The List by John Horn
Reply
Tag Archives: godfrey von nostitz tait
The History of Work Series Concludes
So there it is. This concludes The History of Work Series on the Daily Gumboot. Godfrey and I have researched, analyzed, evaluated, and delivered results on, first, the nature of work as it relates to community and, second, the best and worst jobs of all time. Here is a re-cap:
The Five Best and Worst Jobs Ever!
- Number 5: Pirate and First World War Message Runner
- Number 4: University Professor and Fact Checker at Fox News
- Number 3: Singer and Searcher of the Dead
- Number 2: Person Born into Wealth & Title and Politician
- Best/Worst. Job. Ever. Explorer and Slave.
And you undoubtedly had a great time reading the series – or selections from it – and learning all about the different careers and job opportunities that have impacted humanity over the past, well, forever. If you didn’t have a great time reading it, please contact Godfrey and ask for a refund.
Moving on…
One – or two – cannot engage in a project like this without asking some key questions about what it all means. Without further ado, here are three of those questions:
What was your creative process like?
JOHN: Well, it involved a lot of yelling. Swearing in German (mostly Godfrey). Swearing at Germans (mostly me). And also lots of love. We also surveyed over 15,000 people to find out what you - the readers – thought were the best and worst jobs of all time. As Historians – engagers of the most noble academic discipline – Godfrey and I were well positioned to use Google to find the top seven websites dedicated to “the history of work”. I believe that we even used some stuff from the Discovery Channel’s “History of Work” series, which was cool, but, as with so much media, only focused on the negative parts of work. Here at the G’boot, we like to keep things positive. Collaborating with Godfrey is a pleasure, mostly because his brain works in a completely different way than mine does. For example, Godfrey thinks about things before he says them, whereas I just write stuff down, man.
GODFREY: It’s true, while the inter-web was a great resource, a lot of pensive thinking and dreaming and informal focus grouping when into our selection process. It’s amazing how readily people come up with an answer to, “What’s your favourite job?” whether in a coffee shop or while riding the bus. If people’s eyes lit up when they responded with “Explorer” or laughed uneasily when I pitched “plague collector” to them in a coffee shop line up, then these jobs made my final cut.
How does work inform community?
JOHN: In my humble opinion, work – paid, unpaid, volunteer, involuntary – is central to every community. To paraphrase Paul Hawken’s Blessed Unrest, I think a global emphasis on meaningful work that focuses on human beings, rather than technology or the goods it creates, will “return [sic] people to the heart of the world and of life.” Because sometime we lose site of the people that are wrapped up in our global economy. Hey, we’re the only species on the planet that suffers from unemployment! When it comes to work informing community, I think it’s telling that the typically first question someone asks a new acquaintance is “what to you do for a living?” Perhaps a better question would be “why do you do what you do for a living?” and, follow-up question, “how does this work feed your soul?” In fact, perhaps reflect on those questions yourself and think about what your work means to your community.
GODFREY: Engaging in fulfilling work is what lends so much meaning to our lives. So much of that fulfillment depends on touching the lives of others, working in a team, learning from your co-workers. In short, work means engaging with our world its people and building our connection to it. Even though it’s one of the worst jobs you can imagine, did the plague collector touch her communities and make them better? Arguably, yes. The same goes for the community transforming power of a King (see tomorrow’s Get to Know Your Community for details) or the enlightenment provided to the world community by the academic. In short a job doesn’t have to be “good” or “enjoyable” to positively affect community change.
How do your respective jobs measure up?
JOHN: Well, I have at least two jobs. Both feed my soul in different ways. As Herder of Cats Editor-in-Chief for this online magazine, I get to write, read and work with brilliant people and Kurt to create an interesting, entertaining and collaborative narrative about community. Writing, more than anything else except for cheese and, I guess, my lovely wife Michelle, feeds my soul. Perhaps my favourite part of the Daily Gumboot is the instructive/prescriptive part of it, where Correspondents like Katie Burns teach people how to grow, harvest and can tomatoes. One of my favourite things in life is what the kids call “clashing of worlds” and I love how lucky I am to bring strangers together as they interpret the idea of “community” from myriad perspectives. As a Career Manager at UBC’s Sauder School of Business, I love the professional diversity of my work. The students are awesome. The work is as diverse as it is interesting as it is challenging and, to quote S||A (aka Stewart Burgess) I love the audiences for which I am lucky enough to teach as well as present edutaining material. Hardship only comes up when co-workers make fun of my clothing and don’t invite me to meetings. So, it’s pretty tough sometimes…
GODFREY: Having recently moved into a communications job which puts me into constant contact with the world around me means I am growing to steadily enjoy my work after several years of boredom where I worked mostly in isolation . A great team of co-workers helps. In the end, people make my days great. Writing for the web and developing communication strategies is a bonus. I have a new job on the horizon as a father – an opportunity I am excited to get started on as well.
Final Words
And that, as they say, is that. Everyone, on behalf of Godfrey and myself I’d just like to say you’re welcome! As you find something to feed your soul in 2011 be sure to think about the positive way in which it will build community, too. And have fun with it!
- Godfrey and John
The Third Best and Worst Jobs Ever
Welcome to Part 3 of the Daily Gumboot’s award-worthy series on the History of Work. We’ve explored Pirates and Message Runners and University Professors and Fact-Checkers at Fox News. It’s been as hilarious as it’s been informative and interesting. With many of you in the Private Sector back at work, we hope that this mental exercise burns off some of that holiday goodness as you make great use of your downtime and read this blog!
Best. Job. Ever. Number 3!
From the Somalian poet/troubadour to the Japanese Geisha to Tom Petty, the Singer has been integral to the cultural fabric of communities. Your melodic words make people happy (even if it’s angry death metal it still makes people happy). Furthermore, according to a recent Happiness Index, singers are the happiest “workers” out there. Whether you’re a pop star, a Neil Diamond impersonator, a member of a church choir, or in the Little Guitar Army, you have fun with it. The job is simple, yet complex. You write poetry and then music to sing it to (or you get someone who can’t sing to do it for you). Everyone tries this job – especially in the shower and in Japan – but few can actually pull it off in harmony.
Summary of Academically Sound Findings and Analysis:
SINGER |
||||
LOW |
MEDIUM |
HIGH |
TOTAL: |
|
| Level of Hardship | You have arguably the highest level of job satisfaction in the history of the world. Because singing just makes you feel really, really, really good. This being said, the career of a singer involves sleazy producers, fickle fans, and the drugs. Your parents might also try to dress you up in horribly provocative and inappropriate outfits, too. | 4/5 | ||
| Opportunity for Advancement | Ever since Cleopatra invited Phil the Performer into her court, singers have been overlooked for gigs. For every American Idol winner, there are 24 million singers who lose big. While you might be able to garner a humble YouTube/MySpace following, a career as a Singer – is not successful in terms of the money pay off. But people who love what they do don’t care about that, right? |
3/5 | ||
| Meaningful Nature of Work | Sometimes, you have to sing horrible, horrible pop songs that, while designed by focus groups of money-driven producers to be incredibly (and lucratively) catchy, make you die inside just a little. | Not only are you doing what you love, you’re also doing what many, many people wish they could do and what even more people will never be able to do.Singing is – especially at the highest level – is something that can only be done by those who can do it and can never be taught. |
5/5 | |
Worst. Job. Ever. Number 3!
In the middle ages, Searchers of The Dead, often destitute older women, who nevertheless had some medical knowledge, were dispatched by authorities to seek out quarantine houses containing victims of the plague or Black Death. Once they were identified, the house would be boarded up and the rest of the family quarantined. Searchers of the dead were mostly older women, destitute but with enough medical knowledge to spot plague victims. The pay was pretty crappy – about four pence per body – but prices plummeted during the Black Death (in the 1300s about 30-60% of Europe’s population died, which was around 370 million people), because local authorities couldn’t keep up with the hundreds of people dying everyday. Biggest job-related hazard? Dying of the Plague.
Summary of Academically Sound Findings and Analysis:
SEARCHER OF THE DEAD
|
||||
LOW |
MEDIUM |
HIGH |
TOTAL: |
|
| Level of Hardship | Dude. Your job is to pick up plague-riddled dead bodies, put them in a wheelbarrow and then dump them in a giant pit. You may or may not have to then light them on fire and/or spread a corrosive substance – like lime – on the bodies. Everything about this job is terrible. | 0/5 | ||
| Opportunity for Advancement | Well, there is a good chance that your supervisor will die of the Plague and, with a little luck, you can take his job.There is also a strong chance that you will die of the Plague.So, it’s pretty much a wash. |
2.5/5 | ||
| Meaningful Nature of Work | You are the thin line between pandemic and extinction of the human race. Your job might be terrible, but it ensures that Plague survivors live to have non-Searcher-of-the-Dead jobs in the future! Also, your appearances in Monty Python movies are as amazing as they are hilarious! |
4/5 | ||
Reflections on these Jobs
GODFREY: This job redeems itself somewhat in that, superficially, it represents a meaningful public benefit. But looked at more closely, it hardly elevated anyone to martyrdom. In the 1300′s when sacrifice and faith through good works were applauded, rooting out diseased corpses for a few pennies hardly counts. Nope, this job really, really sucked. Good thing it’s been relegated to history… Or has it?….John? Thoughts? Maybe I could be a singer whose voice cures pandemics…I’ll keep reaching for those rainbows.
JOHN: If I could do it all again, I’d be a Searcher of the Dead. Wait…that’s not right at all. But, yes, human beings will succumb to a plague soon. It’ll probably have something to do with technology taking over. Like, it’ll sap our energy and distract us from more important thi- wait, I think this idea is more than 140 characters…
This evaluation made me wish I could sing. I mean, I really, really like doing it, and, hey, being in a band is all about teamwork and communicating creative ideas to a variety of people in a meaningful ways…It’s also about sex and drugs!
Introducing the History of Work Series
While so many people – especially the staff of the Daily Gumboot – are on vacation, Godfrey von Bismarck and I thought we’d talk about work. Specifically, the History of it.
Work is perhaps the most central thing to the concept of community – in fact, the measurement of our lives as “successful” or not typically have work in the equation somewhere. According to Philosopher and Friend-of-the-’Boot, Alain de Botton, “Pick up any newspaper or magazine, open the TV, and you’ll be bombarded with suggestions of how to have a successful life. Some of these suggestions are deeply unhelpful to our own projects and priorities – and we should take care.” This series is not one of those unhelpful things. It’s amazing. Just ask Alain de Botton!
Further, the Fraser Institute’s Patrick Basham and Jason Clemens point out that “Labour is a dynamic process through which individuals add value to raw materials, generate wealth for society, and give form to previously only imagined ideas. At the heart of the labour process is the opportunity for individuals to provide for themselves (and their families) a standard of living based on their own hard work, ingenuity, creativity, and skills.” The Fraser Institute’s mortal enemy, The New Economic Foundation, argues that work represents a necessary component of a flourishing society: “High-quality work can profoundly affect our well-being by providing us with purpose, challenge, and opportunities for social relationships. It can constitute a meaningful part of our identity.” No matter what conceptual spectrum you approach it from, work is quite clearly the fabric of communities from Vancouver to Nairobi to Melbourne to Downtown Germania.
For the record, health is important, too. And the environment. Education has value as well, unless, of course, you are a Feudal Lord who needs to ensure that your Serfs do not gain access to movable type and, consequently, overthrow you.
Moving on…
Since human beings killed dinosaurs around 5,000 BC, work has been a central part of every human community. From the Discover Channel to the Harvard Business Review to the recently celebrated One Week Job Program to Philosophers, Teachers, Consultants, Coaches, Writers, Academics, and countless other professionals, holistic examinations of work – and what it means to humans – have threaded their way through textbooks, conferences, professional development seminars, and pop-culture. Some people say this series will add to the narrative of humans and work. Others say that this series will replace the entire thing because it’s so amazing.
Godfrey and I leave the final decision to you.
Below, as identified by the American Management Association, are five skills that have always made great 
workers masters of their craft. In order to put them in context, we will use the job of Circus Clown (pictured) to show their timeless application. Here they are:
- Effective Communication - delivers comprehensive water-spraying instructions to five-person team with no verbal cues, just first-class miming techniques.
- Critical Thinking and Analysis – based on research and analysis of previous five (unsuccessful) attempts by colleagues, removed head from lion’s mouth in timely fashion.
- Teamwork and Collaboration – collaborated with 89-person team to seamlessly enter and exit a three-cubic-meter car in under seven minutes.
- Innovation and Creativity – continually include fire and roller skates into components of show, such as engaging with young audience members during the “trampolines and shark tank” performance.
- John’s bonus skills: Adaptability (new). Leadership (experienced) - demonstrated flexibility by securing myself in a cannon, resulting in a post-explosion-travel of approximately 96 meters (new) or demonstrated comprehensive knowledge of safety procedures – such as location of 13 different fire extinguishers, medical personal and digital camera – during the rookie-clown-cannon-experience component of Circus’s closing ceremonies.
The relationship of these skills to certain jobs guided our selection process (for example, how frequently – or infrequently – does a churl demonstrate effective critical thinking and analysis when compared to a Product Manager at Google?), but there are other elements that informed our decision-making, too. During our evaluations, we really liked it when jobs spanned time and place. Here are some other factors that helped us nominate and rank the five best and worst jobs in history:
- Level of Hardship – “how much does this job make my life suck?“
- Opportunity for Advancement – “how many paths are there from this job to cooler ones?“
- Meaningful Nature of Work – “how much do I absolutely love doing this job?”
Each category has a five-point scale. In the case of a tie, “Grossness” and “Satisfaction“ will be used as the deciding factors.
Here are the shortlists for the best and worst jobs in the history of the world:
Candidates for the Best Job Ever.
- Creative Leader at Google
- Doctor
- Carrier Fleet Admiral
- King, Queen, Emperor, or Sultan
- Landed 19th C Aristocrat
- Explorer
- Pirate (all the different kinds, ie. sea pirate, hacker, corporate raider)
- Sponsored Surfer
- Professional Athlete
- Cult Leader
- Food Critic
- Superhero
- Singer
- Firefighters
- University Professor
- Educational and Vocational Counsellor
- Hand model
- Philosopher
- Editor-in-Chief of a Major Newspaper
- Johnny Depp
Candidates for the Worst Job Ever.
- Slave
- Serf
- First World War Message Runner
- Stand up Comedian
- Entrepreneur
- Pardoner
- Politician
- French Revolution Guillotine Operator
- Collector of Plague Dead
- Anarchist
- Gladiator
- The Coin Stamper
- Leech Collector
- Castrato
- Adviser to Kim Jong Il
- Telemarketer
- Mine sweeper
- Fact-checker at Fox News
- Worker on Oil Rig
- Ship Breaker
Over the next five days, Godfrey and I will count down the five best and five worst jobs in human history.
We hope that you enjoy the experience as much as we do and that it makes you really excited about returning to work or, alternatively, deciding that you never want to go back to work again!
Have fun with it!
- Godfrey and John
The White Tiger
CLJ Reviews The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
What We Read
For my second book, I choice The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga. My choice this time was simple – It had recently won the Booker, it had a colourful book jacket and, well, let’s face it books set in India, full of sensual delights always seem to be a hit. The White Tiger didn’t disappoint, sparking some fiery debate regarding the moral fibre of the protagonist, and musings on how the path from poverty to riches can change someone forever. The story is of how Balram, the son of a richshaw puller in the darkness of rural India, learns to drive and begins working as a chauffeur for a rich family in Dehli, “The Light”. From the air-conditioned confines of his spacious Honda City which he shuttles daily from Shopping Mall to luxury condo tower – Balram gains increasing exposure to a world of wealth and privilege which remains firmly closed to him. Near the end of the book he decides to make his move and build an entrepreneurial empire – not without making some serious moral compromise. I won’t give all of it away, but suffice it to say that Balram’s odyssey against the rollicking world of an India beset by social, economic and technological change is a great read and was a hit with the CLJ.
What We Did (and How We Did It)
The White Tiger features a periodic running correspondence between two high ranking officials in India and China. After all, this is the age of China and India’s global ascendancy. In honour of this historic rise, I staged a simple trivia game based on the geography, history and natural history of the two countries. I had been strongly critiqued for a much, much too complicated challenge on my last choice, the Zanzibar Chest, so I decided to keep this one simple. One contestant was still pretty challenged, answering “Mountain” for every question. He didn’t win the trophy.
What We Thought
The book was generally well received by the group who appreciated its lively depictions of India on the rise and the protagonist’s (mis) adventures. Our converstation became pretty much stuck on debating the moral integrity of the protagonist and whether the actions he took to rise to wealth were justifiable or morally wrong. There was some pretty deep division on this issue which made for a really energetic conversation.
As told by Godfrey von Bismarck…
The Zanzibar Chest
CLJ Reviews The Zanzibar Chest by Aidan Hartley
What We Read
I read the Zanzibar chest during a booze filled week in Mexico. At the time it seemed like a rollicking good read – chronicling the journeys of Aiden Hartley, a BBC journalist through African conflict zones of the late 90’s. A parallel back story is provided sketching the experience of Hartley’s father as a Lawrence of Arabia-type administrator in the Middle East of the 1920’s. The two Africa’s make for an interesting portrait of how the continent was changed and in a lot of ways, worsened by colonialism. Some of the more riveting parts of the book take place in the bombed out street of Mogadishu, Somalia, with Hartely right in the thick of marauding militia. Hartley’s experience is typical of the privileged African British White Man who grew up with one foot in Africa and the other in Britain – ultimately at home in neither.
What We Did (and How We Did It)
The game I designed was very involved, and, dare I say, ambitious. A lot of wine flowed before we got to what was supposed to be a mish mash of Risk, Trivial Pursuit and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego [Editor's note: none of this was close to apparent during the explanation and there was also an element of Balderdash in there somewhere, except Godfrey made his lovely fiance/wife Maya judge everyone's answers, which was as awkward as it was hilarious] ….Fine, I’ll admit that I really can’t remember what the challenge was. All I know is that it was a gong show. Prizes of chocolate from Downtown Chocolatier Mink were handed out to soothe somewhat befuddled and flustered participants.
What We Thought
As I said, I loved this book as a quick read on a Mexico beach. It did not stand up well under the critical reading of the CLJ. People condemned its self-indulged lengthiness and the equally self-centred perspective of Hartley, too cowardly and removed from the horrors around him to step out from behind his journalist notepad and actually try to alleviate suffering. Strong debate also sprung up about the soporific drug, Qaat, which is featured prominently in several chapters – chewed sullenly by local tribesmen and the protagonist himself. There was insinuation by some participants that legalized drugs fuelled conflict. Needless to say the book was a bit of a flop, but it did not disappoint in creating a raucous evening of wine, and, by association, Qaat.
As told by Godfrey von Bismarck…
Where’s the Square?
Squares
Any healthy city has got to have one decent main square. I don’t care how many parks, pedestrian walk ways, sea walls, bike paths Vancouver boasts, a city without a main square lacks a solid pulse; it lacks an incubator for community. We do meeting up online really, really, well. But right now, we kinda lack the physical spaces to do it in real life.
Sure, Vancouver has plenty of ‘squares’, but it lacks a grand open space for us to gather. Most Canadian cities don’t possess the typical main square that European urban centres do. It’s not our fault, we just kinda sucked at urban planning back in the day. But let’s look to the future not to the past, ok?
Vancouver cries out for an urban space with a fountain and some naked angels spouting water, and some cafés with cloth umbrellas and wicker furniture. Or at the very least a central area so that we can hold free concerts, stage some demos, or just sip a coffee which isn’t ‘to go’ and watch the world go by.
Yes, we have Victory “Square”, Granville “Square” and Robson “Square” but does ANY one acutally go there? The closest thing Vancouver has to truly filling the role of square isn’t even a square, but STEPS! Hey, I like the VAG steps, don’t get me wrong. When the sun is shining I sit on them on my lunch break and take in the crazy lady who gyrates to a stereo on wheels or admire how the side walk artist uses spray paint in novel ways. That said, Vancouver is really missing the type of “grand public square” that could – and should – act as a centre point for civic life in the city. I mean, the poor break dancers need more room to do the worm than an expanded side-walk! Even arch nemesis Toronto has in recent years created a grand central square at Dundas and Yonge. It has funky fountains, slick paving stones, some stylized furniture and plenty of space to do whatever. While the visual onslaught of electronic billboards and condo towers make it a bit too, um, Blade-Runnery for my old-world sensibilities, T.O. deserves points for effort in recognizing that its downtown desperately needed a square.
And Toronto’s square has succeeded in getting people to gather and take a time-out in a very commercial, hectic, urban core. So Vancouver! Catch up! Use some land slated for a few condo towers to make a square. Communities will thank you for it.
Check out this list of urban squares around the world, for some inspiration. Take your pick. These cities do some neat stuff with squares. Tehran’s is a little weird, in my view. Maybe we shouldn’t model ours on that one. But that’s also open to debate.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_city_squares_by_size
Fireworks
The fireworks festival was great for creating community. Masses of people gathering along Vancouver’s shores and exclaiming “Ooooo” and “Aaaaaa” = bonding, plain and simple. It was also a very expensive and somewhat environmentally detrimental way to get us all together. Still, the summer and our community will be worse off now that the festival has been canned. Fireworks, beyond being really cool, tapped into our desire to gather and share in something collectively. A square could help fill that need on a daily basis without millions of dollars going up in smoke. Sure the fireworks created more business for the downtown core. But they also created a lot of garbage and car traffic. So, if we could just repeal some of the most draconian fireworks legislation in the world, build us a square, we’d not only have ourselves a kickin’ place to meet up, display our talents and have our voices heard, we’d also have a great spot for lighting off some rockets come New Year’s!