This American Life
I work in a data hive: cube after cube, row after row, of people moving information from pieces of paper to computer programs, and from one program to another. This is the new factory job, dull repetitive work that will be obsoleted by China or technology any day now, just like all those jobs in Detroit. It's mind-numbing. My mind is not particularly fond of numbness, so I have to find ways to get around the boredom so I can do my job and pay my rent. The most successful boredom-management strategy I have discovered so far is This American Life, the greatest public radio show ever.
I come into work, check my email, read my comic strips, and then knuckle down to get some work done. So I start up an episode of This American Life. I listen to Ira Glass's soothing tones. I laugh, I cry. I learn deep and meaningful things about humanity and myself. And then when the episode is over I look up to discover that I'm an hour closer to quitting time and the parts of my brain that were not listening to the show had actually gotten quite a bit done during the rest of my brain's absence. They only put out one show a week, but fortunately there are almost 15 years of archives I can plough my way through.
One of the shows I listened to today is called "Plan B", all about what people do when their original life plan doesn't work out. The backup plans included becoming a telemarketer, kidnapping Frank Sinatra Jr., and being Cuervo Man, paid to pass out free shots and do stupid things with drunk people in bars to promote tequila. The prologue opened with Ira asking an audience of 100 people how many of them were still on their Plan A, and only one raised their hand.
My life hasn't exactly gone the way I had in mind. In the original plan, I'd have gotten into the Foreign Service straight out of grad school. Then I modified the plan to embrace getting an exciting policy job of some sort for a few years until I got into the Foreign Service. Then I modified it further to include getting a not-so-exciting whatever job until I got into the Foreign Service. What's actually happened is desperately piecing together a series of short-term temping assignments, until I get into the Foreign Service.
And yet, despite the downgraded expectations, I think I'm still technically on Plan A. Plan A is "get into the Foreign Service". I have yet to give up on this and find some other goal for my life. I have switched tactics perhaps, but not strategy. This worries me a little, since all the career advice I've ever heard says to make the Foreign Service your Plan B. It's so hard to get into, the odds against you are so high, it's best not to get too attached. I think I'm too attached.
I come into work, check my email, read my comic strips, and then knuckle down to get some work done. So I start up an episode of This American Life. I listen to Ira Glass's soothing tones. I laugh, I cry. I learn deep and meaningful things about humanity and myself. And then when the episode is over I look up to discover that I'm an hour closer to quitting time and the parts of my brain that were not listening to the show had actually gotten quite a bit done during the rest of my brain's absence. They only put out one show a week, but fortunately there are almost 15 years of archives I can plough my way through.
One of the shows I listened to today is called "Plan B", all about what people do when their original life plan doesn't work out. The backup plans included becoming a telemarketer, kidnapping Frank Sinatra Jr., and being Cuervo Man, paid to pass out free shots and do stupid things with drunk people in bars to promote tequila. The prologue opened with Ira asking an audience of 100 people how many of them were still on their Plan A, and only one raised their hand.
My life hasn't exactly gone the way I had in mind. In the original plan, I'd have gotten into the Foreign Service straight out of grad school. Then I modified the plan to embrace getting an exciting policy job of some sort for a few years until I got into the Foreign Service. Then I modified it further to include getting a not-so-exciting whatever job until I got into the Foreign Service. What's actually happened is desperately piecing together a series of short-term temping assignments, until I get into the Foreign Service.
And yet, despite the downgraded expectations, I think I'm still technically on Plan A. Plan A is "get into the Foreign Service". I have yet to give up on this and find some other goal for my life. I have switched tactics perhaps, but not strategy. This worries me a little, since all the career advice I've ever heard says to make the Foreign Service your Plan B. It's so hard to get into, the odds against you are so high, it's best not to get too attached. I think I'm too attached.