We find ourselves at the edge of cataclysm. Scratch that. We develop the capacity to discover ourselves when we face the edge. Yes, that's better. Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, who hashed out the theory of flow, explained that essentially we experience ego loss when we engage in tasks that are challenging enough to stand on the ceiling of our level of skill. If the task is not challenging, we grow complacent. If the task is too challenging, we are stressed by our inability to measure up. If the task is just right for us, we are given the opportunity to transcend ourselves.
Have you heard of impostor syndrome? We could be our own doppelgangers, a generation full of some of the brightest, most competent people who are terrified of failure despite growing up with the constant reassurance that we are all special and unique and somehow great from birth. Then the real world slaps us down from that cocoon of blissful ignorance and we accept working for sixty hours a week for less pay than we deserve because we are afraid. We have our justifications; "the economy is bad, i'm lucky to have a job at all", "i can't afford to lose this job, i have no safety net".
We are given insurmountable tasks of no meaningful consequence. Do it or risk being fired in favour of someone else willing to do it--someone willing to work longer hours for less money. The objective is no longer to give you tasks you can finish, the objective is to give you a neverending stream of tasks and it is someone else's job to figure out where the beginnings and endings need to be. We live in a vertically-oriented society where the objective is to squeeze as much labour out of the poor sod hanging on for dear life to the rung below your own.
It's pointless to be a realist, when reality is nothing more than a layer of scaffolding on a structure made entirely of abstractions. Better, perhaps, to be a pragmatist and reject what everyone else believes and wants you to believe. If you don't buy into it, all their power disappears immediately. It's all a game of confidence, a game we lose when we let petty fears steal our focus.
Have you heard of impostor syndrome? We could be our own doppelgangers, a generation full of some of the brightest, most competent people who are terrified of failure despite growing up with the constant reassurance that we are all special and unique and somehow great from birth. Then the real world slaps us down from that cocoon of blissful ignorance and we accept working for sixty hours a week for less pay than we deserve because we are afraid. We have our justifications; "the economy is bad, i'm lucky to have a job at all", "i can't afford to lose this job, i have no safety net".
We are given insurmountable tasks of no meaningful consequence. Do it or risk being fired in favour of someone else willing to do it--someone willing to work longer hours for less money. The objective is no longer to give you tasks you can finish, the objective is to give you a neverending stream of tasks and it is someone else's job to figure out where the beginnings and endings need to be. We live in a vertically-oriented society where the objective is to squeeze as much labour out of the poor sod hanging on for dear life to the rung below your own.
It's pointless to be a realist, when reality is nothing more than a layer of scaffolding on a structure made entirely of abstractions. Better, perhaps, to be a pragmatist and reject what everyone else believes and wants you to believe. If you don't buy into it, all their power disappears immediately. It's all a game of confidence, a game we lose when we let petty fears steal our focus.
