Ambrose Bierce's An Optimist*
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Caption: Room and Board, ChatGPT. OpenAI, 7 Sept. 2024
Two Frogs in the belly of a snake were considering their
altered circumstances.
This is pretty hard luck, said one.
Don't jump to conclusions, the other said;
we are out of the wet and provided with board and
lodging.
With lodging, certainly, said the First Frog;
but I don't see the board.
You are a croaker, the other explained.
We are ourselves the board.
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What, pray tell, does this have to do with the modern world of work?
Quite a bit.
The snake is any boss or organization that exploits and uses up its workers, be it a financial firm that drives its bankers to mental exhaustion or a sweat shop of workers doing hazardous work, all to pay the rent.
* *Source: FANTASTIC FABLES By AMBROSE BIERCE
New York and London:
G. P. PUTNAM?S SONS, The Knickerbocker Press 1899
For more insightful (and eternal) workplace fables, for imaginative discussion, from all eras and cultures, get this book. Order from BookBaby:
Copyright commentary John Lubans 2024
John Lubans - portrait by WSJ