Mike Rowe, the host of “Dirty Jobs,” tells some compelling (and horrifying) real-life job stories. Listen for his insights and observations about the nature of hard work, and how it’s been unjustifiably degraded in society today.
Whitney Calls Pay Wall Street’s ‘Motivating Factor’
“No one goes into Wall Street to save the world,” Whitney said today in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “Compensation is the motivating factor.” … The failure to pay employees well may drive away “the best and the brightest,” Whitney said.
Well, if the “best and the brightest” got us where we are today, imagine what the mediocre could do.
Regardless, where are these disaffected geniuses going to go in this economy? Back to school? Engineering? Teaching jobs? These all seem like fairly good outcomes.
Today in Happy News: Alcohol and IQ
[F]or every 15-point increase in childhood mental ability score, the likelihood of drinking problems increased 1.38 times for women, and 1.17 times for men
A Wall Street Job Can’t Match a Calling in Life: Michael Lewis
Job vs. Calling
The distinction is artificial but worth drawing. A job will never satisfy you all by itself, but it will afford you security and the chance to pursue an exciting and fulfilling life outside of your work. A calling is an activity you find so compelling that you wind up organizing your entire self around it — often to the detriment of your life outside of it.
There’s no shame in either. Each has costs and benefits. There is no reason to make a fetish of your career. There are activities other than work in which to find meaning and pleasure and even a sense of self-importance — you just need to learn how to look.
Michael Lewis' Mansion
Michael Lewis rents a ridiculous mansion in New Orleans for $13,000 / month (roughly the cost of a two-bedroom apartment here in New York).
Utilities were $2,700. That turned out not to include water, which was another $1,000. Think of it: $1,000 a month for water you don’t drink. (The drinking water came in truckloads from a spring-water company.)
Later:
It’s no good pretending that Americans didn’t know they couldn’t afford such properties, or that they were seduced into believing they could afford them by mendacious mortgage brokers or Wall Street traders. If they hadn’t lusted after the bigger house, they never would have met the mortgage brokers in the first place. The money-lending business didn’t create the American desire for unaffordable housing. It simply facilitated it.
(via kottke)
