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lumbra's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
A good exploration into the perverse pointlesness and sadism of employment in the modern day. The possible reasons why were numerous and complex and could have been made clearer.
franchely's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
jimthecactus's review against another edition
Though some of the core intent is well understood, they don't actually support anything with real evidence. The book presents itself as a result of research, but all of the data is individual anecdotes.
At the end of the day, the book's research is just vibes, and although I do vibe with the book's message, I didn't need it to tell me that most of our jobs are a pointless patchwork of garbage.
At the end of the day, the book's research is just vibes, and although I do vibe with the book's message, I didn't need it to tell me that most of our jobs are a pointless patchwork of garbage.
blaineduncan's review against another edition
1.0
Many times I've read essays by students which begin with "In this essay I will..." or "This essay talks about..." Whatever variation of the phrase, it's elementary. It's why I was shocked to find so much of that type of writing in the first 25 pages of this text. It's just not well written. (I know that I trust Goodreads ratings usually, but the current 4.06 for 'Bullshit Jobs: A Theory' is oddly out of tune with what's in the text.)
There are also a lot of "I'll touch on this later" type of writing. It quickly gets old. I'm sure I agree with a lot of what the author is getting at were it only given to me more clearly.
My final gripe was how the thesis comes about: does Graeber need to have the very people who work the "bullshit job" be the ones to define it? Can't he make the claim on his own and back it with evidence?
As others have mentioned, this likely works much better as an article rather than poorly designed book.
There are also a lot of "I'll touch on this later" type of writing. It quickly gets old. I'm sure I agree with a lot of what the author is getting at were it only given to me more clearly.
My final gripe was how the thesis comes about: does Graeber need to have the very people who work the "bullshit job" be the ones to define it? Can't he make the claim on his own and back it with evidence?
As others have mentioned, this likely works much better as an article rather than poorly designed book.