There are various different experiences that people have that they consider valuable.
I can read or consume a LessWrong post and consider that experience valuable. On the other hand, I might also write or produce a LessWrong post and consider that experience valuable.
For every person, you can look at what percentage of their experiences that they value are consumption and what percentage of their experiences involve production. There are also other experiences like having a conversation with a friend, that are neither consumption nor production.
One way to define the term consumerism would be to say that if most experiences that people value are consumption experiences that’s consumerism.
The issue with a lot of consumerist experiences is that while they are nice, they don’t feel deeply meaningful. It mostly feels more meaningful to write a LessWrong post than to read one, yet it’s easier to read than to write. If you look at metrics such as the number of close friends that the average American has, they seem to be going down.
When fewer people find the experience of tinkering and building new things intrinsically valuable and spent a lot of time with them, that’s in turn bad for innovation overall in society.
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As an aside, the interview discusses David Graeber’s bullshit job thesis. David Graeber defines a bullshit job as a job where the person doing the job thinks it’s bullshit. When I hear about environmental impact assessments taking years, I would expect that it’s easy for the person writing the assessment to think it’s bullshit.
I have a friend who does some number crunching for creating ESG numbers for a bank and who sees his work as bullshit work. There are a lot of bureaucratic rules that create bullshit work, and for the progress movement it’s important to reduce that bullshit work that rules like NEPA produce.
From a progress perspective, David Graeber was much better than your average person on the left. If you haven’t seen it the debate where David Graeber and Peter Thiel agree on most things about the Great Stagnation is good.
Ok, so, this is a good example of where I take issue with people’s ideas regarding consumerism, “If you look at metrics such as the number of close friends that the average American has, they seem to be going down.” This argument is quite concreting since most people tend to read articles that circulate social media or the news, and take it at face value without deeper research.
I would challenge the notion that people value consumption more than building meaningful relationships. The problem with this claim is that much of the research often cited for this idea tend to be biased. They lack enough nuance to what’s really going on. For example, the number of young people valuing buying things based on the experience those things can provide, such as travelling the world, or going to concerts. We also have to add the value of work-life balance and the drive for remote work over office work, are largely rooted people’s desire to be with friends and family more. While consumerism as a term deals with consumption largely, the value it holds is the responsibility of the individual. It’s not meant to deliver depth, but we can make it deep with self-awareness, and this is where people value going to concerts, or eating out with friends, etc…It’s the experience of relaxing or connecting in a busy world. As to people not making meaningful friendships, I would argue that’s more so a community issue than a consumerism issue.
There are various different experiences that people have that they consider valuable.
I can read or consume a LessWrong post and consider that experience valuable. On the other hand, I might also write or produce a LessWrong post and consider that experience valuable.
For every person, you can look at what percentage of their experiences that they value are consumption and what percentage of their experiences involve production. There are also other experiences like having a conversation with a friend, that are neither consumption nor production.
One way to define the term consumerism would be to say that if most experiences that people value are consumption experiences that’s consumerism.
The issue with a lot of consumerist experiences is that while they are nice, they don’t feel deeply meaningful. It mostly feels more meaningful to write a LessWrong post than to read one, yet it’s easier to read than to write. If you look at metrics such as the number of close friends that the average American has, they seem to be going down.
When fewer people find the experience of tinkering and building new things intrinsically valuable and spent a lot of time with them, that’s in turn bad for innovation overall in society.
_____________
As an aside, the interview discusses David Graeber’s bullshit job thesis. David Graeber defines a bullshit job as a job where the person doing the job thinks it’s bullshit. When I hear about environmental impact assessments taking years, I would expect that it’s easy for the person writing the assessment to think it’s bullshit.
I have a friend who does some number crunching for creating ESG numbers for a bank and who sees his work as bullshit work. There are a lot of bureaucratic rules that create bullshit work, and for the progress movement it’s important to reduce that bullshit work that rules like NEPA produce.
From a progress perspective, David Graeber was much better than your average person on the left. If you haven’t seen it the debate where David Graeber and Peter Thiel agree on most things about the Great Stagnation is good.
Ok, so, this is a good example of where I take issue with people’s ideas regarding consumerism, “If you look at metrics such as the number of close friends that the average American has, they seem to be going down.” This argument is quite concreting since most people tend to read articles that circulate social media or the news, and take it at face value without deeper research.
I would challenge the notion that people value consumption more than building meaningful relationships. The problem with this claim is that much of the research often cited for this idea tend to be biased. They lack enough nuance to what’s really going on. For example, the number of young people valuing buying things based on the experience those things can provide, such as travelling the world, or going to concerts. We also have to add the value of work-life balance and the drive for remote work over office work, are largely rooted people’s desire to be with friends and family more. While consumerism as a term deals with consumption largely, the value it holds is the responsibility of the individual. It’s not meant to deliver depth, but we can make it deep with self-awareness, and this is where people value going to concerts, or eating out with friends, etc…It’s the experience of relaxing or connecting in a busy world. As to people not making meaningful friendships, I would argue that’s more so a community issue than a consumerism issue.