Tired Of Bullsh*t Jobs? Escape The System And Go All The Way!

Philipp Stelzel - Digital Creator
5 min readOct 12, 2021

Recently, the awesome Captain Sinbad released a video about bullsh*t jobs that resonated with me a lot. Being stuck in a bullsh*t job was the main reason why I decided to jump blindly into self-employment several years ago.

I would love to tell you now, that this was the best decision of my life. Honestly, my unwillingness to accept a traditional career made me feel like an utter failure for a long time. Just recently, I am starting to realize how common this feeling actually is among people of my age group.

This is because bullsh*t jobs seem to be on the rise, but why are they so common today. And why do so many people attempt to opt out of the system and try to create something on their own?

Office workers are small cogs in the machine

In big companies, we are not more than a small exchangeable cog in the machine. Even if our work provides value, this value is abstract, because we never see the consequences of our work.

  • When a street sweeper cleans the street, she leaves a clean street for the neighborhood.
  • When a cook mixes ingredients, he creates a meal that will be enjoyed by some persons.
  • When a musician plays her instrument, she will create emotions in her audience.
  • But when an office worker is inputting data into an Excel row, there is no one who feels that this action will make life better.

This is the problem of our modern division of labor: In big companies, our work is so abstract and so specialized, that there is no possible way for us to judge if our work is actually providing value for anybody.

Bullsh*t jobs do provide value indirectly

In fact, I believe that most bullsh*t jobs do provide value. Otherwise, some managers would have rationalized them away a long time ago. The problem is, that they just create it indirectly.

As a person doing the job, you never see the fruit of your labor. And even the persons who are profiting from your work, don’t know that you are actually the one responsible for the produced value.

Philipp Stelzel - Digital Creator

Certified Notion Ambassador | Midjourney AI Nerd | Stoic Enthusiast. Check out my new Midjourney course on Skillshare: https://skl.sh/3MLLGda