A Rambling On Modern Work
A description of why remaining permanently unemployed remains an attractive option for me and those similar to me
A Story
A relative of mine – I will call him Dhruv to preserve his identity – holds a Director of Sales position at a startup that offers continuing education to adults looks to switch careers. These types of bootcamps1 have proliferated especially in the past three years with the advent of remote work. They span all kinds of topics: cybersecurity, UX design, backend engineering; to name a few.
According to Dhruv, the proliferation of these “schools” has invited a certain scrutiny from the Federal Government, who wish to regulate the “bootcamp industry” more closely. Starting this year, his company is required to report all aggregate data on graduation rates and subsequent employment, which will be to collate a metric of success.
One problem is that the government has limited definitions of what success means:
A individual who completes a 6-month program in >6 months (for any reason), but nevertheless lands a career change is considered delinquent graduate.
A individual who stops their 6-month program after three months, but learns what they needed to land a career change is considered a dropout.
An individual who completes a 6-month program, and lands a career change in a different field than the program’s aim is considered an incomplete.
And a couple more similar scenarios and accompanying labels.
Between these different classifications, on paper it looks like the startup provides a success rate to clients of <10%. At this point, Dhruv is faced with the following tasks.
On the one hand, he must follow through on publishing this “<10%” success rate to the public, lest Lady Law viciously bear down upon him for “misrepresenting his business”.
On the other hand, he must report his quarterly numbers to his CEO2 in a way that shows clearly a much higher rate of sales success to remain in good promotional standing.
And on yet a third hand, he must train his sales managers and salespeople to close deals in such a way that complies with both of these incentives.
Consider that the majority of Dhruv’s intellectual capacity for foreseeable future will be dedicated to finding a way to walk this evidently, obviously, insane tightrope. Even more, his spiritual capacity will be dedicated to fulfilling this insanity while convincing himself that he is a “good person” doing “good work” in the world.
Now, Dhruv has told me in private that he finds the type of challenge before him to be quite titillating; this either indicates that:
He genuinely enjoys the thrill of coming up with some intricate system to satisfy the bullshit of various stakeholders on all fronts.
He is choosing to adopt an optimistic attitude toward his vile circumstances, as a matter of fostering positive mental health.
Personally, I can’t decide which one of those scenarios is more horrifying.
Leadership
There are many public personalities who write all manner of articles, books, and Twitter threads on leadership. Their descriptions of a “good leader” range anywhere from taking responsibility, to expressing vulnerability, to staying grounded, to providing missional clarity.
They are all wrong. The people who write such treatises don’t deal with the drudgery of the economic abyss called the modern marketplace. The fact is, what is demanded more than ever in a “leader” today, is to become Dhruv.
Dhruv (noun) – considered alpha; the one who relishes in applying the limits of their cerebral prowess to the spiritually bankrupt activity of spewing blatant contradictions to satisfy a never-ending list of invasive stakeholders.
Becoming Dhruv is what is expected of me, and any other moderately intelligent and ambitious young man, by modernity. This realization causes me a level of despair that sends me into a void so dark that Nietzsche himself runs away.
Relationships
If this sad state of affairs was confined to the realm of the “professional world”, one might be able to subsist, finding refuge in a set of hobbies or close personal engagements. Unfortunately, the directive to Dhruvify increasingly infects those sources of meaning, too.
Almost every group, even as small as six people, engaged in any attempt at meaningful creation somehow requires the pacification of some political, religious, or identity-based neurosis. The cream that rises to the crop is the one – Dhruv – who performs diplomacy by speaking ten different ways out of ten different sides of their mouth. This is not a diplomacy based on finding resonance; it’s one based on producing a smooth reassurance to explicitly maintain participation in a rabid incoherence.
Furthermore, much effort put forth by me – the one who cares about articulating coherence – is readily hijacked by the forces that animate Dhruv. In my case, as mentioned, it has even brought its blight to the arena of immediate family.
“Where did all the good men go? Why are they dropping out of the workforce and refusing to pursue family life? Where has all their faith gone?”
To be continued…
e.g., Lambda School
Because the CEO must report certain sales numbers to his investors, because the investors must report certain numbers to funders, etc.