"Is it worth it? Let me work it." I remember last summer, we had an intern who made an off the cuff remark about a technical paper being worth tens of thousands of dollars as he tossed a copy into the recycle bin. And when he said it, I thought it was just crazytalk, but he elaborated, saying how calculating how much they pay the engineers and how much time we spend, each paper costs the company $10,000 or more to produce. Upon realizing the implications of this, I was pretty shocked. It just seems so absurd how a company spends tens of thousands of dollars for a stack of papers with some words and numbers on it. It hints at the philosophical question of what is and isn't valuable; and what is the inherent value of a thing? (One man's trash is another man's treasure, I suppose.)

So I was thinking today about this whole concept of "going to work." And I guess I was just in one of those moods where it just didn't make sense to me. Ok, so like today for example, I spent the whole day building a computer model (finite element mesh) of a nuclear waste package. And it was alright I guess- not the most exciting thing in the world, but less unbearable than some of the other stuff I often have to do. But yea, then I got to thinking how it cost the company a couple hundred bucks to have me go in to work today to do what I did. And yea, of course I like getting paid and all, but I think about it, and like, if it was a weekend or something and a friend came up to me and asked me to build them a finite element mesh like I did, I think I'd probably only charge 'em like $20 bucks or dinner or something.

And I mean, it's a weird kinda philosophical question to me that digs at the cost-of-living in America these days and perhaps even our entire economic system. And I guess it's weird, because if you ask me if I'd do a day's work for you for $200, I'd be like "hell yea, that's GREAT money!" But then multiplied out by the number of workdays in the year, you get ~$50k, and suddenly the pay seems merely mediocre. I dunno, maybe it's just this ingrained idea of how much college grads should get paid or something, but something just feels terribly incongruous. How much SHOULD we get paid for an honest day's work? And just how much work GOES into such an "honest day" (if such a thing exists)?

Do I feel like that mesh I built today was worth $200+? No, not really, I suppose. But that's how much a company apparently has to pay me to spend my day doing it for them. Otherwise what? I take my services elsewhere? And I dunno, I guess I don't know what kinda work SHOULD be valued at hundreds of dollars a day. When I think about it, it seems like some of the most important jobs are the ones that pay the least. Like seriously, the guy behind the counter at McDonald's probably causes hundreds of smiles a day (or maybe that's just in the commercials, but); how many ppl a day to I give any joy to? But I guess then that begs the question: How much is a smile worth?? "What is the inherent value of a thing?" ...and I'm right back where I started.

*As a sidenote: I remember when I was interviewing for jobs, one of the questions I was asked once was: define "work." And I remember being totally baffled and responding with something like "ummm, a productive effort towards your company's goal?" And the interviewer laughed and said, "No, no, no... I meant 'work' as in the physics concept." Me: "Ohhhhhh... force times distance." -_-

**I told my coworker about all this, and he said that every day, he imagines a couple hundred dollars cold hard cash in his pocket (the amount the company pays him for his work), and it helps him get through the day. I think I'll try that, heh.