Alain de botton is very good speaker / writer...!! I really enjoyed the way he is covering a subject..! He is articulate when introducing this book of his specially offices atmosphere or protocole rather ...! I like his charisma...!
Hi Dear Stranger! Thank you for this quote, I like it very much it =) I went to look it up and the author is actually Andy Warhol, I thought you might be interested in knowing. Take Care.
"I suppose I have a really loose interpretation of "work" because I think that just being alive is so much work at something you don't always want to do. Being born is like being kidnapped. And then sold into slavery. People are working every minute. The machinery is always going. Even when you sleep." This is a quote from him of his book " the Philosophy of Andy Wharol. Chapter 4. I also looked up William Shakespeare and some people attribute this quote to him, however I was unable to find the exact passage. Would you be so kind to provide the source for me? Thanks in advance.
Outstanding! I like the combination of education and humor in your speeches, as well as how you incorporate notes from your own life. Keep up the good work....I hope to attend one of your speaking engagements- please come to Boston!
Just because you don't experience something first-hand does not actually mean you are incapable of understanding it as if you experienced it. It is called empathy. I didn't know he was rich before you told me even though I watched a lot of his documentary work, which says a lot. I admire his ideas and work regardless.
Alain talks not of work in the general sense, but rather in the very particular sense of career related work. This excludes millions upon millions of workers not only in Western society but in world society who toil for at best minimum wage and at worst extortionately meager dividends. Minimum wage work is compartmentalized and stultifying to the highest degree, as well as meaningless and insufferable. I would be keenly interested to hear Alain's analysis of this type of work.
I agree. I've read the book and it's great, but in other talks he seems uninterested in people outside his rather privileged bubble. His scenarios are all about graduates who go out to restraunts, read Proust, go skiing and think about their careers. He knows nothing about people with the hardest problems.
Tom George I would love to listen to him talk about these things, like Noam Chomsky does, yet I would be surprised that he doesn't know about them. I suppose he mostly doesn't want to have a political approach. Maybe he will at some point.
You are incorrect. Minimum wage work can be great. I did it for years and even at times when I was barely making it, I worked at whatever job I could find. People are afraid to do this today. I worked in landscaping. I drove a bus. I've washed dishes in a restaurant. I've hung sheetrock, I've painted houses, cut lawns, shoveled snow, cleaned gutters, worked as a janitor, worked in radio promotions, banking, research, podcasting and now at the age of 55 I've very thankful (to all who came before me who inspired and taught me and to myself for working hard) that I was able to work hard and build muscles and problem solve and that I can do many things. I don't need to hire a landscaper to do landscaping for me or plant a tree - I've done this work (and still do) for years and consider myself a pro at it. I don't need to hire someone to fix a lamp or furniture - I know how to do it myself. I fix my own walls, do my own painting, I can tile a kitchen (did it), frame a wall (done it), write a professional letter to a local politician (done it), I can use ProTools to record music and conversations (do it), I can play the piano, write poems and short fiction and I can pen a fine, heartfelt letter to a friend should she or he need uplifting. I can do basic wiring in a house. I can do basic plumbing and trouble shooting for HVAC systems. Remember friends: Historically poor people knew how to do more than the wealthy - precisely because THEY HAD TO! Work builds character and skills. Even flipping burgers can teach a person how to work as a team, how to be good at flipping burgers, how to show up on time, budget the money you make, save some and maybe even some basic communication/people skills. Having been a janitor, I do all my own cleaning - including for my short term rental. "Be thankful (to God or Mother Nature or yourself or whoever or whatever you believe in...) each day when you wake up that you have work to do. Keeping busy and working hard will build in you a thousand virtues that the idle never know." Sorry but I can't remember who wrote that - was on my Mom's refrigerator for many years. NOTE: Young people and young men in particular: STOP and think before you get married and have a family. If at the age of 25 you have a wife and kids and have to work 60 hours a week or 2 jobs to make ends meet, then you MAY WISH you had WAITED to have a family until you were a bit more financially stable. Guys . . . wear condoms or masturbate more. I'm not kidding. Get those strong urges UNDER CONTROL .........OR you will end up getting a young woman pregnant and then you'll be supporting a family on minimum wage. And if you are reading this and think I'm full of BS, think again. I know a young man who taught himself computer coding and went from working in a grocery store to coding for a small company. He's learning a ton of new skills each week that he'll be able to take to the next job and eventually . . . the sky is the limit for those who work hard. You can do anything you set your mind to - including sitting around bitching and moaning. Begin by purchasing this book: Jordan B. Peterson: 12 Rules For Life. I you feel stuck in any way, this book will help get you unstuck. And if you suffer from depression, find a way to learn Transcendental Meditation (TM) and to self-administer EMDR . . . . but ONLY AFTER really reading about it and understanding the risks. It's not magic but it's pretty damn close. Same for the TM. Turn off the TV and never turn it on again. Walk every day and drink filtered water. Stop eating processed foods and enjoy whatever foods you like. Avoid sugars and processed foods most of all. : ) JB
Writing books is a work, and a lot harder worker than anyone could even understand. The stuff about inheritance is possibly false, but even if it is true, it doesn't matter. Money isn't magic that makes every problem go away, of course you don't die hungry, but that isn't everything there is to be a human. Like they say, you can't buy love with money, or a meaning to a life lived. Also judge what he is saying, not what he is.
Moving soul song about the sorrows of work: "That Lucky Old Sun" (Tom Jones best version.) Up in the mornin', out on the job, work like the devil for my pay. But that lucky old sun has got nothin' to do But roll around heaven all day. Fuss with my woman, toil for my kids Sweat 'til I'm wrinkled and gray. While that lucky old sun has got nothin' to do But roll around heaven all day Good Lawd above, can't you know I'm pinin' Tears all in my eyes. Send down that cloud with a silver linin'. Take me to paradise. Show me that river. Take me across; wash all my troubles away. While that lucky old sun, has got nothin' to do But roll around heaven all day.
I have the exact same problem that Alain claims to have at 11:30 . People will tell me of their obscure vocation & it may as well have been conveyed in another language?! I often get the feeling that, they themselves have no idea of what it is exactly, that they do...
he is a philosopher. just because i'm not you, doesn't mean i can't start to understand your jealousy. just because you are you doesn't mean you can understand your own jealousy. even if he hasn't experienced the downsides of life like you claim, this man has serious insights. his ted video speaks for itself. amazingly intricate for a man you might believe hasn't had a need for pessimism. it is also a fallacy to believe you need to suffer to be rewarded. you assumed too much.
I really cannot see this man as having done too much work to have much to say on the joys or sorrows of it.Empathy or not,I like to take such as him with me for a day or three,and see how much pontificating he did then.Another person making a fucking good living from doing nowt!
A lot of interesting points. I wonder how dead-end minimum wage jobs or jobs that one really doesn't enjoy, but are all that's essentially available, would fit into this schema.
The section from 9.10 demonstrates the worst aspect of this talented man. "You shouldn't eat that kind of biscuit because they are specifically targeted at women on a low income living in the North" (gales of laughter from the RSA audience). It was a joke but very revealing; there is no chance that there were any poor Northerners in the audience to take offence. De Boton lives in a bubble, coming from a very privileged background and speaking exclusively to cultured, literary middle-class graduates - a.k.a. the chattering classes. The people that suffer most from psychological stress in our society and most in need of psychological tools to relieve it are those in economic hardship, but with all his ideas and philosophical training he makes no effort to reach them. The School of Life events all seem to be in London and having watched several of the videos I have never seen a black person in the audience either. For someone who aims to disseminate philosophical ideas for the greater good, I think he's being lazy at the very least and risks looking like an elitist snob.
How sad to use another person's critique of Alain which includes being derogratory of his personal appearance. There are very strong arguments against De Botton's philosophical opinions and presentation but I feel your comments are as to quote Charlie Brooker, "lighter-than-air."
...which he has decided not to touch- read up on him and you will find that due to his father's self made attitude he was brought up having the importance of work and not taking things for granted drilled into him
I never understood why people are so funny about mc Donald s job when almost everyone enjoys a happy meal.Doing this job is more appealing then seating all day in boring office
@teamcrumb more to the point this is why their 'writing' is bad. because they only write about versions of the world they think are writerly. because they think they are on a different shelf to their students. they have given them selves a biased grammer, they rehash minimised values and interests, missing out on the wealth of human experience and brilliance even when the day lived in by those human beings may be something that isn't easily relatable on social networking sites or in stories
Perhaps he knows about the pleasures of work, but I doubt he also knows about the sorrows. This guy never had and never will have any work sorrows. He inherited a $300 mllion trust fund from his dad, Gil de Botton.
Becoming a philosopher and helping people with their lives is better than a typical trustfund baby who spends their time doing cocaine and wasting around.
