Symbiotes and Parasites: A discussion about the new world

[Kurotsune]

First, allow me to mention some things about this thread.

This thread was initially a pseudo-rant I wrote because of personal/work-related issues. After receiving feedback about it, I've decided to follow the suggestion to make this a thread on it's own right; It has no initial purpose other than serving as an outlet for me to discuss something ever more relevant in today's world: The difference between being merely tolerated and actually being accepted, and how that has translated into society and the market.

Before I begin, however, I think it's important for me to mention a little bit of my own work experience, so people know where I'm coming from and where my conclusions are born from.

I won't name the company I work for currently due to a simple, and annoying, legal reason. If I were to "out" myself publicly as an employee of this company, I would have to add to my profile and every single one of my posts that my opinion doesn't reflect the company's opinions, and that'd be really, really annoying to do.

I will say this, however; It's a global company that has developed greatly in the last few years, and it's widely considered one of the best companies in the world to work for. My point here is not to toot my own horn, but a lot of things I will mention here are taken from actual experience working for this company, so I think it's important to establish as much about this company as I can.

It's not a widely known fact, but for a while now, companies have been separated by two models. The aptly named old and new models, though personally, I refer to them as the "parasitic" (old) and "symbiotic" (new) models. Hopefully, the explanation on each model will explain why I chose to name them such.

The old model is the model widely employed by companies before the industrial revolution, and is characterized by a separation of workers, managers and owners in a way that can be paralleled to slavery.

First we have the slave, the basic worker. Their main characteristics are as follows:

- Profound distaste for work

- Little to no motivation to work

- Mediocre to abysmal work performance

- Their biggest focus is "getting it over with".

Secondly, we have the manager. Their parallel is the foreman. Their main characteristics are as follows:

- No actual skill

- Their only job is to make sure others are working

- Effectively paid to do nothing but nag at others all day

- Impersonal. The cliched boss.

- Very rarely recognize or encourage personal development at work.

Lastly, we have the CEO. Their parallel is the master. Their main characteristics are as follows:

- No actual interest in the company other than how much money they make

- No actual interest in individual workers

- Very rarely communicate or interact with their workers

- Only care about the development of the company: The workers are a tool to further the company.

This example is used widely to reflect how we have in fact not developed as a society. Slavery has changed it's name and hid itself behind the guise of minimum-wage jobs, it's still there.

So what's the new model? The new model recognizes everything we do already is or eventually will be replaced by technology. In my own field, I watch this at a staggering pace. Not even five years ago, computer languages weren't half as capable or as fast as they are today. Nowadays, one of my personal friends has developed a system that allows anyone to program without any knowledge using a simple flowchart assembly system, completely bypassing the need for a programmer to begin with. After the mandatory jokes about how he was effectively trying to get me fired, this system - his Masters' Degree thesis - sparked among us a conversation about the value of the individual in a modern, industrialized world.

Knowledge is no longer important. It was, one day. Knowledge was the commodity of the old world. But now, knowledge is readily available. To clarify, one must understand what knowledge is. Knowledge is merely one's capacity to memorize information. It's not related to how intelligent a person is, but rather, how good that person is at remembering this. And despite popular belief, one is not connected to the other.

Put simply, everything I know can be found, researched, and learned online. Even my opinions on this particular matter, from the moment I press "Post New Topic" are readily available for anyone who wants to read them. It's not what I know that makes me unique, nor is it that validates me as an individual or as a worker. It's who I am.

Our discussion led then to the point that no longer workers are recognized by their knowledge, but rather by their ability to innovate. This is backed up by the new market model. Innovation is the key to personal growth. It's the key to a career. It's the key to life. I've seen too many colleagues fail because they failed to understand this. The "get it over with" mentality is in the past, and anchoring oneself to it will only drag you to the bottom of the sea.

It's often said professors and doctors are underrated. That they are not paid nearly as much as they should be. Why does Brad Pitt, whose function is merely to entertain, gain more than a doctor? Simple. There's only one Brad Pitt. There are millions of doctors. Let's put this differently: If Brad Pitt dies, a new Brad Pitt won't appear to take his place. If a doctor dies, they will be replaced. In the new market model, what you do is not as important as who you are. Before Brad Pitt was someone, before he earned the right to be someone, he was a minimum-wage actor. Similarly, there are doctors that cannot be replaced.

As an example, let's discuss Benjamin Carson. He is the first neurosurgeon in history to separate twins joined at the head. His technique has become paramount in neurosurgery and he is widely studied and praised for his outstanding work in his field.

(( Side-Note: Yes, I am aware he is one of the republican candidates for 2016 and an avid conservationist. I'm a liberal myself, an I don't believe or agree with his political views. This said, the fact that his accomplishments in neurosurgery are memorable supersedes his political opinion or candidacy. To finish, I don't endorse him in any way as a candidate. ))

If Ben Carson were to die, he couldn't be replaced. Another Neurosurgeon would not go on to achieve his accomplishments, or write his books, or deliver his speeches.

That's because Ben Carson innovated. He went beyond the call of duty. He didn't do only what he could do or only what his pay-grade deserved. He had ambitions and dreams, and set out to accomplish them.

Perhaps this is not a convincing example. Let me use another one.

One day, I was talking to Amethyst about her academic accomplishments. This discussion moved on to the subject of dedication, and eventually settled on Pokémon Reborn. Amethyst chose a job not that would further her career, but giver her opportunity. She showed, in fact, indifference to death as long as she finished her dream: Starlight Divide.

That is new model thinking. That's the worker who puts everything they are into work. People who are willing to sacrifice themselves for their dreams. Dreams are the commodity of the new world. No one cares about where you graduated anymore. The individuals, the companies who want to truly grow, they want to know your ambitions. How much would you sacrifice for your dreams?

The market sees things this way now, and whether or not you believe or agree with me or the concept is irrelevant to the facts; Constantly, bigger companies are seeking people who are leaders, not workers. People who innovate. People who dream.

A true leader cares about people individually. They learn how to interact with their workers instead of simply demanding from them work. They want to develop others and they want to accept others, and they want to develop dreams. A true leader won't shun someone for who they are, but they will rather learn to work with it. They make the workplace better by being there for the individuals, for the people, rather than simply being there for workers.

So I posit, Reborn. Dare dream. Dare be ambitious. Don't settle for being a worker, be an individual. Before you can be you, earn the right to be you. Show the world you are an individual. Show the world you matter.

Don't let yourself fade away.

[Felicity]

I really want to believe what i'm reading here. I agree that this sounds like an ideal path to move towards in the future, this idea that the individual with the ability to innovate and be original (something lacking in several walks of life from what i've seen) is able to succeed over those who do not give two shits.

However, this sounds far too idealistic to be easily possible. I'm seriously struggling as I write this to put my thoughts into a decent post here. What I see in my position as a student in a pretty shitty place to live in the UK is a lot of people actually hoping to get a job within that parasitic system if not deciding to live on benefits whilst they waste away. Thing is, these are the people who get the most attention. Those who want to try and succeed don't get enough attention or support necessary to do that in whatever field they work in because the government in the area is more concerned with processing those people into a job. That parasitic system you described is seen as a preferable way to try and force the masses into some way of being useful.

An example of this in the education system here, there is so much focus on people who either are going to drop out of school to get a dead end job as a simple worker or the people with the ability to become one of thee faceless doctors Kuro gave as an example because the school wants to look as good as possible and that means churning out statistics expected of a decent school. It's all about getting the grades to get to the places that look at the grades.

There is no innovation taught in schools and those who want to do so are actively dissuaded from that. I'm not kidding, when I discussed my own dream to become an author with the career advisors, they tried their damndest to turn me away from that to become a journalist which is something I actively don't want to do because A) traditional media is dying and that's work with facts not fiction. There'd be no room to write as I really want, I'd have to hit set parameters in that work to get my pay. Point is, around here that parasitic system still seems to be the norm here and that makes me sad for my and my friends future. People here do volunteering. Not because it's a good thing, it's because Unis like to see that in your applications. Everyone does something in this school to look better on the sheet of paper because they know their personalities won't be looked at. To quote a friend recently, "We don't matter anymore, we're just numbers and letters on a piece of paper to the college now" I'm very, very afraid that people around here have faded, and we're still in education.

What's my point in talking about the education here? Because that's where people are first offered the chance to distinguish themselves.

Students either run with this chance to prove themselves or simply don't. This has resulted in, oddly enough, 3 kinds of people in my area. The people who are determined to get the grades and do the thing to look good on their resume. Then there's the people like myself who do not try as actively to appeal to employers or Unis but do still try and get the grades, at least. Then you have the people who don't give two shits and would rather piss away their lives. It's the last kind of people that make that symbiotic system that sounds so good so very difficult to achieve, because they themselves are parasitic. Would we leave them behind? No, there's too many issues with that. This is evident with the issues of benefits in the UK. So what do we do? Like I said before, we churn them into that parasitic system to make them be somewhat useful, providing a reason for said system to be a thing.

I feel like I just spurned off some very stupid nonsense, but that's my perspective on this, as pessimistic as I wish it wasn't.

[Kurotsune]

I really want to believe what i'm reading here. I agree that this sounds like an ideal path to move towards in the future, this idea that the individual with the ability to innovate and be original (something lacking in several walks of life from what i've seen) is able to succeed over those who do not give two shits.

However, this sounds far too idealistic to be easily possible. I'm seriously struggling as I write this to put my thoughts into a decent post here. What I see in my position as a student in a pretty shitty place to live in the UK is a lot of people actually hoping to get a job within that parasitic system if not deciding to live on benefits whilst they waste away. Thing is, these are the people who get the most attention. Those who want to try and succeed don't get enough attention or support necessary to do that in whatever field they work in because the government in the area is more concerned with processing those people into a job. That parasitic system you described is seen as a preferable way to try and force the masses into some way of being useful.

An example of this in the education system here, there is so much focus on people who either are going to drop out of school to get a dead end job as a simple worker or the people with the ability to become one of thee faceless doctors Kuro gave as an example because the school wants to look as good as possible and that means churning out statistics expected of a decent school. It's all about getting the grades to get to the places that look at the grades.

There is no innovation taught in schools and those who want to do so are actively dissuaded from that. I'm not kidding, when I discussed my own dream to become an author with the career advisors, they tried their damndest to turn me away from that to become a journalist which is something I actively don't want to do because A) traditional media is dying and that's work with facts not fiction. There'd be no room to write as I really want, I'd have to hit set parameters in that work to get my pay. Point is, around here that parasitic system still seems to be the norm here and that makes me sad for my and my friends future. People here do volunteering. Not because it's a good thing, it's because Unis like to see that in your applications. Everyone does something in this school to look better on the sheet of paper because they know their personalities won't be looked at. To quote a friend recently, "We don't matter anymore, we're just numbers and letters on a piece of paper to the college now" I'm very, very afraid that people around here have faded, and we're still in education.

What's my point in talking about the education here? Because that's where people are first offered the chance to distinguish themselves.

Students either run with this chance to prove themselves or simply don't. This has resulted in, oddly enough, 3 kinds of people in my area. The people who are determined to get the grades and do the thing to look good on their resume. Then there's the people like myself who do not try as actively to appeal to employers or Unis but do still try and get the grades, at least. Then you have the people who don't give two shits and would rather piss away their lives. It's the last kind of people that make that symbiotic system that sounds so good so very difficult to achieve, because they themselves are parasitic. Would we leave them behind? No, there's too many issues with that. This is evident with the issues of benefits in the UK. So what do we do? Like I said before, we churn them into that parasitic system to make them be somewhat useful, providing a reason for said system to be a thing.

I feel like I just spurned off some very stupid nonsense, but that's my perspective on this, as pessimistic as I wish it wasn't.

This idealistic new system has existed for decades. It's not too optimistic to work, it has been proven to. Several global companies employ it. The most famous one is Google, but there are literally hundreds of others.

As for "people who want to succeed don't get attention" either the person is doing something wrong, or they're not putting enough effort in. Tl;dr, if you put everything of yourself into what you do, and you do what you really want to do, all other pieces fall in place as long as you don't let yourself be anchored to circumstance. In other words, if you're in a job with absolutely no way of going up, work on getting another job and then quit. It's pointless to stay in it.

Also, just because there are people who believe the dead-end system is better doesn't make it so. Mind you, wanting a job only for money doesn't necessarily make you a supporter of the parasitic system - And I honestly can't imagine a person who wants to work somewhere they hate, where they won't ever develop, and where they won't ever be happy. But then, that's the "slave" parallel mentality. The parasitic system's worked and still works because there are people who yearn for it.

If you truly want to write, write. If all authors gave a single shit about disapproving counselors, we'd not have many of the masterpieces we do. Rather, exactly because those authors disregarded their overwhelmingly small odds of major success, and poured sweat and blood into their work, that they managed to succeed. There are so many examples of people who succeeded simply by finding what they loved and fully dedicated themselves to it that following your ideal career is basically considered common knowledge.

Lastly, it's mediocrity that allows the outstanding to stand out. If not for those who are content with being simply average, the ones who are above it wouldn't appear as such. It's only because there is a base for comparison exists. I've seen the same kind of thing in my entire life, and the fact that mentality exist and predominates is exactly why most new workers at the company I work for are taken aback by the way the company works.

Just because a mentality exists it doesn't mean it should be followed nor that all hope in the alternative should be lost. Quite the contrary: if you conform to the predominant mentality, you are effectively collaborating in spreading this tradition of error to future generations.