Network Capital

Network Capital

Share this post

Network Capital
Network Capital
Why do some boring jobs pay so much?
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More

Why do some boring jobs pay so much?

How there are some problems with the "bullshit jobs" theory

Network Capital's avatar
Network Capital
Sep 01, 2023
∙ Paid

Share this post

Network Capital
Network Capital
Why do some boring jobs pay so much?
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More
Share

Before we get started, here are some interesting bits:

  • The Instacart IPO

  1. Instacart, a grocery delivery company, is going public. It made $740 Million in advertising revenue in 2022 (31% of their total revenue). Every company seems to be a media company.

  2. The company is finally profitable. Has this addressed constant questioning of the unit economics of platform economy startups?

  3. Or is it that the core business is unprofitable but if you have an audience, advertising helps with profitability?

  • The Network Capital Cohort Based Course: Tech Strategy with McKinsey alum and Microsoft executive, Prerak Garg

    Enroll Now

  • Twitter is dead?

  1. Not quite. Come for the network, stay for the tool.

  2. Threads are dead? Fyi - Facebook’s stock almost doubled in the last year.

  • The Economic Advisory Council of the Prime Minister reflects on his career

Why do some boring jobs pay so much?

Anthropologist David Graeber postulates that over half of societal work is pointless and becomes psychologically destructive when paired with a work ethic that associates work with self-worth.

Marx, Adam Smith and Bullshit Jobs

Now let’s look at what great jobs look like. Most of us millennials and GenZs love these. We want

  • High pay

  • Freedom to do what we want when we want: The premise of the passion economy

  • Autonomy, mastery, and purpose

  • Flexibility

The list goes on. There is an entire Reddit channel lamenting the rise of soulless work, driving the capitalist agenda forward. It makes some insightful points.

Check it out

The only challenge is that we haven’t quite figured out how the anti-work utopia will manifest. Sometimes it almost feels like we expect someone else to emerge and hand it to us. In the absence of that somebody, the same old melody repeats itself in the form of long opinion pieces sprinkled with convenient data. Here is how it goes:

This post is for paid subscribers

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in
© 2025 Network Capital
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start writingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture

Share

Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More