In modern times, getting a job seems equivalent to living. Most people can no longer live off the land, especially since most of it is expensive private property. Instead, most people focus on their career. However, if there is one piece of advice I’d give to young people just starting out, it is this: avoid careers at large institutions such as corporations and universities.
Typical career paths at large institutions are all about advancing our conquest and destruction of all that is beautiful in the natural world
Such careers are all about becoming a replaceable part in an economic system whose main goal is technological development at the expense of the living natural world. Careers at large institutions are the advancement of consumerism, which is absolutely dependent on ecosystem destruction. Although humans have improved life in some ways, often such improvements are short-term and they come at the expense of a worse future for all of life.
Of course, you need money to live, so you may have to work for a corporation or other entity for some time. But focus on finding stability for yourself and do not aim for an expensive house that will require a lifetime of work to pay off. Move cities if necessary to find cheaper places and buy something less expensive. Consider buying an apartment. The reason why houses are so expensive in some areas because the cities containing such property are filled with people who play the game of making and consuming endless products.
Instead, guard your free time. The more free time you have, the more you can figure out who you are and what you need to do to give back to the planet that has given us all life. For only by working to cultivate respect for life can you truly live.
Minimize your contribution to advancing needless technology. If you get a job at a tech company or you already work at one, do enough to be a decent employee but innovate as little as possible. And quit as soon as possible. But it’s even better to avoid working at big tech companies altogether. Big tech are a terrible disease because they are creating the technology that is necessary for keeping excessive consumerism alive. They are much more destructive to the world than they are beneficial.
You were probably indoctrinated into believing that modern society is enlightened and advanced. In fact, it is barbaric and destructive: we eradicate species to extinction to make industrial society function. And no, it is not easy to go off this beaten path, but if you want to do something good in this world, you will have to go off that path. Have you heard of climate change? All the corporate working hours in the world won’t make one iota of difference to solving that problem. It will just make the problem worse.
Today, the vast majority of ways of making a living involves destroying life. And careers at large institutions are nothing else than a shiny way of packaging the role of being a soldier in this destruction. Thus, I advise you to question these typical career paths. If you are smart, you will likely find a better way.
I am not saying not to be responsible, or that all careers are bad. You’ll have to figure out how you intend to live in this world and provide for yourself somehow. But question typical career paths, and be extremely wary of large institutions, because most of them are only bringing the world down.