A Short Lesson In Perspective

This is one of the best things I have read in a long time.

 

‘My old life looks, and feels, very different from the outside.

And here’s the thing.

It turns out I didn’t actually like my old life nearly as much as I thought I did. I know this now because I occasionally catch up with my old colleagues and work-mates. They fall over each other to  enthusiastically show me the latest project they’re working on. Ask my opinion. Proudly show off their technical prowess (which is not inconsiderable.) I find myself glazing over but politely listen as they brag about who’s had the least sleep and the most takaway food. “I haven’t seen my wife since January, I can’t feel my legs any more and I think I have scurvy but another three weeks and we’ll be done. It’s got to be done by then The client’s going on holiday. What do I think?”

What do I think?

I think you’re all fucking mad. Deranged. So disengaged from reality it’s not even funny. It’s a fucking TV commercial. Nobody give a shit.

This has come as quite a shock I can tell you. I think, I’ve come to the conclusion that the whole thing was a bit of a con. A scam. An elaborate hoax.’

Author — duckrabbit

duckrabbit is a production company formed by radio producer/journalist Benjamin Chesterton and photographer David White. We specialize in digital storytelling.

Discussion (1 Comment)

  1. tonemeister says:

    Interesting article, Duck. Back in the early part of this century I lived in Hamburg. I taught English at what was then considered Germany’s second largest, yet the most creative, advertising agency. The “creatives” certainly had to put their shifts in, often to the early hours, for (so they said) fairly scant financial reward. Thing is, that back then, this agency was known throughout the industry in mainland Europe for this policy. The “creatives often said that a reason for staying and putting up with all the crap, was that if on your CV it showed that you’d survived a couple of years or more at this agency, you were worth your salt – and thus more likely to be hired elsewhere. The agency knew this and made the most of it.

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