After spending several years feeling empty from working a regular corporate job, here's an epiphany I had today.
Throughout history, in the most basic sense, all jobs fall into these three categories.
- The Slave
- The Bandit
- The Craftsman
You might not be a slave, bandit or craftsman per se, but the job you do basically has the essence of one of the three. Also, do note that overlaps are possible. Before you think about which categories your job falls under, here's a summary of what they mean
The Slave
The slave follows orders. Slaves create value from their labor. They do things by others' orders. Also, they do things only when they are supposed to. Slaves may or may not be compensated. If they are, then they are compensated for time spent.
The key feature of a slave job is the lack of agency.
When a slave does something out of turn, his labor adds little or no value to his master. When a slave fails to do a job, the cost of failure is high. But when a slave works hard, the rewards are too little.
Simply put, a slave's job has high risk, high effort and low rewards
The Bandit
The bandit robs others. Bandits attack. They find as many victims as possible and then extract their possessions from them, against their will. Their victims may or may not be human. They might not even be alive.
The nature of their job, is to extract resources from somewhere that has resources
Bandits either have to actively look for resources, or keep a watchful eye on what they have already gathered. To a bandit, both risk and reward are high. If a bandit works hard, he is showered with riches. If a bandit fails, he might even die.
Simply put, a bandit's job is high risk, low effort and high reward
The Craftsman
The craftsman creates. Craftsmen make things. They make as much of it as they want. Then, they sell it.
Craftsmen aren't told when to make things. They just make them because they enjoy making them. They perfect their craft when they see fit. Their work gives them exponential returns. They have a choice between making and resting.
A craftsman's job has low risk, high effort, high reward
Think of these categories as Steemit tags.
Before figuring out what categories your job fall under, let's make up an arbitrary rule. You can apply up to 2 categories to your job. But the first tag is your main category.
I'm applying this arbitrary rule just so it's easier for me to explain in a Steemit post.
Slave, Craftsman
Engineers, Doctors, Scientists, News reporters, Newspaper columnists, Film directors, Artisans et al make this list.Craftsman, Slave
Anyone from the first category except when they are entrepreneurial. However, their work is based on a service they provide rather than a product they create. Example, Engineers from service based companies, Independent Lawyers, Independent Doctors etc.Slave, Bandit
Cops, soldiers and lower ranking civil servants basically follow orders and are trained according to their masters' needs. However, the bandit aspect of their job comes from the fact that they are paid for with taxes. Farm workers, Mine workers, Lumberjacks, anyone who work for others in extracting resources are slaves first and bandits next.Bandit, Slave
Heads of the police departments, High ranking generals, Federal Judges, Diplomats and Politicians. They are bandits because they are paid for with taxes. They are slaves as long as they are in a democracy.Craftsman, Bandit
CEOs of arms industries, Head of NASA and pretty much anyone who manufactures specialized goods and items for the government falls in this category. They manufacture weapons, rail roads and infrastructure. They make knowledge by gathering data and performing research - all in the interest of making the governance more efficient.Bandit, Craftsman
Anyone leading the top levels of the government that oversees weapons manufacturing, research, agriculture or mineral extraction can be regarded as a bandit-craftsman. A bandit-craftsman has previous experience of being a craftsman but has now risen through the ranks to be able to dictate policy and levy taxes.
Key takeaways
Slaves, Bandits and Craftsmen all need each other.
It's the bandits that go out there and extract resources. Then, they ensure an equitable distribution of resources so that more can be gathered. Craftsmen use those resources and make things, either for pleasure or profit. Both bandits and craftsmen use slaves to scale their operations.Make your career choice based on what you'd rather be
How lazy are you? How afraid are you? How greedy are you? These are the three questions you should ask yourself before deciding what kind of a job you'd like to do.
Are you a bandit, a craftsman or a slave?
I'm a Software Engineer who is a Slave-Craftsman with a 9-5 job. After spending a few days on Steemit, I'm starting to see how great being a craftsman is. Of course, my payouts are low. But the potential is infinite and that makes me happy.