doing

not to betray myself as a lazy dumbass, but people take their work way too seriously. either that or (if everyone's level of seriousness is actually appropriate) i am most certainly in the wrong field--as in, the field i should be in is playing rock festivals in Europe year round, getting high and writing poetry, sleeping in parks and dirty vans, with the retirement plan of dying at age 32 of massive liver failure. so that's probably not my field (neither, i'd wager, is my current field: namely, the real-life married-man steady-paycheck job, complete with the 6:00 metro ride into town with a tie on my neck and the badge that gives me authority to search databases all day). and since i got you into this paragraph with an either-or statement, that leaves us with only one solid conclusion: people take work too seriously.

given such an iron-clad argument, i now present an extension thereof, from which anyone who actually Does belong in my aforementioned field may be graciously excused: chill out.

none of us are changing the world, nor will we at this rate. modern success is a holding pattern for retirement, at which point we mostly intend to forget the previous part and convince ourselves we were born with grandkids, creeping dementia, and highwater pants (i guess the middle one is true, so you'll have an easier time with that).

our problem seems to be a lack of role models working at the bottom of a pay scale. as in, no coloring books celebrating the fact-checking bureaucrat--but secretly, we don't start our careers as best-selling authors, millionaires, and/or U.S. senators (don't tell anyone, though, especially not in college or elementary school). so then, how does the early professional behave? similar to copy-pasting when you have the wrong thing copied, we wind up with Serious-Business attitudes at internet-level jobs. you can ask around at 4chan how that works out.

for me: let's be honest, i wish i was on a stage in Europe, but i'll be on the metro at 6:00 tomorrow looking forward to coffee and trying not to want to change the world. whatever.