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[–] 14 points 8 months ago (6 children)

Is it possible that the way humanity has been dealing the with useless 1/3 of the population was to put them in middle-management positions? Consultants and the like?

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  • [–] 15 points 8 months ago (5 children)

    Absolutely it is. Thats where we got the phrase "kicking them upstairs" from. Promote the useless guy to a position where they can't actually do any damage.

    If AI succeeds in replacing a lot of those "positions", we're going to face a tsunami of idiots.

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  • [–] 4 points 8 months ago (4 children)

    Oh. Oh, oh my god. I think we need a space goat or something...

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  • [–] 10 points 8 months ago* (3 children)

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_Jobs

    Graeber states that more than half of societal work is pointless, both large parts of some jobs and five types of entirely pointless jobs:

    • Flunkies, who serve to make their superiors feel important, e.g., receptionists, administrative assistants, door attendants, store greeters;
    • Goons, who act to harm or deceive others on behalf of their employer, or to prevent other goons from doing so, e.g., lobbyists, corporate lawyers, telemarketers, public relations specialists;
    • Duct tapers, who temporarily fix problems that could be fixed permanently, e.g., programmers repairing shoddy code, airline desk staff who calm passengers with lost luggage;
    • Box tickers, who create the appearance that something useful is being done when it is not, e.g., survey administrators, in-house magazine journalists, corporate compliance officers, academic administration;[14]
    • Taskmasters, who create extra work for those who do not need it, e.g., middle management, leadership professionals.[1][4]
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