The Era of the Successful Slacker Has Passed
So I was watching Office Space the other day and it occurred to me that movies like this are disillusioning people, mainly us college folk. Don’ get me wrong, I love this movie and it’s probably in my top ten but I think that the premise behind Peter’s character and his philosophy on life aren’t realistic in today’s world. We all have a friend or know someone who has the ability to do absolutely nothing, or at least very close to nothing, and still have incredible success. He may be a math genius, got into med school, aces test, or is a computer genius but seems to put absolutely no effort into this at all, it just seems to come to him naturally. We all want to be the next Bill Gates and sell something that we actually don’t have to IBM and then go on to make billions of dollars. We also want to be that guy who basically gets to do whatever the hell he wants but no one questions him because he is the best at what he does. This guy could come into work late and piss drunk but won’t get fired because he is the only one able to do what he does as well as he does it. But yet, these people are usually exaggerated and the real ones are as common as winning the lottery. Like Matther Broderick in Wargames basically; he may fail classes, but he can change that by hacking into the school’s computer system and changing his grades. We have all heard that story about how Einstein supposedly failed the third grade, or fourth grade math or something and all of us slacker hopefuls out there use these stories, or similar ones, in order to reassure ourselves that, even though they may be failing now, their slacker lifestyle will payoff handsomely in the future. Well, unfortunately for us all, this is probably not the case anymore. You probably won’t rise to be a CEO without your college degree, you probably aren’t going to invent the next google search engine, and you most likely aren’t going to build the next computer empire out of your garage. The time has passed, mainly just due to the fact that you were born about 25 years too late. I’m not saying that it won’t happen, I am just trying to say that it is very unlikely in these times. I really wish it was the case that you could have a section on a resume that said “I succeed while doing absolutely nothing.” If only that was the world we lived in. Anymore, employers have this need to see the potential of a savior on paper. They want your resume to scream, “I will turn your failing company into the next Wal-Mart.” They essentially want your shit to smell like roses. You can’t walk into an interview wearing jean shorts and smelling like an ashtray and them hire you based on your reputation as a supposed genius. I hate to burst your bubble guys, just something that office space brought to my attention.
And now, for your viewing pleasure…..a scene from office space, so you can enjoy it as much as I did 