Hacker News Reader

Comment by thisisit | Hacker News Reader

The whole safe but meaningless job is just romanticization. The same job can be meaningful if you are working on a good project. It can also be unsafe if the workplace is toxic.

It is about finding what you really want in life. Sometimes safe but boring is good enough. But sometimes working on a dream project might feel like a chore because of the circumstances and people.

View on HN

I love this response so much because it encapsulates a SO style response of "why are you soon X, you should do Y instead". The person asked about how to escape from a job he perceived as meaningless and safe, not a job everyone perceived as meaningless and safe.

To be fair, the only description was "your safe meaningless 9-5 job". There was no explanation at all whether this was a personal feeling and the person's particular circumstance, or a more generic association of any generic 9-5 job with the qualities of meaninglessness and safety. In fact, the wording and explanation seems to lean towards the generic association of 9-5 <-> safe and meaningless. more than the person's personal experience.

I mean, it's not like nobody in HN ever romanticized creating startups and pursuing dreams over "meaningless 9-5 jobs", right?

Well, many times those SO style responses are fine.

"Guys, how much gasoline should I pour to put out a fire?"

"Why are you pouring gasoline on the fire? Use a fire extinguisher or water if it's not an electrical fire!"

But you DO escape a meaningless job by giving it more meaning

It might be better to stop looking for meaning in your job. I don't think real meaning is there.

This does not mean that you shouldn't look for a better job, or one that has more meaning (for you). But ultimately, you need more meaning in your life than a job can provide. If you try to make your job provide meaning, it probably won't provide enough, no matter how good of a job it is.

And though a job may not provide real meaning, it can still be really meaningless. If it's just make-work, if it's just bureaucracy, if it's just pointless, then by all means, look for something better. Full meaning for your life isn't found in a job, but a meaningless job is soul-crushing.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com