Bullshit Jobs
Bullshit Jobs theorizes the existence of meaningless jobs and analyzes their societal harm. In this book, David Graeber, a renowned anthropologist and anarchist activist, looks at how we value work, and how, rather than being productive, work has become an end in itself. Graeber describes five types of meaningless jobs, in which workers pretend their role is not as pointless or harmful as they know it to be: flunkies, goons, duct tapers, box tickers, and taskmasters. He argues that the association of labor with virtuous suffering is recent in human history, and proposes unions and universal basic income as a potential solution. Bullshit Jobs gives individuals, corporations, and societies permission to undergo a shift in values, placing creative and caring work at the center of our culture.
PRAISE FOR THE BOOK
“Clever and charismatic.”
"One of our most important and provocative thinkers...”
—Cory Doctorow
"A brilliant, deeply original political thinker…”
—Rebecca Solnit
“Graeber is an American anthropologist with a winning combination of talents: he’s a startlingly original thinker...able to convey complicated ideas with wit and clarity."
—The Telegraph (UK)
“A master of opening up thought and stimulating debate."
—Slate
“Graeber wants us to unshackle ourselves from the limits imposed by bureaucracy, precisely so we can actually get down to openly and creatively arguing about our collective future."
—NPR
"A thought-provoking examination of our working lives."
"Buoyed by a sense of recognition, the reader happily follows Graeber in his fun attempts to categorize bulls--- jobs into Goons, Flunkies, Box Tickers, Duct Tapers, and Taskmasters, which inevitably bleed together into Complex Multiform Bulls--- Jobs. It’s funny, albeit painful, that we’ve gotten work so wrong and spend so much time at it."
—Bloomberg.com
"A hilarious and lively book that calls for a cultural shift in what we value."
—The New York Post