labor
by
davefairtex
by
Adam Taggart
by
charleshughsmith
Executive Summary
- The Matrix of Work & the 5 Forms of Value Creation
- The essential elements of the future's ideal work environment
- How mobility creates career security
- How to start switching from "work" to "work that matters"
If you have not yet read Part I: Escaping the Rat-Race available free to all readers, please click here to read it first.
In Part 1, we reviewed the forces of structural change in the economy and the nature of work. In Part 2, we’ll cover the matrix of work (how to create value in the age of automation) and discuss specific strategies for building a resilient career you control.
The Matrix of Work
In the traditional capital/labor model, labor is paid by the hour to perform routine work. In the emerging economy, routine work is increasingly performed by machines or outsourced. In this environment, the premium for human labor arises from creating value and solving problems.
The tool I use to understand this premium is the matrix of work, which is the overlay of the five forms of value creation: non-process-based work, high touch, non-tradable work, sensitivity of the output to mastery and flexibility.
Let’s start with commodification: when goods or services can be traded interchangeably across the globe, these become commodities, as opposed to one-of-a-kind goods and services unique to one small-scale producer. A Fuji apple from Washington State is the same as a Fuji apple from overseas in terms of its tradability and retail value.
Labor can also be commoditized: if human labor is being sold as time performing basic skills, then the time and basic skills can be bought and sold interchangeably around the world.
Work that is process-based is easily automated or commoditized, meaning that it can be performed anywhere by interchangeable laborers. Process-based work can be broken down into tasks that take a specifiable input and yield a specifiable output.
One way to avoid being commoditized out of a job is…
How The Nature of Work Is Changing
PREVIEW by charleshughsmithExecutive Summary
- The Matrix of Work & the 5 Forms of Value Creation
- The essential elements of the future's ideal work environment
- How mobility creates career security
- How to start switching from "work" to "work that matters"
If you have not yet read Part I: Escaping the Rat-Race available free to all readers, please click here to read it first.
In Part 1, we reviewed the forces of structural change in the economy and the nature of work. In Part 2, we’ll cover the matrix of work (how to create value in the age of automation) and discuss specific strategies for building a resilient career you control.
The Matrix of Work
In the traditional capital/labor model, labor is paid by the hour to perform routine work. In the emerging economy, routine work is increasingly performed by machines or outsourced. In this environment, the premium for human labor arises from creating value and solving problems.
The tool I use to understand this premium is the matrix of work, which is the overlay of the five forms of value creation: non-process-based work, high touch, non-tradable work, sensitivity of the output to mastery and flexibility.
Let’s start with commodification: when goods or services can be traded interchangeably across the globe, these become commodities, as opposed to one-of-a-kind goods and services unique to one small-scale producer. A Fuji apple from Washington State is the same as a Fuji apple from overseas in terms of its tradability and retail value.
Labor can also be commoditized: if human labor is being sold as time performing basic skills, then the time and basic skills can be bought and sold interchangeably around the world.
Work that is process-based is easily automated or commoditized, meaning that it can be performed anywhere by interchangeable laborers. Process-based work can be broken down into tasks that take a specifiable input and yield a specifiable output.
One way to avoid being commoditized out of a job is…
by
charleshughsmith
Executive Summary
- The erosion of community is due to many factors
- Understanding these factors enables us to begin combating them
- The 10 reasons American social capital is declining
- What it will take for a revival in social cooperation
If you have not yet read The Erosion of Community, available free to all readers, please click here to read it first.
In Part 1, we surveyed a number of explanations for the erosion of community, starting with the landmark 1950 book, The Lonely Crowd, and found that no one theory adequately accounted for the decline of social capital in America.
Here are ten other factors that could be factors in this long-term erosion:
1. The explosion of choices in the mass media (mentioned by Robert Putnam and Kevin K.) now offers endless opportunities to form a protective bubble around oneself: if you only want to hear views that confirm your existing biases, it's now very easy to do so, and you don’t even need to go out into the real world to do so.
Since confirming our own beliefs is safe and comfortable, our collective reaction may be to avoid people who might disagree with us. Eventually, such isolated individuals “socializing” in self-selected groups online lose the ability to function productively in diverse groups of real people in a real community.
2. The mobility demanded of labor. The mobility of labor in America–that workers can pull up stakes and move to better job opportunities–is often lauded as the key to the U.S. economy's flexibility and resilience. This is no doubt true, but that mobility eviscerates community: if you move every 2-3 years (as required of military personnel, Corporate America managers and many others), what's the motivation for joining and contributing to local groups?…
The 10 Factors Destroying our Social Health
PREVIEW by charleshughsmithExecutive Summary
- The erosion of community is due to many factors
- Understanding these factors enables us to begin combating them
- The 10 reasons American social capital is declining
- What it will take for a revival in social cooperation
If you have not yet read The Erosion of Community, available free to all readers, please click here to read it first.
In Part 1, we surveyed a number of explanations for the erosion of community, starting with the landmark 1950 book, The Lonely Crowd, and found that no one theory adequately accounted for the decline of social capital in America.
Here are ten other factors that could be factors in this long-term erosion:
1. The explosion of choices in the mass media (mentioned by Robert Putnam and Kevin K.) now offers endless opportunities to form a protective bubble around oneself: if you only want to hear views that confirm your existing biases, it's now very easy to do so, and you don’t even need to go out into the real world to do so.
Since confirming our own beliefs is safe and comfortable, our collective reaction may be to avoid people who might disagree with us. Eventually, such isolated individuals “socializing” in self-selected groups online lose the ability to function productively in diverse groups of real people in a real community.
2. The mobility demanded of labor. The mobility of labor in America–that workers can pull up stakes and move to better job opportunities–is often lauded as the key to the U.S. economy's flexibility and resilience. This is no doubt true, but that mobility eviscerates community: if you move every 2-3 years (as required of military personnel, Corporate America managers and many others), what's the motivation for joining and contributing to local groups?…
by
charleshughsmith
Drucker used the term post-capitalist not to suggest the emergence of a new “ism” beyond the free market, but to describe a new economic order that was no longer defined by the adversarial classes of labor and the owners of capital. Now that knowledge has trumped financial capital and labor alike, the new classes are knowledge workers and service workers.
We’re Living Through a Rare Economic Transformation
by charleshughsmith
Drucker used the term post-capitalist not to suggest the emergence of a new “ism” beyond the free market, but to describe a new economic order that was no longer defined by the adversarial classes of labor and the owners of capital. Now that knowledge has trumped financial capital and labor alike, the new classes are knowledge workers and service workers.
Total 8 items
Community
by blaggers 
Peak Prosperity Community
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