alt Hacker News> Everytime you meet someone new and they ask “What do you do?” they’re not asking about your passions, hobbies, or the mundane human tasks that take up most of your time; but how you make money, how you turn yourself into income.
1. That's your assumption. They could really ask out of interest. They couldn't care less if that's your main source of income.
2. In some cultures this question will never be asked.
3. If they do ask and judge; what does that matter? If you dislike such personalities, avoid them.
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I've found I ask that question often, but for me it's because I'm interested in learning about new stuff, so if they work with something I'm not familiar with I'd find it interesting to talk about that.
However if I sense they're just in it for the paycheck then I try to ask about hobbies or similar.
A lot were taught to follow their passions too, so they can have the presumption that what you do for a living == your passion.
One thing I love about living in Berlin is that you can meet a dozen stranger and spend hours with them, and no one remembers to ask that question.
My answer: "Whatever it takes"
in what cultures do you think it will never be asked?
> What do you do?
The first question when you meet someone is often to measure your status.
In New Zealand, different cities had different questions. Auckland: where do you live (using suburb as a proxy for status), Christchurch: what school did you go to (status used to be highly linked to your high school), Wellington: what do you do (a lot of people move to Wellington to work and it has a very wide variety of professional and government jobs).
It depends somewhat on context since often status is implied by the situation you've met someone. I've even had people straight up ask: how much do you earn.