There’s a human-sized cockroach in my room

Franz Kafka is one of my favorite writers. How he sees the modern world on a societal or individual level always surprised me.

His book, The Metamorphosis talks about the modern human on an individual level.

The main character wakes up and realizes that he’s a large human-sized cockroach

The first thing on his mind wasn’t:

• What happened?

• How did I turn into a large cockroach?

• How can I turn back into a human?

• How can I get myself out of this problem?

But the first thing was: “How will I go to work?”

This perfectly describes the world we live in today.

Work takes up so much of our mental energy that it’s the only thing we think of.

99% of people live the same life.

Executing the same tasks daily:

• Wake up

• Hit snooze 8 times

• Question your life’s decisions

• Finally get dressed

• Make coffee

• Get stuck in traffic and hate your life

• Reach the office

• Do the same tasks that you’ve been doing for the past 3 years

• Listen to the latest gossip in your workplace

• Finish work

• Get stuck in traffic (again)

• Come back home

• Put on your sweatpants and hoodie

• Sit on the couch

• Scroll TikTok for 1 hour

• Watch 3 Netflix episodes (to “wind down”)

• Go to sleep

• Repeat

And when Saturday comes they go to bars, and clubs, and waste all of their hard-earned money because they “deserve it”.

Sunday comes around and the only thought they have is that tomorrow they have to wake up early and go to their miserable jobs and get stuck in this never-ending loop of hell.

Their lives are miserable, but not miserable enough to make any real change. So they stay the same.

No goals, no aspirations, and no meaning behind their actions.

They go with the motion. Life happens to them, they don’t make life happen.

They became more like robots, not humans.

Most of us want to get a job to make a living. But after a while (if you stay too long) it will become the main thing in your life. It's the only thing you think of.

The corporate ladder becomes your only goal.

You start telling people you work 80 hours a week and wearing it as a badge of honor only to get laid off and realize that you’ve been taken advantage of by your company.

Cuz look, every company wants to maximize their profits—and it’s easier to maximize your profits by cutting down your costs (labor cost).

And there will come a time when AI and technology will replace most of the jobs out there and we'll be out of work.

“Hussain, what are you trying to say?”

There is more to life than work. Helping others (and finding fulfillment from it) is what you should chase, not the corporate ladder.

As you know there are millions of ways where you can help people. Charity, volunteering, etc.

But there are few secrets when it comes to helping others that most people don’t talk about. The secret of reaching thousands of people without leaving the comfort of your bed.

That secret is writing online.

If you’d like to learn more about writing online so you can help others from the comfort of your home:

The Modern Creator

With that being said, I need to get back to writing the email series about what I learned from the launch.

Much love,

Hussain “Kafkaesque” Ibarra

PS:

If this email sucked, it's not my fault. It's the internet's.