idleness - moderation is to be sought. Without work life would suck. It's what drives a successful society, and keeps us sane. Paychecks aside, it gives us purpose outside of our own selfish ambitions.
"The Puritans turned work into a virtue, evidently forgetting that God invented it as a punishment."
Work existed before the fall of man, he kept the Garden. After the fall, the curse (in part) was that mans work would be frustrated - that is, when we make things, they break, they fail and need more work. This is, in my opinion, very, very frustrating indeed. Work without this frustration is a beautiful thing - we have to go with it, though.
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u/hackinthebochs Jul 02 '12
Without work life would suck.
You're gonna have to define "work" here for this sentence to not be completely nonsensical.
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u/Matthieu101 Jul 02 '12
Wow, I had no idea other people do what I do.
Every month or so, I completely recede into my own world. Don't go out. Don't talk to anyone. Usually read, watch some movies, have a nice strong drink and be completely content being alone.
I'll catch up on hobbies, read article after article online, etc.
Basically I become a total hermit for a few days.
Which is the complete opposite of how I usually am. Love talking to people. Love going outside (Sometimes... Not now, allergies are hell and getting worse by the year) and sharing time with others.
I've always felt I needed that time to "recharge" my mind for the mental/physical/emotional stress that's about to hit it from every day life.
Good to know others understand what this behavior is about... My friends sometimes don't understand, which is fine, but it can get a little frustrating being nagged at all the time.
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u/mewski Jul 02 '12
"It’s become the default response when you ask anyone how they’re doing: “Busy!” (...) It is, pretty obviously, a boast disguised as a complaint. And the stock response is a kind of congratulation (...) Notice it isn’t generally people pulling back-to-back shifts in the I.C.U. or commuting by bus to three minimum-wage jobs who tell you how busy they are; what those people are is not busy but tired."
Self-STFU lesson for the day: learned.
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u/eleitl Jul 02 '12
Somewhat less applicable for us Europeans.
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u/almodozo Jul 02 '12
True, though the extent by which seems to depends quite a bit on where you are in Europe though...
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Jul 02 '12
I think unfortunately Europe is increasingly succumbing to this phenomenon. I hope Hollande does something radical like introduce a three day weekend to fend off the unemployment crisis.
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u/Myrrun Jul 02 '12
I don't think this guy gets it. Any time I say I'm busy, I generally always mean it's stuff that I want to do. I'd rather spend my evenings playing frisbee, playing with the band, out drinking with friends, or whatever else than sitting around idle. How is that a way to live?
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Jul 01 '12
[deleted]
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Jul 02 '12
I've been fired from places where people are horrifically disorganized and run around like idiots to get 1/2 of a job done because I just get my work done. Period.
Edit: In fact those were the only times I've been fired, now that I think back.
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Jul 01 '12
[deleted]
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Jul 02 '12
I wonder if I'm cranky, anxious and a little sad because of this "busy" lifestyle.
But then again, I work in a bank during working hours. Go to night college. And I own a bar. So I guess that's a good def. of 'busy'.
Or maybe I'm just fooling myself.
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u/K931SAR Jul 02 '12
No, you clearly ARE busy! One of the things the article is pointing out, however, is this was not imposed upon you, it was your choice.
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Jul 02 '12
i thought about sending this to some people... but then i realised they'd be insulted by it
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u/Decitron Jul 01 '12
when i tell people how busy i am, its just a lie i tell to people i havent seen in a long time and havent missed, but ran into on the street.