The current state of white collar work is not sustainable. We waste time in traffic driving to work and create pollution problems with our cars. You hear a lot of people talk about alternative energies due to the pollution caused by oil in general and cars in particular. But, you don't hear anyone suggesting that we just drive a lot less by giving up this antiquated notion of driving to work so you can be where the action is. Certainly working in virtual worlds provides an alternative to driving to work and that alone might be enough incentive to change the way we do things. But there are more reasons.
Today most people in white collar work do not know what they actually do. Through some sort of indoctrination they learned the rituals of their employing entity. But, how are those rituals connected to the value created by the entity and how are the efforts of individuals connected to that aggregate value? Nobody knows. It will be hard to explain to our grand kids that back in the beginning of the 21st century we got paid for showing up rather than for productivity and that showing up had serious costs in terms of both productivity losses and pollution problems.
We might also try to explain how we did not always have the best person doing each job and people did not enjoy their jobs nearly as much as they should. Or maybe we will just be so embarrassed by how things are done today that we might decide not to even bring it up.
I am going to take a break for a while from writing this blog. I have a seriously difficult philosophical paper to write and I need to concentrate on it. I will return when I am rested, recovered, and full of exciting new ideas once again.
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Friday, April 18, 2014
Adam Smith and the Pin Factory
One final thought before I bring this all together. In 1776 Adam Smith published his landmark book entitled The Wealth of Nations. It was a landmark book because it introduced the field of economics. In it, Smith gave an example of good economic behavior in an example that is now know widely at the pin factory example.
In the pin factory example, Smith argues that economic prosperity comes from specialization. In the pin factory, he explains, there should be one person for each task. One to cut the wire. One to sharpen it. On to put on the pin heads. And one to stick the pins in the paper rolls in which they were sold.
This idea of specialization caught on in many professions over the next two centuries increasing their effectiveness and economic productivity. For example, you don't go to divorce lawyer to do your taxes, and you don't go to a cardiologist when you have a stabbing pain in your stomach. There are endless examples in other areas such as engineering where we have civil, mechanical and many other specialties and academia where faculty are often defined by their departments regardless of frequent calls for interdisciplinary research. The effect of specialization even reaches into creative professions such as creating comics or films. For example, it is rare that someone writes and draws their own comics. And even among artists there are many specialties.
But, what about white collar work? What if you work for a government agency or a large corporation? Chance are that being a generalist it considered preferable to being a specialist. And that is one of the many reasons why things don't work very well in the government and large corporations. There are exceptions of course. But, it is fair to say that the average white collar worker does not really know what they do and, if asked what they do will resort to an answer that indicates who they work for rather than what they actually do. And this, is a problem.
In the pin factory example, Smith argues that economic prosperity comes from specialization. In the pin factory, he explains, there should be one person for each task. One to cut the wire. One to sharpen it. On to put on the pin heads. And one to stick the pins in the paper rolls in which they were sold.
This idea of specialization caught on in many professions over the next two centuries increasing their effectiveness and economic productivity. For example, you don't go to divorce lawyer to do your taxes, and you don't go to a cardiologist when you have a stabbing pain in your stomach. There are endless examples in other areas such as engineering where we have civil, mechanical and many other specialties and academia where faculty are often defined by their departments regardless of frequent calls for interdisciplinary research. The effect of specialization even reaches into creative professions such as creating comics or films. For example, it is rare that someone writes and draws their own comics. And even among artists there are many specialties.
But, what about white collar work? What if you work for a government agency or a large corporation? Chance are that being a generalist it considered preferable to being a specialist. And that is one of the many reasons why things don't work very well in the government and large corporations. There are exceptions of course. But, it is fair to say that the average white collar worker does not really know what they do and, if asked what they do will resort to an answer that indicates who they work for rather than what they actually do. And this, is a problem.
Friday, April 4, 2014
A Penny for a Spool of Thread, a Penny for a Needle...
We often believe that the way we see the world today is pretty much how people have always seen the world. If people in the past didn't see things the way we see things today then they would have if they really thought about them. This is, of course, untrue. People in the past have believed a wide variety of different things. And it is useful to peek into one of these past moments to put our current beliefs and worldview into perspective.
As the industrial age went into full swing in Victorian England, a few interesting things occurred which shed light on our current worldview and future economy.The first relates to the previous post about the clock and capitalism. As farmers moved into cities and began working in factories, one of the problems that factory bosses had was getting the workers to show up on time. Back in those days people were used to getting up with the sun (or rooster) which occurred at a slightly different time each day. Having them show up for work at the same time every morning felt silly and unnatural. If you told them that in the future people's activities would be controlled by digital timekeepers they probably wouldn't believe it. And many things that I tell you about the future are just as hard for you to believe.
A second problem that occurred in the factories was that people smelled very bad. Back in those days people would not bath on a daily basis and might go for weeks or months without a bath. Bathing was considered unhealthy. And, in the confined spaces of a factory, it could get pretty ripe. Bathing did not become a regular practice until a doctor posited the germ theory of illness saying that common illnesses such as colds were caused by germs and bathing could reduce the germs. Today, we fully accept germ theory and the hygiene that goes along with it. But, in Victorian England it was a tough sell.
It is interesting to speculate what things do we believe today that are untrue and the truth of which would lead us to behave very differently. In Woody Allen's movie The Sleeper a man is put into suspended animation and wakes up in a future where cigarettes and bacon are good for you. I don't care about the cigarettes. But I long for a world where bacon is a health food and the more scotch you drink the longer you live. Ah, if it were only so.
The final point has to do with productivity. Victorian coal miners got paid for the amount or coal they brought out of the mines and did not get paid if they were not productive. Since life was good when a vein was found and not so good when they were trying to locate one, the miners and their families got used to cycles of abundance and deprivation. These cycles are recorded in a well know nursery rhyme - Pop Goes the Weasel. Pop was the slang word for pawn and the weasel was slang for one's Sunday best clothing. When times got tough and money ran short, families would have to pawn their best clothing in order to get by until times got better. We can see this in the words of this catchy nursery rhyme:
A penny for a spool of thread,
A penny for a needle,
That's the way the money goes
Pop goes the Weasel.
If you were to tell Victorian miners that in the future people will get paid for showing up, they simply wouldn't believe that. If you tell people today that in the future people will be paid based on productivity, they don't believe that any easier.
As the industrial age went into full swing in Victorian England, a few interesting things occurred which shed light on our current worldview and future economy.The first relates to the previous post about the clock and capitalism. As farmers moved into cities and began working in factories, one of the problems that factory bosses had was getting the workers to show up on time. Back in those days people were used to getting up with the sun (or rooster) which occurred at a slightly different time each day. Having them show up for work at the same time every morning felt silly and unnatural. If you told them that in the future people's activities would be controlled by digital timekeepers they probably wouldn't believe it. And many things that I tell you about the future are just as hard for you to believe.
A second problem that occurred in the factories was that people smelled very bad. Back in those days people would not bath on a daily basis and might go for weeks or months without a bath. Bathing was considered unhealthy. And, in the confined spaces of a factory, it could get pretty ripe. Bathing did not become a regular practice until a doctor posited the germ theory of illness saying that common illnesses such as colds were caused by germs and bathing could reduce the germs. Today, we fully accept germ theory and the hygiene that goes along with it. But, in Victorian England it was a tough sell.
It is interesting to speculate what things do we believe today that are untrue and the truth of which would lead us to behave very differently. In Woody Allen's movie The Sleeper a man is put into suspended animation and wakes up in a future where cigarettes and bacon are good for you. I don't care about the cigarettes. But I long for a world where bacon is a health food and the more scotch you drink the longer you live. Ah, if it were only so.
The final point has to do with productivity. Victorian coal miners got paid for the amount or coal they brought out of the mines and did not get paid if they were not productive. Since life was good when a vein was found and not so good when they were trying to locate one, the miners and their families got used to cycles of abundance and deprivation. These cycles are recorded in a well know nursery rhyme - Pop Goes the Weasel. Pop was the slang word for pawn and the weasel was slang for one's Sunday best clothing. When times got tough and money ran short, families would have to pawn their best clothing in order to get by until times got better. We can see this in the words of this catchy nursery rhyme:
A penny for a spool of thread,
A penny for a needle,
That's the way the money goes
Pop goes the Weasel.
If you were to tell Victorian miners that in the future people will get paid for showing up, they simply wouldn't believe that. If you tell people today that in the future people will be paid based on productivity, they don't believe that any easier.
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