Created: 2023-12-21 | Last edited: 2023-12-21
I was reading this essay by Peter Gray on why hunter gatherers work was "play" and decided that I wanted to discuss it and reflect on it a bit. For many people, their work is soul crushing. They do it because it is absolutely necessary to pay the bills and they would much rather be doing something else. Many people sit inside offices with no windows, doing tasks that they can not see the direct value of (if the task even has any inherent value) for atleast eight hours each day to make more money for a corporation that they do not care about. In turn they receive their salary which may only be enough for them to get by.
On the other hand, hunter gatherers work was more like play and not like how we view work. They did not need to do much work, they were able to do it when they wanted, it was done in a social setting and it was challenging. For more information on this I would highly recommend reading the article that I linked in the beginning of this post.
After pondering on this a bit I feel lucky to be in engineering/software. The work I do has the potential to be mentally challenging and new every day. There is the potential for it to be more laid back and have variable hours and a variable work location. Overall I believe that it has many perks over other traditional office jobs that allow the potential for it to be more like play than work. I am grateful for this.