Around ten years ago David Graeber wrote a short article for a magazine focusing on the phenomenon (and the implications) of what he called “bullshit jobs”. This book goes into more detail analyzing what these jobs are, why they exist, and what kind of financial and psychological damage they are doing.
Most of the book is based on the stories sent in to him after the initial article ran, and he has organized these stories (and subsequent interviews) into a threads that link together into a broader view of what it means to have one of these jobs. The stories are well-told and fun to read – one of the rules of having a bullshit job is that you don’t talk about your bullshit job, so getting this information straight from the sources is enlightening.
One possible weakness I saw with this book is that the author really makes some big assertions based on what (to me) seems like a small data set. The people who read his original article and then sent in stories of their own bullshit jobs probably don’t accurately represent all of society – and they may even have felt the need to exaggerate some points to make their story more illustrative.
Overall the book was informative to read, and the author’s thoughts on some industries that are especially prone to “bullshit” jobs are enlightening (for example, the financial services industry). The end of the book offers some ideas for moving beyond these jobs and suggests Universal Basic Income as an idea worth exploring to allow people to have more freedom in choosing what they want to do with their lives.
I enjoyed reading this book! Next I’m reading “Howl’s Moving Castle” by Diana Wynne Jones.
