Digging holes and filling them up again. I like work like that, it’s a sort of meditation, it numbs you and you switch to autopilot without even knowing it. I wouldnt mind doing this for the current minimum wage, $8.55 (WA state).

Very tricky. Seems like that describes most of modern work in the first place.
I sometimes score standardized graduation tests for $11.50/hr. Absolutely no benefit to socitey. I’m pretty sure we’re just part of the problem.

The random letters one would require a much higher wage, especially if the page I would be copying wasnt organized in any way. Assuming taxes aren’t part of the picture and a 40 hour work week, probably $150+ an hour.

With things like that, they are mind-numbing to an extent- except when you start to think of other things you usually screw up what you’re supposed to be doing, as opposed to digging holes or writing “I’m working” where it’s very hard to mess them up. So I think I would need to have some kind of back up (in the form of cash reserves/an emergency fund) in case I messed up and was fired.

I guess it comes down to job security.

If I HAD to work, I’d choose the writing job over the ditch-digging one. That way, I’d still have some physical energy left at the end of the day to spend during my off time.

All jobs become mind-numbing (and soul-sucking) after a while. That’s why we get paid to do them.

There’s no salary that would entice me to choose to take this job, though. I’m retired now and value time more than money at this point in my life.

Posthole digging is more fun than writing longhand, but if it’s typing instead of handwriting, then I’d pick that.

Yes, lots of variables are left out of this choice, like how soon is one fired if one slacks off doing the task? If I complete only one hole per day, is that adequate? If I look at the ground that’s not been turned over, can I say “job done” and go home to collect my paycheck? Is there someone from another department pestering me as to how soon the hole is filled so they can then pound a nail into it and then pull it out again? Are coworkers involved digging/filling other holes and complaining to supervisors that I’m not doing it right because I laughed while I filled in the hole? Is there a dress code? Can I make personal calls? Can I take the shovel home with me to dig holes at home and then return it to work the next day? What happens if I fill in someone else’s hole because I work faster than them?

Dig the holes and refill for $100 with health & life ins. for 6 hrs day/4 days a week…

If it were in Bangkok, Bangalore, or Manila, I will do whatever you want starting tomorrow for USD$10/hr. Here (TX), maybe around $35-$40 (mainly due to opportunity cost), a little bit more in California or Arizona because rent is higher. If it were in Moscow or London, or most parts of USA, we can start talking around $100 – and that is not a promise but a maybe.

Depends entirely on my financial situation. Right now it would take about $40/hour. If I’m financially desperate, I’d do it for near minimum wage. If I had enough to retire with my current lifestyle, I wouldn’t do a pointless job for any reason.

Obviously, part of the reason you asked this question was because the majority of jobs are similar to this in terms of productivity and boredom.

Well, my initial thought was a lot…more than $80/hour. However, after about 3 seconds I realized my current job was about as productive and boring, so I would have to say about $35-45 per hour.

Of course, I would need full health and a fully funded retirement plan (they pay a large portion of my 401k limit). The 401k would be a nice bonus after I have been retired for 10-15 years.

I would have to pick the ditch digging, as sitting in one place and writing 2 words for hours every day would be lower my IQ faster than digging.

I had to chuckle because I had a job one summer during college where I entered sheets of six-digit numbers into a database for an insurance company for $5 per hour (minimum wage was $3.25 at the time). I had no idea what the numbers represented, but there were thousands upon thousands of them daily. I lasted about two months before the boredom drove me off. Of course, at that time I had no responsibilities beyond my own shelter and upkeep, which probably amounted to less than $20 a day including health insurance. I probably drank the surplus away as beer money.
Given that experience, I wouldn’t engage in the sorts of tasks you propose for any sum of money — too soul deadening. If someone is really going to offer $50+ per hour for such work, then they either intend charity, so that the work should be unnecessary; or sadism, in which case you are being demeaned.

It’s a pointless question since the labor market will provide a large supply of people willing to do it for a lot less than anyone here. Still, given the choice, $65/hour to write on paper. Digging holes is not an option – I don’t want a sunburn/skin cancer.

I choose digging and filling holes for between €8 and €200/hr depending on how much i needed the money

It depends on how badly I need the money, or how badly I need to work. See, if I need the money to survive or take care of loved ones or ensure a nice future/retirement, I would probably do whatever it takes (except mortal sins). If I needed to work because it was beneficial in some ways, I would do it. Otherwise, no, thanks!

Love it – would retweet this right now if my twitter weren’t unavailable again. I’ll have to think about which task I’d take. Assuming I also got paid $80/hour – one hour is a long time for back-bending shovelling work. Ouch. But you’d get exercise. Writing, though…. I could probably last longer and you might have some insightful hallucinations repeating the same letters over and over. Ha ha.

I’ll take it if it’s the best paying job I can get that includes healthcare and internet.

Without internet access I couldn’t do monotonous work. I have no idea how I’ve survived school…

At 68, I would not have a scheduled job for pay, unless we got into money troubles. Our remaining time is precious to us. However I love working on my projects. I work almost every day year round.

I am very fortunate to say wouldn’t need to, so no amount of money would entice me, I already have the skills that you are seeking to acquire Jacob, the ability to repair something that is broken.
I was lucky enough at 10 for my one armed father to insist we learn how to fix things following a simple principle.
“If man (or being PC, woman) made it, then man (PC) can fix it”
The best being that we were almost always broke, so there was no money for new parts. So my brothers and I became very adept at fixing pretty much anything, with pretty much nothing but a box of tools and lateral thought.
The experiences I have had fixing things ranging from bicycles to toasters, Rolls Royce cars to 60 year old tractors, the latest computer controlled construction equipment and combine harvesters to Undersea Remotely Operated Vehicles working in 700+ meters of water off the coast of Africa, or old wall hanging pendulum clocks to land mine-clearance machines that I am doing now.
I live in a tent in the bush in a “war zone” (a much over used term by the media, too many bunny huggers in very expensive Land Cruisers, drinking $40 bottles of wine at camps overlooking the Nile, writing those reports no one ever reads and going on very expensive “policy retreats” and R&R trips, keeping themselves in a job paid for by tax-payers in the western world as “aid”… sorry rant over)
The knowledge of repairing things means I will hopefully never have to dig holes or write words over again to pay my way in a world that has lost it’s way, I work when I want and where I want, the wonderful thing is that I don’t have to worry about retiring really, as I will, I hope, not lose the knowledge and experience I have gained repairing things, so if I still want to fix stuff when I’m 80, whether or not I need to, I still should be able to because I enjoy it.
We, as fixers, are a dying breed.
There are a lot of “bolters” or “fitters” (also called Technicians…) who can bolt on new bits or fit new parts, but not many fixer mechanics, a very important distinction.
If you need ever to pick a brain about fixing anything, feel free to write!!
Cheers from Sunny Africa

Ditch digging. The scenario sounds a bit like Coolhand Luke, which is a film that addresses themes I think you would appreciate.

@The Frugal New Yorker – Now that you heard of it, I do recall the existence of that study, but I did not remember the conclusion. I was asking because I wondered what kind of salary it would take for me to go back to work. I have long reached the point where more money is just a way of keeping score, so if the question was purely in terms of money (that is, everything else about the job is pointless), how much would it take.

At first, I had a big objection to mindless/meaningless work. It seemed like such a waste of time and of my potential. It was insulting in a way.

However, my view has changed somewhat. Most here will recall Einstein’s inability to hold down a job. He probably had the same problem with meaningless work as most of us here. Eventually, he started working at the patent office, and it was so simple for him he could just stare out the window for half of the day.

Since his mind was not taxed by more “meaningful” work, he was able to accomplish his miracle year, publishing four amazing physics papers.

The lesson, I believe, is that all of us might have to do a lot of pointless work to pay the bills at first. But if you can save some of your mental and physical energy for yourself, you can work for yourself on the side, and hopefully break out of the normal path.

@George:

I agree with your point. Let me try to clarify what I am trying to say.

Supposing you are doing something like digging ditches…if at the end of the day your ditches are well-dug and you have done all your employer asks, then I think that your employer should not mind that during this time you were daydreaming about physics equations.

If you have a more complex job, however, then indeed, accomplishing it effectively will invade many of your thoughts. You would not be able to daydream about physics equations and still accomplish your job well. Your boss would be angry if you were daydreaming. I think this is what you mean.

So, from my point of view, if you know that you would like to be able to spend more of your time thinking your own thoughts, then a ditch digging job is not a bad choice. You can satisfy your employer and earn a fair living without compromising your ability to consider physics equations throughout the day.

I would dig holes…it would be like getting paid to exercise. My back would be HUUUUUUGGEEE!

I know there is a lot of resentment towards meaningless work, but sometimes there is a sort of zen to be had in highly repetitive tasks. It’s when the tasks are repetitive but I’m not allowed/able to have my mind wander that I get bored and start causing trouble…

Uncanny:
In India, this actually exists, and it is called “NREGA”! You dig ditches, and re-fill again, and build the same road to nowhere, year after year…..

>> Could it be true that “raises” rather
>> than absolute income are what keeps
>> many people working?
I think you’ve sussed it out 100%. Not many will accept it though.

when i was very young 14 years old i went to a reform school one of the punishments was to have kids wash the floor with a toothbrush. i never experienced this but i wonder if the ds who did this if it had any long term effects.

Is this the only job I should be working on? If not then I don’t mind doing it. I would take it for $100/hr. I would use the rest of my time to do what I like and I will also be able to giveaway most of that $100; I don’t need that much, which will make the pointless job a very “meaningfull” job.

I regularly read your blog with great interest, and think you have great ideas to live your idiosyncratic lifestyle. A few questions: I assume you are in your 30s, do you expect to get old? Do you plan for the changes this will bring? And does your wife write a blog? I’m so curious about her point of view.

It depends on for how many hours per week. If it were for 40 hours a week and I had to sit in traffic for an hour a day, $10,000 per hour would be necessary.

George