When Your Job is Nothing But Copying

Suddenly, I’ve got this sinking feeling that our daily work is nothing but copying.

Young people love to innovate, but the boss tells us: “You don’t need to innovate. Just do exactly what you are told.” It makes me feel like I am nothing more than a tool. This shouldn’t be what young people spend their days doing. It sucks all the joy out of life when your job is just endlessly repeating what you did yesterday. I absolutely hate this…

I want to be different from everyone else and find my own way of living. I have to express my own ideas, or life will lose its spark—and that would be the ultimate tragedy.

I firmly believe in the saying, “You win some, you lose some.” If starting a career as a young person is a good thing because we get to learn more and accumulate work experience, what is it that we lose in the process? It must be that sharp edge, that “newborn calves who don’t fear tigers” spirit…

Now, whenever I do anything, the first thing that crosses my mind is whether it will boost my performance metrics or create more commercial value. I feel so powerless; I’ve completely sunk into this commercialized void. I used to have so many friends around me who loved to brainstorm and dream up ideas. Coming up with new concepts every day was pure bliss, and then slowly bringing those ideas to life—even though it was exhausting—was incredibly fulfilling. But sadly, we’ve all been swallowed by this same system. No more playful ideas are bubbling up, and no more cool things are being created.

Sometimes it feels so incredibly unfair. People with great ideas start small companies to build cool products. But the moment big corporations realize these things have commercial value, they will relentlessly plagiarize them by any means necessary. Seriously, this is even more despicable than flat-out stealing. I bet that’s why so many small startups go bankrupt or get swallowed up. This is probably why I dislike business/economics people so much—they make money by “manipulating” others, which is deeply unethical.

Creating a life that I actually enjoy is my top priority right now. I guess I’ll make a personal “Five-Year” or “Ten-Year” plan for myself, and fight for the lifestyle I truly want!