On 10/10/2024 05:48, Veena Venugopal via Silklist wrote:
I did not have a problem with the "what do you do" question as long as i was doing what i loved, which was being a journalist and writer. These last 5 years, I've worked for Apple and I realised when people asked what I did, I'd say, "I used to be a journalist but now I work for Apple". I am extrapolating from a base of one, but I think the aversion to the "what do you do" question partly comes from the fact that what people do for work is not directly linked to something they are passionate about or interested in. While I understand the reluctance to be reduced to one identity, I think what do you do is a pretty good way of figuring out what I'd likely have in common with the person I am speaking with.
Yeah. I think this question - if you look at what it ACTUALLY says - is a fine one; the problem is that in a workist society it has come to mean "What is your job", because of the assumption that that's the only thing that matters. Do useful stuff for pay from 9-5, then go home and CONSUME THE PRODUCTS OF CAPITALISM (Netflix + Uber Eats) or something.
But my life isn't like that, and a lot of people's aren't. What do *I* do? I'm an inventor, and a carer. I care for my family (wage earner, driver, cook, organiser of household stuff, cleaner, "housewife" duties); I care for my community through various volunteering things (radio comms for public events, maintaining public communication infrastructure, administration for the local community workshop, Scout leader), I mess with technology and make all sorts of things, I write blog posts to share my thoughts.
The actual part I'm employed for is a bit of inventing, a bit of mentoring, a bit of writing. A slice through the set of things I do. To be precise, I'm a member of a small company doing a mixture of tech contracting in the area of data management, so I write software, run teams, and write documentation/white papers/thinkpieces. Which are all the sorts of things I also do for fun.
To me, this is a perfectly good question to ask; I can explain all that stuff to give the asker an idea of the kinds of things I'm into, to find some common conversational grounds to continue from, etc.
But, the question has been ruined by the common convention being that it simply means "What's your job title?"
The question I hate, which the author of the link Udhay posted writes about, is where I am from. I am from Kerala, but i neither speak the language well nor do I know much about the history or contemporary issues of the State, and I am very much a tourist when I visit. I have lived in Delhi-NCR for the longest stretch and yet i can't say i am from there as well. My response to hat question is usually "all over" and an awkward laugh.
Ha, yes. I was born in Luton, England, and left when I was 18, and have returned... perhaps five times since? Only once of which was in the last twenty years. I don't think it particularly defines me.
V
-- Alaric Snell-Pym (M0KTN neé M7KIT) http://www.snell-pym.org.uk/alaric/
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