Gaming

On the futility of hard work

Do not confuse movement and progress. A rocking horse keeps moving but does not move forward.

Alfred Montapert

The expulsion of effort, work and the assertion of one’s will are both unavoidable things of existence. Although the purpose of the work or effort is a means to an end, it can perversely become an end in itself. This is what characterizes what I will call the Beta-Man or rather the Busy-Man.

The Beta-Man (or the Busy Man) is the working man who has long been seen or understood as the ‘successful’ or the ‘important’ by the culture at large. This illusion must go, because the Busy Man is the foolish man. Effort has never and never will be correlated with success. A working slave will always remain a slave. The historical-cultural context of the Western world is that of a ‘Protestant work ethic’, in which the busy or hard-working man is praised and sanctioned with rewards, recognition and promotions. An awarded, recognized and promoted slave will always remain a slave.

The Beta-Man embodies an undefined value system. Although the Busy Man appears to be “principled” and “forceful”, he is actually characterized by indifference, ambivalence, and indecisiveness. It is precisely this make-up that allows you to engage in all meaningless work and activities. His indifference and indecisiveness makes him unable to assign worth or value to one activity, job or event over another. He therefore participates in everything. He values ​​the experience as a whole above its specific or refined forms.

At the core of Busy Man’s efforts was a desire for purpose. By being constantly engaged in activity, he becomes important to himself and to others. There is always something for him to do. Therefore, there is something to live for. He gains purpose. For the Busy Man, it is not entirely about the goal of the efforts, but about the efforts themselves. The Beta-Man lives and concentrates on the means and not on the ends, on the cause and not on the effect, on the work and not on its fruits. The Busy Man is truly riddled with purposelessness. A lack that his effort tries to cover. All he achieves is a tired mind and body.

Your goal is to have your schedule full. He accepts his lack of time as something inevitable, distrusting any alternative. He takes pride in his busy schedule, considering himself ‘organized’ as he completes all of his tasks without realizing the futility of his actions. He is so enthralled by the futile routine that he has no time to examine the value of the process itself. He gives himself over to activity to feel the weight of purpose. This is not purpose, this is distraction. He really has no direction in life and feels a purpose in feeling tired and drained; “What a day, I’m working really hard, right?”

Those who blindly follow orders, break their backs and bleed their fingers are appreciated by the culture of the Protestant work ethic. It has made us peasants. As soon as we finish our education, we look for a master, a boss, a place to work, a space for slaves. The Protestant culture of the work ethic has positioned us to assume that hard work is synonymous with success. Therefore, Beta-Man aims to work hard and not fruitfully. The fruit becomes of secondary importance to the work.

Words like ‘worker’ and ‘industrial’, although terms that seem to describe virtues, have acted as vices. These are words for the peasants. The true virtues are prolific, fruitful and productive. This is the purpose of hard work. However, it is silly to appreciate the vehicle above the results. Many of us work hard without knowing what we intend to ‘produce’ or achieve by doing so.

We all interact with this Beta-Man. He is in the gym all the time but he doesn’t know why he is there, his goal is to exercise, not to improve his body or his health. He is in the library all the time, but remains uninformed. He has held the same position at the same job for years. He is the bureaucrat. He is the one who appreciates the lecture on knowledge itself, annoyed by those who do not attend. He attends every night, hungry for every experience he can take, anxious not to miss a thing.

For me life is to be hungry continuously. The meaning of life is not simply to exist, to survive, but to advance, climb, achieve, conquer.

Arnold Swarezenegger

The meaning of life is debatable; the meaning of work is not. Its meaning; or rather the purpose is to progress; develop and improve. If you are putting out effort and not making progress, you are wandering. There is no middle ground, no middle ground, no negotiation. If you’re not making progress, you’re wandering. The Beta-Man develops routines and habits that distract him.

What is unfortunate is that Beta-man shows the will to progress, but due to the lack of a defined value system, he is unable to do so. To progress, working hard will not achieve anything. One must work ‘well’. Running with all your effort in the wrong direction will never get you to your destination.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then,
It is not an act but a habit.

Aristotle

Alpha-Man, (unlike Beta-Man) understands that life is a war, that every choice has weight and every decision has consequences. He calculates the value of each move. Unlike the busy man, he filters futile work and activity away from his presence. He concentrates his efforts with conviction and knows that the meaning of life is not simply to exist. There is no Plan B because this is just a distraction from Plan A. Instead of action and working towards a sense of purpose, it is characterized by a defined Value System and therefore first realizes its purpose and then work. The work, therefore, becomes progressive and not digressive.

Your value system allows you to be aware of futile activity, and therefore you can avoid it. He works for the fruit; every movement is toward a goal, a cause for an effect, a means to an end. He moves only when he counts; this is the art of war. The Alpha Man controls his routines and habits. Busy Man is controlled by his routines and habits. Alpha-Man focuses and accomplishes much more. He knows that life is too short to be extended.

To be part of the Alpha, you must first define your System of Values. You must understand your principles. Know yourself. Only once you know yourself can you get a paradigm to understand the chaotic activities and events of life. You have clarity. Only here can you make decisions about what is worth paying attention to and what is worth discarding.

Summary

There are two types of people: the Beta-Man and the Alpha-Man. The Beta works for a purpose while the Alpha works for the product.

The purpose of work is to progress. Work is a means to an end. However, Beta-Man uses the job as an end in itself.

An Undefined Value System characterizes Beta Man while a defined Value System characterizes Alpha Man. A defined value system allows you to filter the activities of life.

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