Why Do We Work? (Straightforward Answers)

Sachin Monga’s article should probably be entitled “The Future of Work.” Here’s my answer in Quora to the same question:

It could be one or more of the following, depending on your worldview/s:

Aristotelian

  • The end of man is to be virtuous (virtue understood as stable good habits). Work is the training ground for virtue.
  • To do good, to know truth and to behold beauty — these are the greatest things man can do in this world. And these can be achieved largely through work.

Adrenalin junkie
For the adrenalin rush of victory.

Christian
In order to follow Christ, one must ora et labora. “Heaven and earth seem to merge, my sons and daughters, on the horizon. But where they really meet is in your hearts, when you sanctify your everyday lives.” — St. Josemaria Escriva

Capitalist
Money symbolizes the value of your work gauged by market forces (supply & demand, government regulation, etc). Getting paid means people value your work. Getting paid a lot means a lot of people value your work or people value your work a lot. Work is your contribution to increasing the value circulating in the world, and the money you have represents the amount of value from other people’s work you could trade with.

Communist
As long as the means of production is controlled by the capitalists, the proletariat will continue to carry the yoke of hard labor.

Evolutionary Psychology
The people who work tend to be the ones to survive and pass on their genes. The “I’ve got to work” gene thus gets passed down and propagated.

Family-oriented
To make mama proud. To give the kids the lives they deserve. To bring honor to the family.

Feudal
The working class needs to work so that the leisurely class can leisure.

Freudian
Sex.

Happiness life-hackers
While endorphins only give a short-lived feeling of well-being, creative work produces serotonin, which is said to produce a more stable and longer lasting feeling of well-being.

Maslow’s

  • To survive and procreate.
  • Once you get past that, to have a stable, secure life.
  • Once you get past that, to be loved and appreciated.
  • Once you get past that, to gain some stature in society.
  • Once you get past that, to fulfill your destiny.

Silicon Valley
To change the world (read: an Instagram exit)

Post-modernist
You don’t really have to. You are only imagining that you have to. The necessity to work is nothing but a social construct.