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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 6, 2026

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I always thought about working in a kitchen as a post-made enough money leisure job. It’s hard work but seems more fun than a lot of jobs. Big issue would be the pace of cooking and probably gets repetitive like any job. But cooking is essentially a leisure job for the wealthy.

It’s hard work but seems more fun than a lot of jobs.

Both are true

Big issue would be the pace of cooking and probably gets repetitive like any job.

Yes, hours are fucked too. Also co-workers are fun but at the cost that many of them are dipshits or addicts (or both).

But cooking is essentially a leisure job for the wealthy.

This is wildly incorrect

I think it depends. Guy who made his fortune in tech or whatever and now wants a hobby restaurant where he doesn't much care if it bleeds money? Sure. Guy who wanted to be a chef since the age of sixteen, sweated in hotel kitchens and restaurants under star chefs, and is chasing that Michelin star or stars? Hell on earth, if I go by the stories of "when I worked for Marco Pierre etc." other chefs tell. Fallow, a highish-end London restaurant cooking channel on Youtube that I watch to see how the other half live, is a lot more fun and a lot more relaxed, but they also work damn hard (this is why you pay restaurant prices, nobody is going to do this at home). If you're driven, you have demons and the demons come screaming out.

Academia is the same way. All the vocational / ‘luxury’ careers are, I think.