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No Job No Prob: Curious Advice for the Unemployed

January 4, 2009 Some things in this world just make no sense.  Well, lots of things actually, but Nicholas Nigro wrote a book titled “No Job, No Prob,” with a tag that reads, “Pay Your Bills, Feed Your Mind and Have a Blast When You’re Out of Work.”   Immediately I thought, “Why can’t you have a blast when you’re not out of work?”  In any event, I learned about what you’re supposed to do when you’re out of work (according to Nigro) in my weekly subscription of “The Week,” which I love by the way.  How could you not when it’s “All you need to know about everything that matters?”

I guess the point of the book, and the list excerpted from it, was that unemployment affords people the time to enrich their lives by incorporating the “little things.”  But I have to say that the whole idea is causing my brain to short circuit.   Doesn’t looking for a job take an awful lot of time and effort too?  It in of itself,  is a job.  And two, why is work being correlated with such deprivation?  Is having a job really that barren a part of life that people are imprisoned by its very structure and therefore unable to “live?”  I don’t get it.  Anyway, here’s what I think about ten of twenty-four tips.
 
1. Start your day as early as possible – Yes but, this is the one thing you can’t do when you’re working.

2. Cavort with genuinely successfully people – as opposed to genuinely unsuccessful people or as opposed to people faking success? 

3. Learn to cook – OK, that is never going to happen for some of us.

4. Nurture your family tree – What does that mean, like add water?

5. Balance your checkbook – We have big problems if this has waited for unemployment to occur.

6. Sample bizarre foods – Why?  I'm just not seeing it.  I get the whole, "try new things" part, but not because you find yourself with extra time on your hands. 

7. Witness a sunrise – Why wait until you’re out of a job?  Unless of course you’re sleeping in, in which case I would think a sunset will do just fine.

8. Go dumpster diving – That’s a little weird.  But in all fairness, he means “garbage picking."  Either way, I say that the real fun of finding “another man’s treasure,” is when it happens by accident. 

9. Volunteer your time – Totally agree. It’s good for the soul, but don’t stop because you get a job!

10. Make a video for YouTube – Doing what exactly?  That’s a little scary.

Bonus Tip:  Work at different jobs – By all means do.  It's clearly a prudent strategy if you’re not independently wealthy, and indeed, not gainfully employed.

And so then I wonder if you are expected to stop doing these things, once you get a job.  That seems odd.  We go around once.  Working should not preclude us from living.  It’s crazy.  Gimmicky yes.  Sound advice?  I’ll have to let you know after I read the rest of the book…

Posted by Donna Flagg on January 4, 2009 | Comments (8)