Bullshit Jobs

A Theory

By: David Graeber

Narrated by: Christopher Ragland

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber, read by Christopher Ragland.

Be honest: if your job didn't exist, would anybody miss it? Have you ever wondered why not? Up to 40% of us secretly believe our jobs probably aren't necessary. In other words: they are bullshit jobs. This book shows why, and what we can do about it.
In the early twentieth century, people prophesied that technology would see us all working fifteen-hour weeks and driving flying cars. Instead, something curious happened. Not only have the flying cars not materialised, but average working hours have increased rather than decreased. And now, across the developed world, three-quarters of all jobs are in services, finance or admin: jobs that don't seem to contribute anything to society. In Bullshit Jobs, David Graeber explores how this phenomenon - one more associated with the Soviet Union, but which capitalism was supposed to eliminate - has happened. In doing so, he looks at how, rather than producing anything, work has become an end in itself; the way such work maintains the current broken system of finance capital; and, finally, how we can get out of it.
This book is for anyone whose heart has sunk at the sight of a whiteboard, who believes 'workshops' should only be for making things, or who just suspects that there might be a better way to run our world.


'Spectacular and terrifyingly true' Owen Jones
'Explosive' John McDonnell, New Statesman, Books of the Year
'Thought-provoking and funny' The Times

©2018 David Graeber (P)2018 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Spectacular and terrifyingly true." (Owen Jones)

"Explosive." (John McDonnell, New Statesman, Books of the Year)

"Thought-provoking and funny." (The Times)

Start thinking

This is a really good explanation of our society and surprisingly accurate for far too many people in the workforce.
We should really think more about this. And absolutely do things differently.

What a book!

This book is fantastic. well written and concisely explained. entertaining style as well as a well thought out topic. coming from a conservative background favouring the free market and libertarian ideals, this has really opened up my thinking but if you are like me then listen with an open mind

typical Graber disruption & brilliance

Towards the end of the book, the collection of testimonials and commentary on them converge into a sociopolitical argument that os far more reaching than the title of the book may suggest.. worth every hour of listening.

When will wagies learn?

Wagie wagie get in cagie.
All day long you sweat and ragie.
NEET is comfy. NEET is cool.
NEET is free from work and school.
Wagie trapped and wagie died.
NEET eats tendies, sauce, and fries

The "Bullshit" in the title is very descriptive

I almost never give up on an audiobooks but I am giving up on this one after less than an hour because it was just making me angry. The author presents this book based upon his qualifications as an anthropologist but it quickly becomes apparently that this is a political tract. What annoyed me were the extremely one sided arguments about the nature of a BS job and the use of over simplified examples to make his points.

I was recommended this book by a colleague and was intregued because I think there generally are a lot of wasted jobs out there. I was expecting a balanced and well reasoned assessment but what I got instead was definitions such as teachers and nurses are required because if they weren't there society would notice but lawyers are a bullshit job because if they weren't there no one would be affected. I assume that there was a more deep and reasoned argument later in the book but I couldn't bring myself to continue.

Performance was fine - my only issue was with the content.

Postmodernist propaganda of universal basic income

The author is a self-proclaimed anarchist hoping for the dismantlement of the states.

Basically, he says that since some jobs are pointless, non-productive and boring, then the salaried employees performing these jobs should be free to quit them and still receive the money from "the government" (i.e. from taxes of people who still would be working).
Don't believe me? Read it and see for yourself.
It's a postmodernistic propaganda advocating for Universal Basic Income.

Spoiler alert - the book ends with a cute story about a bunch of feminists forcing a child to burn the New Testament because it was "sexist".

interesting, depressing, incomplete

The title is focused on jobs that have no meaningful output, wastes of time and destruction of the soul. So much is truly fascinating and depressing and also misses consistently that this is a perception of the individual, which is accepted as true (and in many cases probably is given the stories that back this up). But, this also opens up the question of jobs that just feel meaningless but are badly taught, and although these are discussed, as well as other angles, some angles just strike me as badly explored.

A strong focus, or recurring theme is that much money could be saved if things were done differently (again true), and more just understood what money is (which is either not discussed or ruled out of scope) leaving especially the concluding chapters hollow because new issues are introduced but not pursued.

Overall there is a lot good here but the potential is squandered by not engaging with some of those topics that are hinted at. Also, being an anarchist occasionally seems to be used as an explanation ... which does not explain everything, to simplify: the supplement industry is a scam because I don't believe Oranges are comparable to Lemons on vitamin C content. So running with the simely, I'm not sure what kind of comparison we are talking about and can I get more detail on how it might be a scam. Here this is about governments becoming a thing of the past and being an anarchist, but how are we getting there and how would this work? (generally or in context, I'm curious on either, yet neither gets any details). These things feel like interesting excursions that would bear relevance and are ignored.

Broadly, it's a good title that misses opportunities both in addressing issues it raises or pointing to alternative sources. Similarly some angles of consideration are missed and feel intentionally ignored because they are present but not pursued or obviously absent.

Interesting ideas but not a great book

The book suffers a bit from the very thing it is criticizing. It could have been written in 2 chapters and make all of its fundamental points. But it's been filled with hours of BS just to justify it be a "book".

It's interesting, nevertheless.