From Useless Toil to Skilled Work
thephilosopher1923.substack.com
From Useless Toil to Skilled Work
"Better Work" by Joshua Habgood-Coote
Your mid-week read!
“Better Work”: This delightful essay by Joshua Habgood-Coote takes as its starting point the “Umarell”, the retired man who choose to spend his days watching construction sites and roadworks on the streets of Bologna and surrounding towns. Moving from this sense of nostalgia for manual work, Josh raises key questions about craft-based reality television; the deskilling of the labour process; the degradation of work, and much more. As he concludes, “we should be concerned not just about the quantity of work which we are forced to perform, but also about the character of this work, and the role it plays in shaping the mental lives of workers.” You can read Josh’s essay here.
I'm somebody who carries most of my generalized anxiety with feeling busy. I avoid being constantly busy, and then I lament myself for not making improvements to my work habits. This piece demystifies my preoccupation with feeling busy; I especially feel better reading about work maximalism and work minimalism.
Instead of arguing with myself about getting any creative work done, I should reflect about the foundation that's upholding my assumptions about busyness. Looks like I have much disentangling to do.