this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2023
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I often daydream about how society would be if we were not forced by society to pigeon hole ourselves into a specialized career for maximizing the profits of capitalists, and sell most of our time for it.

The idea of creating an entire identity for you around your "career" and only specializing in one thing would be ridiculous in another universe. Humans have so much natural potential for breadth, but that is just not compatible with capitalism.

This is evident with how most people develop "hobbies" outside of work, like wood working, gardening, electronics, music, etc. This idea of separating "hobbies" and the thing we do most of our lives (work) is ridiculous.

Here's how my world could be different if I owned my time and dedicated it to the benefit of my own and my community instead of capitalists:

  • more reading, learning and excusing knowledge with others.
  • learn more handy work, like plumbing and wood working. I love customizing my own home!
  • more gardening
  • participate in the transportation system (picking up shifts to drive a bus for example)
  • become a tour guide for my city
  • cook and bake for my neighbors
  • academic research
  • open source software (and non-software) contributions
  • pick up shifts at a cafรฉ and make coffee, tea and smoothies for people
  • pick up shifts to clean up public spaces, such as parks or my own neighborhood
  • participate in more than one "professions". I studied one type of engineering but work in a completely different engineering. This already proves I can do both, so why not do both and others?

Humans do not like the same thing over and over every day. It's unnatural. But somehow we revolve our whole livelihood around if.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I would be what I am now, just a more "official" version of it, since what I do is akin to a paid hobby and has no firmly nested societal position. But that's assuming what I do would be valued in other types of societies either (it's just barely valued in Capitalism). I know a Marxist society most likely wouldn't value what I do as it's only a necessity-based job on a technical level. And it would have little relevance in Distributism, I think. Mutualism is a coin toss.

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

What do you do now?

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I would do loads of degrees. History, English, Psychology, Politics, Spanish, etc. Having the brain space to focus on learning would be amazing. I did my masters part time while working full time and it was a nightmare. Glad I did it but I couldn't do my best as I was bogged down in work stuff.

I would also like to learn more languages. I do a bit of Spanish and Danish when I can but I rarely have the mental energy after work.

Travel too. Maybe write a book.

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Gymnastics, surfing, and study and write philosophical works. And maybe practice guitar.

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Part of what creates in me so much faith in communism is my profession vs my interests.

I am an engineer. If I didn't need to sell my labor I would be an engineer who solves problems and creates progress. Since I live in America, I don't.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I'd love to spend more time planting trees. I volunteer to do it occasionally on weekends but I really love the process of going from sprout to seedling to planted. I just wish I could do more of it.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Same thing I do now, but instead of full-time work / part-time student, I'd flip it to part-time work and full-time student.

I'm hanging on to the bottom step of the medical ladder - this field is fascinating as fuck, and even as just a tech I get a lot of satisfaction in my role (albeit minor relative to doctors or nurses) in helping others recover from whatever sickness/injury they present with.

Without the financial barriers and current need to work till exhaustion to afford rent, I'd be highly interested in going all the way to physician, but at the rate I'm able to actually afford the time and money to take classes, I'll be pushing 40 when I'm able to clear the hurdle from tech to nurse; and it already hurts to move half of my fucking joints, so once this nursing shit is finished, I don't see myself climbing any more ladders, literal or otherwise... at that point it'll just be the counting the days till retirement or planning out the most pleasurable way to commit suicide.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

I'm an intellectually overqualified filmmaker surrounded by anti-intellectuals (I routinely get made fun of for being interested in technical stuff)....and right now, I am on workman's comp with a broken foot. So: exactly what I am doing right now is exactly what I would want to be doing.

What's that?
Hanging out with my daughter in my lab,

Learning

  • Haskell/Plutus
  • Purescript
  • using Nix to glue them together
  • hacking an espresso machine (either with a RISC_V Lychee Pi or an ESP32...haven't decided yet).

Practicing:

  • guitar

Blazing:

  • chronic
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[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I'd be writing a lot more music

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Probably sleep or do gamedev in a full time fashion.

I would love to do more with animation especially non-traditional animation like LED or Pinscreen, but the barrier of entry is just too high.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I would, in no certain order:

  • Work at a coffee shop part time making coffee for people. Preferably a locally owned shop, but it wouldn't matter too much if not.
  • Work as a bartender similarly as above
  • Potentially garden if I have the time and interest for it
  • Create more YouTube videos
  • Write, record, and release more music
  • Learn to paint
  • Get a film camera and take photos with it
  • Contribute to FLOSS projects
  • Finally make that D&D table that doubles as a dining table that I've been wanting to make for a few months now
  • Actually follow through on learning my several languages I'm working on learning
  • Become an interpreter (probably in ASL)
  • Develop video games
  • Create more art in general
  • Do research on how art and society mingle together and interact
[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I think about this at least a little bit most days.

I'd finish some video games again.

Work on more music, ideally practice piani again to get my theory back on track.

Make projects, communal gardening etc..

Outside the selfish self-enrichment kinda stuff, teach kids programming, and participate more in my hema club.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

What would you when you get in this undefined yet not capitalist utopia and are forced to work long hours at a job you didn't choose to help further the cause of the revolution?

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I'd play music for my community. It's alright by myself but I love an audience.

Get involved in whatever community food garden is around.

Make art. Give it away.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I'd probably still be a mechanical engineer, but maybe I could have gotten some more education in the direction of nuclear power and/or automation. I might have also had another kid instead of just one.

Edit: I'd also like to learn and get good at welding. It would be cool to not only engineer a nuclear power plant, but to help actually build it as well. Then again, I'd probably never get good enough at welding to do so unless I devoted myself to the trade. Maybe I could just get some shifts as a plant operator after it's built.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

If I could start from scratch, maybe something. In my current condition I would probably just feel unproductive and guilty every day, with no personal direction of my own.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Without capitalism, I'd probably be serf like my great-grandparents were. There's a lot to criticize about capitalism, but it's still an improvement on its predecessor.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Rock climbing. I got into over summer but I only have time to go once or twice a week at most. And that's just indoors. A whole outdoor trip would take way too much of my time, time that I don't have.

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