Thursday, January 15, 2015
Working: Correlation Between Success and Fun?
When listening to Rankin talk about fun, he brings up working as a vendor for his farmer's market at RFK stadium. Rankin elaborates into the details of his day at the stadium and says "It was highly successful. In fact it was so much fun to do it. It wasn't work.". After hearing Rankin say those statements, it made me wonder does work correlate with success in order for it to be fun? In many instances I believe that if you are successful at what you do, you will have fun and while having fun, it will feel meaningful to you. Having meaning for a job comes down to an individual's interpretation of what he or she is doing on a day-to-day basis for a living. If a person is not having fun from time to time again with their job or successful, how can they view themselves as doing something meaningful? Rankin would be a prime example in the idea that when you are successful at what you do, you will have fun. Through his successes at the farmer's market he was blinded to the negative idea of work and began to have fun. Overall, the question that I leave would be, is it possible for an individual to be unsuccessful and have no fun, yet believe that their job still has meaning?
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Art,
ReplyDeleteI love this question at the end. I think it is possible, right? Imagine a nurse during a bad week or a public defender who's just lost a case defending someone she thinks is innocent? They probably think their jobs are meaningful, even though they may not be hugely successful in a financial way, and they're probably not having much fun.
That you're asking questions about success/fun/meaningfulness is encouraging to me. These are some of our big themes in class as we discuss work.
Some of your writing here is a little bit clunky. In the first sentence, for example, you're the one listening, but then you make "he" the subject. It would need to read, "When listening to Rankin, I. . ." or "As I listened to Eddie Rankin, he spoke about. . ."
Re-read to see if there are places you can be clearer and edit the post accordingly.
Also, now that we've talked about context sentences in class, I'll expect you to identify the works and authors (and main characters?) in future blogposts. I think you can do more to let your implied reader in on what you're talking about. Who's Rankin, for instance? How did you get to hear his viewpoint? I know the answers, but even as a reader who knows, I want to feel like you have full mastery of what you're talking about and one way for you to get to that level is to thoroughly identify everyone.
Grade: .9/1
DW
Oh, I also dig that you used an image. I'll probably make little things like that part of subsequent assignments to give people practice (and to make this stuff a little more visually engaging). You're ahead of the game.
ReplyDeleteArt,
ReplyDeleteI think that jobs can be unsuccessful and no fun but definitely still have meaning. As a future educator (hopefully) I'm sure I will have weeks that are probably no fun. My plan is to teach special education. For the most part, that's fun and I feel successful. On the other hand, there are the days that my kids punch me in the face and I feel like I haven't made any progress that day. But would I say that makes the job not meaningful? Never.
Art,
ReplyDeleteI understand that he thinks his work is fun, but I cannot see how he does. I can't envision thinking of fun as slaving outside all day in the hot sun until the sun goes down, and then doing it all again the next day. I greatly admire him for this, because not many people have the drive that he does.
Art,
ReplyDeleteIn regard to your question at the end, I feel like in order to have meaning, a job must be either successful or fun, but hopefully both. If someone is failing at a job, it can't mean anything because there is nothing being accomplished. If someone is not having any fun as well, then the job additionally means nothing to them
Art,
ReplyDeleteIn regards to your last question, I think it is possible for a job to be unsuccessful and not fun but still meaningful. I am going to be a speech pathologist and for me, the fun in my job is going to come from having successful clients. I am sure there will be days or weeks, when I have clients that make no progress. For me that will not be any fun and for sure not successful but I know I will be making a difference in their lives and that will be enough to keep me going!