We're in a New Energy Crisis. This One is Personal.
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We're in a New Energy Crisis. This One is Personal.
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Re: We're in a New Energy Crisis. This One is Personal.
#2What, you mean you can't increase human productivity without limit in order to increase shareholder value? And here I thought the world could eventually get by with a single super-productive executive.
Re: We're in a New Energy Crisis. This One is Personal.
#3What, you mean you can't increase human productivity without limit in order to increase shareholder value? And here I thought the world could eventually get by with a single super-productive executive.
It worked in Futurama, Hermes got an entire slave-labour mine to be run single handedly by an Australian man. If it works in a cartoon then social convention dictates that it must be true!
Re: We're in a New Energy Crisis. This One is Personal.
#4What, you mean you can't increase human productivity without limit in order to increase shareholder value? And here I thought the world could eventually get by with a single super-productive executive.
Given enough automation and artificial intelligence, that'd theoretically be possible :)
Re: We're in a New Energy Crisis. This One is Personal.
#5I'd like to believe we're hitting a productivity limit, but I'm skeptical. Historically, we still work shorter hours, take more holidays and have more leasure activity than our ancestors.
I guess what is different is that we've automated lots of mechanical/clerical tasks like finding a file, duplicating and delivering a memo or compiling a report. Executives used to need a large staff to do that for them but there are fewer jobs like that now. In a way, we've all become executives. And to operate at that level can be draining, especially if you're not doing something you love because it takes much more emotional investment.
Re: We're in a New Energy Crisis. This One is Personal.
#6I'd like to believe we're hitting a productivity limit, but I'm skeptical. Historically, we still work shorter hours, take more holidays and have more leasure activity than our ancestors. I guess what is different is that we've automated lots of mechanical/clerical tasks like finding a file, duplicating and delivering a memo or compiling a report. Executives used to need a large staff to do that for them but there ar…
>we still work shorter hours, take more holidays and have more leasure activity than our ancestors
No, we don't. Peruse any study on this subject by a reputable researcher - we actually work far more hours and have much less leisure time than almost any point in prior history (the notable exception perhaps being the end of the 19th century).
Re: We're in a New Energy Crisis. This One is Personal.
#7I'd like to believe we're hitting a productivity limit, but I'm skeptical. Historically, we still work shorter hours, take more holidays and have more leasure activity than our ancestors. I guess what is different is that we've automated lots of mechanical/clerical tasks like finding a file, duplicating and delivering a memo or compiling a report. Executives used to need a large staff to do that for them but there ar…
>we still work shorter hours, take more holidays and have more leasure activity than our ancestors No, we don't. Peruse any study on this subject by a reputable researcher - we actually work far more hours and have much less leisure time than almost any point in prior history (the notable exception perhaps being the end of the 19th century).
Can you back this up with any sort of citation?
Re: We're in a New Energy Crisis. This One is Personal.
#8"Think of it this way: Would you rather have someone working at 60 per cent of capacity for 11 hours a day, or someone who only puts in eight working hours a day, but by taking breaks to renew and recharge, is able to operate at 95 per cent capacity? "
I've always had a slight worry about going into surgery because of this same question. How long has my doctor been awake or how much sleep has he had in the last 24 hours?
Re: We're in a New Energy Crisis. This One is Personal.
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
>we still work shorter hours, take more holidays and have more leasure activity than our ancestors No, we don't. Peruse any study on this subject by a reputable researcher - we actually work far more hours and have much less leisure time than almost any point in prior history (the notable exception perhaps being the end of the 19th century).
Can you back this up with any sort of citation?
For a good overview:
http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/rauch/worktime/hours_w...
Which is a summary of
http://books.google.com/books?id=E1clEkV_1w8C
for a more thorough treatment:
http://books.google.es/books?id=APYDRo_ATicC
Or
"Man's Rise to Civilization As Shown by the Indians of North America from Primeval Times to the Coming of the Industrial State"
Or
(and I do not intend this as sarcasm, please understand) just about any introductory anthropology textbook.
Also - and I truly wish I could find the link, but it's buried somewhere in my delicious account - there is an excellent article out there about how workers in agrarian France basically screwed off for six months at a time once the growing season was over and winter came around - the literally spent most of their time just sleeping!
Re: We're in a New Energy Crisis. This One is Personal.
#10There are a number of issues with the article. Some work - any development of technology - can be second order. The workers output maybe constant but the productivity of the underlying product grows. In this sense comparing national to personal productivity is apples and oranges (or speed and acceleration).
Also I would argue we should not underestimate the bullshit economy and the effects it has on stealing productivity growth. Essentially extra capacity gets largely consumed by an increase to the size of the welfare state - an increase in welfare for both non-productive individuals and non-productive corporations.