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6. If happiness was the national currency, what kind of work would make you rich?
What a seriously silly and roundabout way to ask what you like to do. Oooh, let’s make one of the simplest questions in the world sound very deep and meaningful! No, no, the ‘if money were no object’ slant has been done too many times, let’s come up with something different…
Look, anything done as a job will occasionally be not fun, or frustrating, because the whole idea of it being a job is that it has to be done. If I somehow got paid in ‘happiness’, the work I would do would be… nothing. That’s not to say I wouldn’t occasionally, in my free time, do things I enjoy, but mostly I’d like the option to just lounge in bed all day. Ah, but then would I be forced, because my job is doing ‘nothing’ to not do things I want to when I do feel motivated? Hmmm, that’s a good question. So I change my answer. I would want to be a putterer. That’s right, if happiness were the currency, I’d be the wealthiest if I just spent my time puttering about, doing whatever the mood struck me to do. There’s a recipe for a happy and productive society, isn’t it?
7. Are you doing what you believe in, or are you settling for what you are doing>
Depends on what you mean by ‘believe in’. My job isn’t an invisible pink unicorn, that’s for sure. I completely believe in streets and storm sewers, and I even believe it is important for them to be in good repair, therefore, it is important to have people to repair them. Do I feel passionately about doing my job? No, not really, but I don’t think most people do on a day-to-day basis. But I don’t want the mechanic fixing my brakes to thing he’s not doing something important and very worthwhile even though it’s the fifth brake job he’s done that day and he’s not feeling ‘inspired’. Society only runs and works because people do things that really need to be done, things that may not be glamorous and exciting and things they may not love. All this spewing of how important it is to follow your dreams and only do what enriches you is pure crap. Not everyone can do it. Here’s a better question: are you doing something important and worthwhile? Because that’s what’s going to benefit the world. I would miss the people that collect the garbage more than I would the artist following their ‘dream’. Way to make the people who work very hard at (what some see as) menial, dirty, but (really are) vitally important jobs feel bad, question-askers.
Huh, what do you know, a question on the list did actually inspire a bit of a serious answer from me.
8. If the average human life span was 40 years, how would you live your life differently?
I wouldn’t bother putting away for retirement, that’s for sure. Here’s the thing – I can’t answer that question, because society is set up for our current life expectancy. I mean, do you think you’d require a doctor to have 10 extra years of schooling? I certainly can’t imagine school for the average person would last until they are 18, given that you are still probably looking at a few years of not very high output ‘old age’ at the end of your life expectancy, that only gives them 20 (or fewer) ‘productive’ years. So much would be different it’s impossible to answer the question with anything that resembles a completely thought-through answer.
9. To what degree have you actually controlled the course your life has taken?
Depends on if you believe in pre-determination, I suppose. But as far as I know, pretty much entirely. I guess this question is supposed to make you think critically if other people are running your life, of course, if they’re doing a really good job of pulling your strings you don’t even know it, so…
10. Are you more worried about doing things right, or doing the right thing?
Why can’t it be both? How are these mutually exclusive things? It’s not the typically contradictory conundrum, so I’m confused as to why it’s really an issue. The more common question is if it is more important to do as you’re told, or to do the right thing (even though it might cost you your job or life), which calls into question how strongly you believe in what you think it ‘right’ and how much you are willing to sacrifice for it.
I’m honestly not sure how much more I can take of these questions. Every time I think about answering them, a feeling of dread washes over me (and not because I’m afraid of the answers or it’s opening some hidden corner of my mind, but because it is mind-numbingly pseudo-intellectual claptrap). I thought about just posting the questions and ‘answers’ in the form of unrelated photographs (what are flamingos not the answer to?!), which may still happen, but there’s also the possibility of combining the questions and the ‘write drabbles’ goals, and use the questions as prompts. But then you’d probably mostly get a lot of stories about a main character who thinks her psychiatrist is an idea, so that would get boring pretty quickly. Or I could just resort to curt, one-word answers. Or answer only in song titles! Hmmmmm… I will have to think about it. I’d really rather replace this goal with the ‘bring home less than 50 plastic bags’ goal that I accidentally left out, but that seems more cheating than cheating at the goal, so. We shall see. At 10 questions currently answered I’m ahead of the goal for the year, so that gives me some time to think.
What a seriously silly and roundabout way to ask what you like to do. Oooh, let’s make one of the simplest questions in the world sound very deep and meaningful! No, no, the ‘if money were no object’ slant has been done too many times, let’s come up with something different…
Look, anything done as a job will occasionally be not fun, or frustrating, because the whole idea of it being a job is that it has to be done. If I somehow got paid in ‘happiness’, the work I would do would be… nothing. That’s not to say I wouldn’t occasionally, in my free time, do things I enjoy, but mostly I’d like the option to just lounge in bed all day. Ah, but then would I be forced, because my job is doing ‘nothing’ to not do things I want to when I do feel motivated? Hmmm, that’s a good question. So I change my answer. I would want to be a putterer. That’s right, if happiness were the currency, I’d be the wealthiest if I just spent my time puttering about, doing whatever the mood struck me to do. There’s a recipe for a happy and productive society, isn’t it?
7. Are you doing what you believe in, or are you settling for what you are doing>
Depends on what you mean by ‘believe in’. My job isn’t an invisible pink unicorn, that’s for sure. I completely believe in streets and storm sewers, and I even believe it is important for them to be in good repair, therefore, it is important to have people to repair them. Do I feel passionately about doing my job? No, not really, but I don’t think most people do on a day-to-day basis. But I don’t want the mechanic fixing my brakes to thing he’s not doing something important and very worthwhile even though it’s the fifth brake job he’s done that day and he’s not feeling ‘inspired’. Society only runs and works because people do things that really need to be done, things that may not be glamorous and exciting and things they may not love. All this spewing of how important it is to follow your dreams and only do what enriches you is pure crap. Not everyone can do it. Here’s a better question: are you doing something important and worthwhile? Because that’s what’s going to benefit the world. I would miss the people that collect the garbage more than I would the artist following their ‘dream’. Way to make the people who work very hard at (what some see as) menial, dirty, but (really are) vitally important jobs feel bad, question-askers.
Huh, what do you know, a question on the list did actually inspire a bit of a serious answer from me.
8. If the average human life span was 40 years, how would you live your life differently?
I wouldn’t bother putting away for retirement, that’s for sure. Here’s the thing – I can’t answer that question, because society is set up for our current life expectancy. I mean, do you think you’d require a doctor to have 10 extra years of schooling? I certainly can’t imagine school for the average person would last until they are 18, given that you are still probably looking at a few years of not very high output ‘old age’ at the end of your life expectancy, that only gives them 20 (or fewer) ‘productive’ years. So much would be different it’s impossible to answer the question with anything that resembles a completely thought-through answer.
9. To what degree have you actually controlled the course your life has taken?
Depends on if you believe in pre-determination, I suppose. But as far as I know, pretty much entirely. I guess this question is supposed to make you think critically if other people are running your life, of course, if they’re doing a really good job of pulling your strings you don’t even know it, so…
10. Are you more worried about doing things right, or doing the right thing?
Why can’t it be both? How are these mutually exclusive things? It’s not the typically contradictory conundrum, so I’m confused as to why it’s really an issue. The more common question is if it is more important to do as you’re told, or to do the right thing (even though it might cost you your job or life), which calls into question how strongly you believe in what you think it ‘right’ and how much you are willing to sacrifice for it.
I’m honestly not sure how much more I can take of these questions. Every time I think about answering them, a feeling of dread washes over me (and not because I’m afraid of the answers or it’s opening some hidden corner of my mind, but because it is mind-numbingly pseudo-intellectual claptrap). I thought about just posting the questions and ‘answers’ in the form of unrelated photographs (what are flamingos not the answer to?!), which may still happen, but there’s also the possibility of combining the questions and the ‘write drabbles’ goals, and use the questions as prompts. But then you’d probably mostly get a lot of stories about a main character who thinks her psychiatrist is an idea, so that would get boring pretty quickly. Or I could just resort to curt, one-word answers. Or answer only in song titles! Hmmmmm… I will have to think about it. I’d really rather replace this goal with the ‘bring home less than 50 plastic bags’ goal that I accidentally left out, but that seems more cheating than cheating at the goal, so. We shall see. At 10 questions currently answered I’m ahead of the goal for the year, so that gives me some time to think.