Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?
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Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?
#2I have a hard time believing this thesis that modern technology doesn't help productivity. Think about CRM software. Could you imagine having to go through hundreds of filing cabinets and massive systems just to get information about a customer? What about 100 SDRs doing this at the same time, every day? How about trying to meet with someone on the other side of the country? Or having to hire hundreds of assembly line workers to do the job of a single robot?
No, we are more productive than ever before. But the BENEFITS from these enormously productive technologies only seem to go to the richest of the rich, which is why we live in one of the most unequal times since the gilded age. I hate this term but I honestly think it's just "FUD" put out by these uber-rich people, this sentiment of "oh the economy isn't becoming more productive". It is most definitely becoming more productive, but the only benefit Joe Average sees from that is slightly lower consumer prices (which of course is offset by skyrocketing asset prices).
IIRC the only way society got out of this gini-out-of-the-bottle situation last time was through multiple cataclysmic wars, a great depression, and trust busting, so I'd be lying if I said I wasn't concerned.
Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?
#3I have a hard time believing this thesis that modern technology doesn't help productivity. Think about CRM software. Could you imagine having to go through hundreds of filing cabinets and massive systems just to get information about a customer? What about 100 SDRs doing this at the same time, every day? How about trying to meet with someone on the other side of the country? Or having to hire hundreds of assembly lin…
All the productivity gains are nullified by a drop in risk-taking.
Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?
#4I have a hard time believing this thesis that modern technology doesn't help productivity. Think about CRM software. Could you imagine having to go through hundreds of filing cabinets and massive systems just to get information about a customer? What about 100 SDRs doing this at the same time, every day? How about trying to meet with someone on the other side of the country? Or having to hire hundreds of assembly lin…
> Think about CRM software. Could you imagine having to go through hundreds of filing cabinets and massive systems just to get information about a customer?
A Rolodex used to be enough.
Advancement replacing it with "hundreds of filing cabinets" should tell you something.
Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?
#5I was rather disappointed in Lohr (author of this piece) as he is smart and was around in the 1990s for Solow’s famous quip “We see the computer age everywhere except in the productivity statistics”.
In the age of the desktop computer the iPhone would have been a flop (especially in the US’s then-backwards wireless environment). It takes time for people to understand a new capability and for it to reach the point where it’s worth ditching current practice. My aging parents still like to have a meeting (with their lawyer for example) that could have been a phone call or even email; they still visit the bank in person etc. I can’t be bothered with any of that.
The call center makes a good example: I have seen a company that uses machine learning to make the outbound call: it can wait patiently on hold and even do some transactions with the human in the call center. Things like that don’t show up in the stats yet; the real change will be replacing most of the call center ppl with an API, and with the humans there to handle the really hard problems.
Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?
#6I have a hard time believing this thesis that modern technology doesn't help productivity. Think about CRM software. Could you imagine having to go through hundreds of filing cabinets and massive systems just to get information about a customer? What about 100 SDRs doing this at the same time, every day? How about trying to meet with someone on the other side of the country? Or having to hire hundreds of assembly lin…
specifically they said since 2004 productivity increases were only 1% per year. cloud computing/saas probably adds to productivity but not as much as converting from files to desktop computer systems.
Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?
#7I have a hard time believing this thesis that modern technology doesn't help productivity. Think about CRM software. Could you imagine having to go through hundreds of filing cabinets and massive systems just to get information about a customer? What about 100 SDRs doing this at the same time, every day? How about trying to meet with someone on the other side of the country? Or having to hire hundreds of assembly lin…
> Think about CRM software. Could you imagine having to go through hundreds of filing cabinets and massive systems just to get information about a customer? A Rolodex used to be enough. Advancement replacing it with "hundreds of filing cabinets" should tell you something.
Act 2.0 was the desktop version of CRM. and alot of old systems had built in customer databases. had contact info in them. and zoom is cool but phones work in a lot of cases.
Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?
#8I have a hard time believing this thesis that modern technology doesn't help productivity. Think about CRM software. Could you imagine having to go through hundreds of filing cabinets and massive systems just to get information about a customer? What about 100 SDRs doing this at the same time, every day? How about trying to meet with someone on the other side of the country? Or having to hire hundreds of assembly lin…
> Think about CRM software. Could you imagine having to go through hundreds of filing cabinets and massive systems just to get information about a customer? A Rolodex used to be enough. Advancement replacing it with "hundreds of filing cabinets" should tell you something.
1000x increase in capability coupled with 1000x increase in waste
Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?
#9I would think globalization and the shift from manufacturing to services is like a slow tax on productivity. so for every increase in productivity at some office there's a huge negative productivity impact when a factory moves overseas.
Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?
#10I have a hard time believing this thesis that modern technology doesn't help productivity. Think about CRM software. Could you imagine having to go through hundreds of filing cabinets and massive systems just to get information about a customer? What about 100 SDRs doing this at the same time, every day? How about trying to meet with someone on the other side of the country? Or having to hire hundreds of assembly lin…
I'm not sure how they're measuring productivity. From my own experience as a software developer, I've seen how software makes individuals more productive. But the end result of this productivity is not 2x as much output overall but 0.5x as many people to achieve the same level of productivity. We're decreasing costs but maybe the market doesn't need 2x or 5x more productivity. There just isn't that kind of demand anywhere -- especially with fewer people working.