[tetraodonpuffer]

what if you want a mind-numbing dead-end job so you can spend your mental energy before/after work learning something else? Plenty of stories of people working a crappy job for a few years and after hours going to school or writing a book or learning a trade or starting a music career.

What happens if "crappy jobs" are not available anymore and all the available jobs require 1) non trivial credentials and 2) enough mental energy that after work you are "done" and can't do anything else? And what happens to people that are only capable of dealing with a routine task job?

Until there is something like universal income routine jobs seem to be the lesser evil, because the odds of universal income coming into being in our lifetimes seem pretty low, and having something to fall back on to pay the bills while you figure out what to do with your life can be quite helpful.