Mind Blogging. Mind Boggling.

PSW is written in 2009 by Alain de Botton, a modern-day philosopher. It ruminates at length about how, why and where we work, by way of delving deep into a wide range of professions, covering transmission tower (pylon) laying to biscuit manufacturing to career counselling and much more. These ten diverse gallivants speak to something I’ve felt: there is a mind boggling range of professions and job-roles, each fascinating in its own way. However, certain professions (eg: Sports, politics, movie actors) and certain roles (eg: CEO, Prime Minister) hog most of the limelight. This book follows the lives of ‘ordinary’ workers, not superstars.

It’s written beautifully (‘river banks gnawed by jetties and warehouses’). PSW is imbued with flashes of sparkling imagination (an abandoned warehouse is ‘evocative of a primeval past and a dystopian future, a place where one half expects that a brontosaurus might emerge from behind the shell of a burnt out factory’). The observations and the accompanying ruminations offer unique perspectives (‘the origins and travels of our purchases remain matters of indifference, although, to the more imaginative, an obscure code printed along a computer cable may hint at process of manufacture, storage and transport nobler and more mysterious, more worthy of wonder and study, than the very goods themselves’).

It’s written in a philosophical bent of mind. Sometimes, the philosophical interludes are deep enough to produce goosebumps. He comments on various conflicts inherent in modern work: veneration of technology, specialization at the cost of understanding the bigger picture, odd behaviours at workplace which become a norm. He asks various deep questions – why indulge in art? Why work? Why do some professions get the limelight? The book is so interesting because while it does its philosophical meanderings, it also gets very real in terms of descriptions of jobs and people. After all, looking at ‘work’ from a magnifying glass has to be as real or ‘tangible’- can’t just be flights of fancy. It’s this conflict and contrast that was at the heart of what made the read appealing for me.  

PSW is imbued with wit (‘we were driven to a hangar not much smaller than Reims cathedral where we caught our first glimpse of the satellite in a powerful white light, being ministered to by a congregation of engineers in gowns, hairnets and slippers’). While the author’s base is England, where many stories are set, PSW does take you globe trotting to some extent. Overall, it’s a classic piece of journalism, for the author probes deep into each subject, interviewing and following the lives of many characters involved.

At times PSW becomes a bit cynical and melancholy. Cynical because the at times the author gets into a mode of saying that the professionals are in the midst of a mind-numbing charade which in the big picture does not mean anything. Melancholy for the same reason- he hints at the pointlessness of it all, especially in the long run.  

Net-net, I found it a fascinating read. There are pictures to accompany the prose, so after reading the book on the Kindle app on my Boox tablet, I bought a hard copy to adorn my bookshelf at home, and two more, to gift.

Labels: Books

# posted by Ashwin Ravikumar @ 12:51 PM