Does anyone do "Real Work" these days?

How many people actually do "Real Work" these days?

This is a funny statement to me now, Real Work.  Obviously, it is "Real Work," as judged by whomever happens to be our partner in conversation, or someone we overhear on the bus or... but I guess I think of "Real Work" to be a heartfelt attempt put forth in doing a good job with whatever your job may be.

I have a new job, I am working at a university, and I have been getting a bit down lately.  I really miss my students back in Chumpuang, they are now finishing Elementary school (the class I have taught since 2nd grade, now in 6th grade), and I am a bit sad to not be able to spend these days with them.  We talk on LINE (a free chat mobile app), and I go and visit, but its not really the same...

Anyways, sitting in my new office, a room shared with 9 other individuals, I can't help but think;  hey!  No one really ever works more than half a day, and even that half is full of distractions.  Its like there is no time for full dedicated work.  The part of the day where people finish pretty much all they will get done for the day, seems to be from about 9:30AM-11:00AM, still has many opportunities for slacking off.  I don't think that it is unique to Thailand anymore either, as I now inquire specifically of my foreign friend's experiences in their respective countries.

I have a pretty much uniform account now of standards being lowered worldwide, these reports which form my opinion coming mainy from discussions while on travels, while abroad talking with other people whom are also traveling, talking with foreign nationals both in their own homelands and abroad... I am quite a talker, and I love meeting new people, while traveling and while at home, and I do not like to just sit and chat.  I always try to talk about issues relevant across cultures (yes obviously these are things that I find to be relevant, this is of course my opinion), and form opinions both on my own and with the help of those whom I connect.  Or don't connect :)  and can then also use those non-connections in forming my ideas as well.*

I see that things are much more alike than statistics want us to believe.  The countries that people like to think of as the Top of the Heap* in pretty much every (positive) measurable category, are, in the opinion of the people from those respective countries, not all that great.  Not all that better than the country in which we had/have these various discussions...

*(Top of the Heap being Scandinavia's 5 countries and then Switzerland makes 6)

When the subject of "Real Work" arises, it seems to be a uniform blanket of disappointment with how things are going at home, education-wise, opportunity wise, pretty much any aspect of life.  It also might seem that people are quite pessimistic, but then again, pessimism might be the 'norm' now, and therefore these people would then be a good example of 'normal people' from whom we can gain the information that it would be hard to gather ourselves (unless you, someone who doesn't trust any statistics in books you read, choose instead to go to all these countries you're interested in, and form opinions for yourselves...)  then just take my word for it, after I am taking their word for it - and the word is this -

The Whole World is much more lazy than the one which we read (past) about in books, the world of our Grandparents.  Obviously it is not completely true, but I think there is a serious need for each of us to honestly analyze our lives, our jobs, and do something about it!  Make yourself proud of the ways in which you spend each day of your life!  Its your life!  Its a gift!  Each day really is a gift, do you think that all the people who died this morning all over the world expected to die this morning?

Work hard, and then enjoy the well-deserved time off.  Reject a world that tells us the line "Im so busy!" is a good thing to say!

Anyways, as I sat here trying not to get down, trying to find useful ways to spend my time while still chained to this chair, still wading through all the noise of people taking turns distracting each other from what really are quite small and just 'busy' tasks to begin with, most tasks of which would not even be necessary if all people everywhere in the world decided once and for all to just treat each other with respect, and work their own jobs honestly and happily... I am thinking.  And starting to write a blog article about it.  Tasks such as an entire job position being needed to decorate rooms to receive "VIPs" in conference rooms, making sure said VIPs are fed with different and special food worthy of their visit, and that they are all watered and coffee-ed throughout all-day completely unnecessary meetings...  What job is this really?  Would the VIPs still come if they knew they would receive no special treatment?  What if no one knew what 'special' treatment was from the beginning though?  What if everyone was equally respected from the get-go, and didnt have these selfish egos to deal with at the root of all things, ambition, greed, the quest for power...

I am going quite over, quite out of proportion now, but... but I am quite annoyed at the status quo today...  If an evaluation report was written, crazier still - there would be no fault found!  This system is insane!  There are also, so many jobs that require FAR less of their employees than this!

As I am sitting here thinking such things, the 5 minutes it would take to do the task I have today found me roving over a few websites looking at various teaching schedule diagrams... and I found this!!  It was an example of essays used in English Exit Exams, and it is pure truth!  Genius!  Read this!  I might re-read it, this guy hit the nail on the head, but also reminds me to stay optimistic with any opportunity that I do have... no matter how meaningless the actual "appointed tasks" seem to be, there are so many silver linings to having a useless minion job.

Have a better day, a fun day for anyone sitting in an office, after you read this!

http://www.ccdmd.qc.ca/media/ss_rel_texts_Booklet_StupidJobs.pdf

I can finish the day starting a new list of ideas of things to do, completely unrelated to work, but things which would be perfect to do in the giant amounts of free time I have while sitting at this desk waiting for the occasional nothing to happen.

(Just so you know,while sitting here I am not playing tetris, or even worse, browsing the profiles of people that I BARELY know (but still feel that I can judge them by the pictures they post) on facebook.  So far my time has been spent practicing Thai (reading and writing), looking at maps and trying to memorize the locations and routes to potentially cool stuff to visit on bike rides before and after work, writing emails to old friends, something that I had no time to do at my previous job, and reading historical wikipedia articles one after another, and NEVER reading about any "news" whatsoever, unless it is a report of something that someone actually did themselves... i.e a science experiment (preferably not one funded by a pharmaceutical company :).)

Ok, have a great day everyone!



*If you are wondering what non-connections means, haha, I am referring to the Power of Silent Information.  This is also probably a confusing term :)  Silent Information refers to all the cases that have been ignored due to NOTHING happening, or a LACK of results.  They still however, should be counted and accounted for when forming what we THINK to be Conclusions on this or that aspect of life.  Although it sounds funny, negative activity is still a result!  "Nothing Happened" is still a useful result for someone such as a scientist (if they realize it), they might have learned what NOT to do the next time and/or help others to save the time...
Quick example for normal people, non-scientists; One man performs a somewhat brave act and saves his ship from sinking in a strong, yet survivable storm, and upon returning home is hailed as a hero!  Ninety-two other men on ninety-two other ships performed gigantic acts of true heroism, nearly saving thousands of souls, but were simply unlucky enough to have faced storms large enough to sink all ships, killing everyone on board.  We only hear about the acts performed by 1/93 cases, but countless numbers of documentaries, news recaps, and special interviews starring this one man form the material with which a million old-times sit on their porches and discuss how Mr. One man is a model for all humanity... these old timers might then even influence their respective societies forming tall tales based on this man who is now a timeless hero, those societies forming entire ideas and traditions based on what is really just completely wrong information...   Be wary of Silent Information.  All of the cases that you DON'T hear about, and never will, still hold TONS of useful life information if we only used our minds, remained skeptical, and really tried to understand statistics!

**And, I recommend the following books, hilarious, genius, and startling, written by Nassim Taleb - The Black Swan, and Fooled By Randomness.