So maybe I wasn't raised with the puritan work ethic ingrained into me. It dawned on me at a very young age that most of the homework they were doling out to us was busy work. To the detriment of my grades, I should've not had this realization since most of the classes I had that based 50% of my grades on homework, I did poorly in. There were a few classes that I aced, all because our grades were completely based on tests and quizzes.
We were watching 60 minutes last night and they had rebroadcasted a story I had seen a few months ago about how the whole country is working their asses off. (You can also watch it here.) We're commuting earlier, staying at the office later, and we've got IMs, crackberries, round the clock teleconferencing, etc. "Oh, I have the absolute bare minimum, I think. I have two cell phones, a personal and …," Christina explained.
"That's the bare minimum, America. Two cell phones," Joe interrupted.
Its funny because I was thinking, these people, they would be working their asses off regardless of how much technology has invaded our life or not. I guess its easy to blame technology either way, seeing how most of the gadgets I own are basically to facilitate my slacker-dom. I can become more of a couch potato and lump by sitting on the couch to watch my sleek TV, surf the net on my shiny powerbook, or play hours of Tetris on my Nintendo DS.
"The downside, however, is that oftentimes we really don't have substantive conversations when we come home. We will be sitting on our couch, each doing work," his wife says.
It turns out Joe and Christina e-mail and instant-message each other, even if they are at home.
So take away all that tech, I'd probably be lounging by the pond while everyone else is toiling away in the woods. At the same time though, since I'm not married to my job, I'm glad I'm married to my wife. We get to see each other usually by 5pm and spend time together rather than with our work.
"Well, that’s what I mean, that's the downside. It would be nice to have a conversation even once a week and not be, I mean, really be concentrating and listening to each other. But we've got one eye on our computers," Christina replied.
Once a week? Are you kidding me? Maybe its good that I came to the realization that work is not the end-all be-all of my life at such a young age. What are we going to do after work today? We're going to enjoy some half-off pasta in Dupont Circle!
