Philosophical Thursday: The Human Need for Meaningful Work

Hey Everyone,

Happy Thursday! I hope you’re crushing this week!

I wanted to share something I have been thinking about a bit recently: the human need for meaningful work and creative expression.

If I recall correctly, several prominent intellectuals have discussed this / written about it. I think I first came across the concept while reading Noam Chomsky, back in my university days…

There was an interesting and very cruel Nazi study I read about in Carnegie’s book, “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” He described how, in a concentration camp, the prisoners were made to move a huge pile of dirt every day from one end of the camp to the other. There was absolutely no purpose to this work, and the task was never complete because every day they were forced to move it again.

After a while, some of the prisoners became mentally ill and/or suicidal. The meaningless task (likely compounded with everything else in their environment) literally pushed them over the edge into insanity.

That got me thinking again about meaningful work, and its essentialism for our mental, emotional and spiritual health.

Would you agree with me that having meaningful work is absolutely essential for human beings, and that without it, we are headed for a dark place?

Let me tell you a bit of a story… After I graduated high school, I got my first job, as I decided to take at least a year off before going to college. I worked at a nearby car wire harness factory. Being in Canada, the working conditions were certainly decent – it was clean, the employees got quarterly or bi-annual raises, health benefits, even their birthday off paid! Thus, it was much better than factory jobs in many parts of the world…

That said, I remember the nihilism in the place, especially amongst the long-term employees. Several of them had that ‘soulless look’ in their eyes, literally, as they’d extend a wire to cut, load a machine, or assemble a harness for the millionth time. There were also plenty of chain smokers, and a large number of people just looked unhappy in general as they ground through day after day, year after year, at that place. My heart wept for them, and for people around the world who are stuck in such jobs.

Even in my short time there, I felt like I was wasting my life away, regardless of the salary. There was just nothing intrinsically meaningful or interesting about cutting wires and taping them together to make harnesses! We were just pawns in someone else’s chess game, or cogs in their wheel, to use some metaphors.

After that experience, I remember my mother saying something along the lines of “you know what kills? Boring work! So go to university and find something you like to do.”

I didn’t need to be told twice!🤣

She also told me that “it is a great privilege to be able to do what you want to do, and for that, you should be grateful.” Truer words have never been spoken!🙏

Comparing my current job (teaching English at elementary and junior high schools in Japan) to my previous one (teaching English and engaging in interesting conversations with students at a Japanese university) I can certainly feel the difference! My old job really allowed me to use my strengths, and make a difference in my students’ lives, while my current one is far more mundane, low-level, and less-rewarding for both me and the students. At my previous one, I was happy to work until 6:00 pm, as it was usually meaningful and interesting, whereas at my current one, I am more than happy to go home at 4:30. That said, I am still grateful that I get to at least teach, instead of doing something monotonous and meaningless, and some of my students get a lot out of it, even if I don’t.

Thinking about this makes me excited to start my own Skool and YT channel in the near future. The thought of eventually teaching people chess online full-time sounds too good to be true, at least compared to the majority of jobs, and is worth fighting for.

On a related note, seeing as AI is advancing rapidly, many meaningful and interesting jobs might be taken by AI, which could have a terrible effect, not only on the economy (huge unemployment), but also on the human condition itself. I do worry that, if everything becomes automated and taken care of by AI, people will struggle to find meaning in their lives.

Many of us have heard stories of how some people pass away shortly after retirement. I think that has to do with them no longer serving a ‘purpose’ in a sense – especially if they do not have family to care for, or any meaningful hobbies outside of their job. Now, think of this ‘loss of purpose’ happening to many people, and at a much younger age, due to AI. It is certainly a bit frightening!

Some would argue that having AI do everything would be great, as we could just sit around and have fun, etc. I, however, believe that such a lifestyle is not congruent with the human spirit. We evolved in a tough world, where we had to work together and struggle for our very survival. It is in our DNA to accomplish, do meaningful work, build things, and struggle for the betterment of ourselves and others!

Thus, my hope for the future regarding AI, is that it works WITH us rather than FOR us. It would be great if all the boring / automated / meaningless work were taken care of by machines, freeing up humans to maximize their education, imagination and creativity. Imagine how much more rapidly we could advance if everyone had the chance to maximize their intellectual and creative potential!

Perhaps this is just some silly utopian fantasy… We’ll have to wait and see as time goes by.

What’s your take on meaningful work? Do you see it as essential for us?

What’s your vision of an ideal future in a rapidly changing, AI-driven, world?

Thanks for reading this long post. As always, I’m looking forward to your answers!😊

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