40,000

I have been writing Fear, Fun and Filoz since 2008.  It is fun sometimes to get an idea for a blog post, look up terms related to the idea and see what I have written before, if anything.  I have been meaning to write about "40,000 jobs" and I looked that up.  As I suspected, I did write about that here: https://fearfunandfiloz.blogspot.com/search?q=40%2C000+jobs

The search term "40,000 jobs" refers to a government publication called "Handbook of Occupational Titles".  When my class of mostly elementary education teachers-to-be discussed getting teaching jobs years ago, some students expressed fear that they were doomed unless they got a teaching job.  I asked a counselor from the campus career counseling office to come and talk about jobs, getting employment and being a college graduate.  The counselor mentioned the Handbook and her talk made me realize that what one thinks of the 'world of work' can be strongly related to the size and nature of the location of one's childhood.  

Personally, I searched quite a bit through my memories and feelings to see what about ME seemed to be a clue about a sort of work that I could do and do happily for a long time.  Teaching 5th grade and undergraduate and graduate courses was close to what seemed I could maintain interest for.  I do understand that a complex modern world has far more types of work needs than I know about.  I also realized from my students that there is far more to a talented, educated young person than most of them realize.

Want a job?

On our college campus, we have career counseling professionals whose training and job is to help the students think about themselves and their lives and get on paths toward what they want for jobs.  That is a tough assignment .

You can't tell if you succeeded. Who knows if the guy who becomes a reporter would been happier in the hospitality industry?  You can't run his life over a 2nd time and get him into hotel management and compare the journalist life to the hotel life.  Besides, that guy is unique.  Even his dad, his brother and his son are not copies of him so questions about them and their work, and their best path into the future are not all that cleared up by that guy's experience.

Some of my elementary majors seemed convinced that there were no jobs for them except teaching in elementary school.  Logical but naive.  I had some of the campus professionals talk to those students, who learned the entire office, manager and all employees, in an insurance company office in a large city were ex-elementary teachers.

 

The US Dictionary of Occupational Titles contained over 40,000 different jobs well over 20 years ago.  I see that an online statement says that the dictionary lists 13,000 different kinds of work.  Most people cannot name very many of them, of course, especially if they come from small towns.  It isn't necessary to know lots of job titles or types.  It isn't necessary to have a job, if you have enough money or someone to feed and shelter you.  But most of my life, I needed and wanted a job.  I liked working with people, although I never had much experience with data or things.  Like Diogenes, who told the conqueror Alexander the Great, when he asked what he could do for or give Diogenes, "Get out of my light", I just wanted a captive audience of students.  It is nice to get some money for teaching but with or without money, I like understanding concepts and explaining them to students.  I needed other people's children since we could only make and raise a few by ourselves.

 

After I began college teaching, I did take one of the occupational aptitude tests.  The results said to try being a jet pilot, a podiatrist or a rabbi.  I have vision problems, I am not attracted to feet and I am not Jewish.

The high school counselor who spoke about occupations and students yesterday said that her school tries to prepare students to hold at least ten different jobs over their lifetime.  I just counted up eleven paying jobs before I had graduated from college.

--

Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Twitter: @olderkirby

Trying to find ways to live and live longer

There are many ways to look at human life.  One that I more or less dismissed as silly was comparison with the life of apes.  The genetics of the apes is closest to that of humans in the case of chimpanzees and bonobos, I have read.  I suspect there are other intelligent and useful books on the comparison but the one I have read is "Our Inner Ape" by Frans De Waal.  

As some time has passed, I find myself using the concepts of the book and the comparison between us and them more and more often.  The other day, I had a small period of time on my hands and watched a couple of TED talks.  One was by Prof. David Autor of MIT called "Why are there so many jobs?"  The other was by Prof. Barry Schwartz of Swarthmore College called "Why Do We Work?" The two talks together got me thinking about the work life of the modern person.  Schwartz's question and his talk asked Why do we put up with jobs that are boring, or dangerous, or worse?  

His question reminded me of the steady ongoing discussion of what goes on in school classrooms and what should go on. If we say that the main purpose in life for female primates, including us, is bearing and raising children, we may, of course, offend and alienate many people today.  Let's grant that humankind can almost certainly benefit from getting the contribution of both sexes in work and play, in arts and sciences and politics and everything.  We may also offend and alienate many people if we say that the main purposes in life for male primates, including us, is mating and fighting.  

We can say that the purposes in life of adult men are wealth and leisure.  To have a life, both sexes need food, clothing, some shelter or good shelter, depending on where they live.  In modern society, food, shelter and clothing come from income and money.  

In 2015, 49.55% of the global population were women. 81 countries had a majority of women, 36 countries had a majority of men, 75 were within 0.5% of gender parity.

[It is estimated that males have a natural death rate higher than females and that natural processes produce 105 boys to every 100 girls.  Further skewing the sex ratio among humans is the traditional preference for boys, especially in the large Chinese and Indian populations]

In comparison to the 7,400,000,000 humans now living, the chimps are estimated to number between 170,000 and 300,000.  These numbers, our intuition and our experience support that idea that finding ways to cooperate and benefit from each others' existence and skills is a far more successful way to promote both comfort and longevity that the chimp way of merely expanding territory by means of warfare and murder.  As a point of interest, our other cousins, the bonobos, are famous for their use of sex and genital stimulation to create pleasure, relaxation and good feelings maybe a bit comparable to the way we use recreational sex and alcohol but they currently only number about 40,000.  

So our growing tendency to restrain ourselves and find better ways to disagree is valuable and is paying off.  Not only that but peaceable disagreement and discussion is increasingly useful for finding new and better views and methods.