# bureaucracy: make paperwork fun!
i hear some warnings that eventually humanity won't be able to employ most people meaningfully when robots can do most of the mundane tasks for us. that might be true but i don't see that humanity would ever run out of jobs. i expect bureaucracy will take up most of the time of people. i mean even unemployed people have to spend a lot of time trapped in various procedures, e.g. waiting in lines, seeking jobs, interviewing, etc. unemployment can be like a full time job.
here's a random list of tasks that can be associated with the ever growing bureaucracy (listed alphabetically):
everything makes sense on its own but when taken all together then it feels that humanity spends more and more time on busywork. we can always find some paperwork to do for any person on earth at any time.
one way out of this is starting a company or government anew with a clean slate. or maybe you can fight against the existing bureaucracy. but what if you are not in a mood for a fight? one can try changing their perception about the whole thing. a lot of these things are painful because they are forced on people and because they often have to struggle through them alone.
try making all the unnecessary paperwork more fun. if you have to fill boring forms (e.g. tax returns) maybe draw or write some art to the margins. make it the best looking tax return ever!
a peer wants you to peer review something for them? if they are a gym buff then ask them to do 100 pushups for your review. they might be glad that you motivated them to do the pushups and in exchange you feel good about yourself being such a good motivator.
or pair up with someone to tackle stuff you hate together. you need to write some sort of report? make it an improv game where each person must write a sentence in turn. sure, it might not be the best report in the end, but at least you have something to hand in and you had some fun while writing it.
need to itemize a long expense report? if each item has a comment section then write some witty reason for each item. you can do this together if you found a partner. e.g. you can fill the details of the actual item while your partner writes the witty comment. if management protests the total time spent on writing this report then you can start arguing against the need of such report in the first place.
if some task was utterly pointless and you couldn't find a way to make it fun then you can blog about the utter pointlessness of such tasks every time you do it. maybe you gain enough followers with whom you can start a serious opposition of the need for the task or maybe someone can point out a way to make it fun for you.
if you are creating some bureaucratic form, then make sure you leave some space for people to express some creativity. at least add some free form comment or feedback section. and then do publish that feedback somewhere.
if you can make it fun then all this bureaucracy might not be such a bad thing in the end. in fact it might be a nice utopia: everyone has something to do and people have fun while doing it. i'm not saying i like bureaucracy, i'm just trying to look on the bright side of things.
# edit from 2023-12-10
on a more serious note about jobs going away: i have yet to see a hospital or school where there's no nurse, teacher, or maintenance crew shortage. i think our biological programming will continue desire to human touch so there will be always demand for certain jobs. some jobs such as nursing could absorb a large amount of people if we start to value it more. and if you don't overwork the nurses, they could do it as a part time job while they study medicine to become doctors. you could have a very clear path from apprenticeship to mastery while providing value to society during the studies. also see my @/utopia post for other related ideas.
published on 2021-07-16, last modified on 2023-12-10
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