One interesting idea in this space is Compensating Differentials. There is a mismatch between the jobs that people want to do and the jobs that need doing. Wage differences help to reduce the mismatch.
When an ordinary persons tries to optimize their life they face a trade-off. Stick to the line of work they like, which too many other people also like, and be poorly paid, or try something worse for more money. Non-ordinary persons may strike it lucky, finding that they personally like a line of work which is necessary and unpopular and thus well paid. The compensating differential is free money, but only for an eccentric few.
Returning to the plight of the ordinary person, they face a puzzle. They would like to make the right compromise to maximize their happiness, but the labour market is continually offering them six of one and half a dozen of the other. If they stick to the work they love, but for less money, it is a lot less money and not clearly worth it. On the other hand, that sucky job that pays really well turns out to be really hard to put up with and not clearly worth the extra money. If you are a typical persons, with common preferences, then compensating differentials make the peak broad and flat.
That could be fairly upsetting. One might like to have a clearly defined optimum. Then one can say “I’ll change my life, do X, then I’ll be as happy as I can be.” But most changes have matching advantages and disadvantages. One can easily feel lost.
That could be fairly liberating. With a broad plateau, you don’t have to be too careful about avoiding sliding down the slopes at the sides. You are free to be yourself, without great consequences.
That could be fairly liberating. With a broad plateau, you don’t have to be too careful about avoiding sliding down the slopes at the sides. You are free to be yourself, without great consequences.
Plus a social mechanism that turns follow-your-dreams versus be-sensible into a hard choice that doesn’t much matter.
Also, we can look at the mechanism and see that it affects some people more than others. If you have a common dream, such as being a poet or a novelist, the mechanism is hard at work, flattening the plateau. An example of an uncommon dream is harder to come by.
Once upon a time (1960?) the electric guitar was new. If you formed a band playing electric guitars you would encounter two kinds of opposition. One is “don’t be a musician, too many people want to be musicians.” The other is “learn violin or trumpet, not something faddy like electric guitar, electric guitar isn’t going to last.” But some players turned into rock stars and soon every-one wanted to play electric guitar, turning it into a common dream and spoiling it as an example of an uncommon dream.
I think there is a similar tale to tell about computer games. Once upon a time (1980?) computer games were new. If you wanted to be a computer game programmer, it was an uncommon dream and you could succeed. Now it is a common motivation for young people studying computer science and the job niche is over-subscribed.
There is a mismatch between the jobs that people want to do and the jobs that need doing. Wage differences help to reduce the mismatch.
I think this could be an interesting topic to explore: What are the most unwanted and highly paid jobs, that a rational person might still choose to do? -- There could be some biases, so the job is actually not as horrible as it seems. Or it could be something that people don’t do only because of irrational fears. Or something that doesn’t seem like making a lot of money, which actually does. Or something else that most people get wrong.
There are some problems with this, though. Some unwanted jobs can still be low-status and not paid well, because someone poor enough will be forced to do them anyway. For example, working with garbage. (Maybe the problem is that no one wants to do it, but everyone can, so enough poor people will be forced to.) You could probably save some money by buying a house with number 13, but that’s not a regular income. Some kinds of crime could be very profitable on average, but there are also moral problems with this, not merely inconvenience or unpleasantness.
So far, I have only three ideas that seem like they could be good: First, doing a job which seems very dangerous (and is rewarded like one), but actually isn’t. Such as being a policeman, but specializing on something that lets you avoid any actual danger. Not sure if this is possible. Second, prostitution done smartly, which means being expensive, acting high-status, and spending enough money on lawyers and bodyguards to keep it legal and safe. Third, starting a low-intensity religious cult, by which I mean something where your followers don’t leave their jobs and families, but only pay you for prayers and blessing. I suspect more people don’t do this even if they are atheists, because they still have an irrational fear that the real gods would punish them for pretending to have supernatural powers.
I think this could be an interesting topic to explore: What are the most unwanted and highly paid jobs, that a rational person might still choose to do? -- There could be some biases, so the job is actually not as horrible as it seems. Or it could be something that people don’t do only because of irrational fears. Or something that doesn’t seem like making a lot of money, which actually does. Or something else that most people get wrong.
I feel that the idea of a broad plateau is too good to be true. The advantages and disadvantages don’t actually balance out, only the perceived ones do. The problem is that our perceptions are affected by biases, some of which were described in the post.
One interesting idea in this space is Compensating Differentials. There is a mismatch between the jobs that people want to do and the jobs that need doing. Wage differences help to reduce the mismatch.
When an ordinary persons tries to optimize their life they face a trade-off. Stick to the line of work they like, which too many other people also like, and be poorly paid, or try something worse for more money. Non-ordinary persons may strike it lucky, finding that they personally like a line of work which is necessary and unpopular and thus well paid. The compensating differential is free money, but only for an eccentric few.
Returning to the plight of the ordinary person, they face a puzzle. They would like to make the right compromise to maximize their happiness, but the labour market is continually offering them six of one and half a dozen of the other. If they stick to the work they love, but for less money, it is a lot less money and not clearly worth it. On the other hand, that sucky job that pays really well turns out to be really hard to put up with and not clearly worth the extra money. If you are a typical persons, with common preferences, then compensating differentials make the peak broad and flat.
That could be fairly upsetting. One might like to have a clearly defined optimum. Then one can say “I’ll change my life, do X, then I’ll be as happy as I can be.” But most changes have matching advantages and disadvantages. One can easily feel lost.
That could be fairly liberating. With a broad plateau, you don’t have to be too careful about avoiding sliding down the slopes at the sides. You are free to be yourself, without great consequences.
Yes. That’s a particular case of Harder Choices Matter Less.
Plus a social mechanism that turns follow-your-dreams versus be-sensible into a hard choice that doesn’t much matter.
Also, we can look at the mechanism and see that it affects some people more than others. If you have a common dream, such as being a poet or a novelist, the mechanism is hard at work, flattening the plateau. An example of an uncommon dream is harder to come by.
Once upon a time (1960?) the electric guitar was new. If you formed a band playing electric guitars you would encounter two kinds of opposition. One is “don’t be a musician, too many people want to be musicians.” The other is “learn violin or trumpet, not something faddy like electric guitar, electric guitar isn’t going to last.” But some players turned into rock stars and soon every-one wanted to play electric guitar, turning it into a common dream and spoiling it as an example of an uncommon dream.
I think there is a similar tale to tell about computer games. Once upon a time (1980?) computer games were new. If you wanted to be a computer game programmer, it was an uncommon dream and you could succeed. Now it is a common motivation for young people studying computer science and the job niche is over-subscribed.
Thanks for that link, it’s a sequence post that I somehow missed. I don’t think it’s completely correct though, just wrote a comment there.
I think this could be an interesting topic to explore: What are the most unwanted and highly paid jobs, that a rational person might still choose to do? -- There could be some biases, so the job is actually not as horrible as it seems. Or it could be something that people don’t do only because of irrational fears. Or something that doesn’t seem like making a lot of money, which actually does. Or something else that most people get wrong.
There are some problems with this, though. Some unwanted jobs can still be low-status and not paid well, because someone poor enough will be forced to do them anyway. For example, working with garbage. (Maybe the problem is that no one wants to do it, but everyone can, so enough poor people will be forced to.) You could probably save some money by buying a house with number 13, but that’s not a regular income. Some kinds of crime could be very profitable on average, but there are also moral problems with this, not merely inconvenience or unpleasantness.
So far, I have only three ideas that seem like they could be good: First, doing a job which seems very dangerous (and is rewarded like one), but actually isn’t. Such as being a policeman, but specializing on something that lets you avoid any actual danger. Not sure if this is possible. Second, prostitution done smartly, which means being expensive, acting high-status, and spending enough money on lawyers and bodyguards to keep it legal and safe. Third, starting a low-intensity religious cult, by which I mean something where your followers don’t leave their jobs and families, but only pay you for prayers and blessing. I suspect more people don’t do this even if they are atheists, because they still have an irrational fear that the real gods would punish them for pretending to have supernatural powers.
Any other ideas?
See also: “Searching For One-Sided Tradeoffs” on Slate Star Codex.
See the last paragraph of the post linked to above.
I feel that the idea of a broad plateau is too good to be true. The advantages and disadvantages don’t actually balance out, only the perceived ones do. The problem is that our perceptions are affected by biases, some of which were described in the post.