My blogging output in November has been, I acknowledge, slightly erratic. Aside from fulfilling the righteous duties associated with being a modern father, I’ve been reasonably tied up with work, as the software company that gives me a monthly cheque reaches the end of its release cycle. (Contrary to all the Web 2.0 hype, most purchasers (as opposed to users) of software like to receive old-fashioned CDs, which sort of rules out the handy escape hatch of semi-permanent Beta status).

Occasionally, frustrations with such “knowledge work” can lead to forlorn introspection, with excessive PDF generation leading the cubicle dweller to hum along with those wistful lines from Willy Mason’s Oxygen: ” I want to live beyond the modern mentality/Where paper is all that you’re really taught to create.”

Thanks for making me feel better about myself, Willy.

On a less morose note, The Guardian recently provided 20 top tips for surviving life in the workplace. One tip that struck home was injunction number 10, “Steer clear of paper”:

There is a saying that a job is not finished until the paperwork is done. It’s a saying that is not used much these days because most people’s entire job is paperwork. It would be like saying to a shipbuilder: “The job’s not over until the ship is built,” which is blindingly obvious and might get you a rivet in the forehead.

(I also have to agree that tip number 13, “Never answer a phone,” is largely sensible.)

However, perhaps the most galling aspect of being a white-collar serf is that people appear to be making fortunes churning out the kind of crap that actually distracts you from getting on with tackling your own paper mountain. By this stage, many of us are familiar with the insufferably smug faces of Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, who became enormously rich when their YouTube site was bought by Google for around $1.65 billion in Google stock. (Actually, both men could have been weeping and blood-soaked in the photographs circulated and the knowledge of their gargantuan wealth would have made them seem smug to this viewer). The “next” gold rush linked to the aforementioned Web 2.0 phenom means that those who should really be counting their lucky stars are now bemoaning the fact that their net worth falls short of Ecuador’s GDP.A recent New York Times article mentioned the plight of James Hong, co-founder of Hotornot.com, a dating site that became a Web fad because it allowed you to rate a person’s looks based on photograph they (or, possibly, some creepy stranger) submitted. Despite making a mint from this slightly icky enterprise, Hong is so disillusioned by his relative impecuniousness that he has decided to embrace austerity, Silicon Valley-style:

Mr Hong might think jumping off the money train is an act of supreme sacrifice, but I can’t help thinking that even a Prius is ample reward for a site that basically consists of borderline-NSFW pics and a couple of radio buttons.