Minimalists will survive and thrive inside the new world of work.
Welcome to the new world of "sameness" [see photo]. In this world 7 billion individuals will form the same patterns as do the grains of sand in a windblown desert.
Which grain of sand will be you in the picture above?
I guess some of you love this picture because you think you see a world wherein each grain of sand has equity; and is thus are the same as each other. I say you should rejoice in that illusion, or delusion, for the rest of 2021 because while that maybe the aim of those who seek to fashion the new world of work it will not be the result.
The result will be more inequity. And this will be allowed to stand because the new work space will be formed by a coalition of cliques, clans, tribes, and cults. Whether the technology used is digital or analogue the result will be the same. Whether the space is virtual [Zoom-land] or physical [a meeting place downtown] the result will be the same.
The core characteristic of the new world of work will be us versus them. Us will be inside the tent and them will be outside. This means this new world of work is partisan and political. This means that the most unimpressive, mediocre, and incompetent workers will rise to be leaders. This means that friction will rise while efficiency will fall. This means the cost of a single widget of product, or a single word of content, will rise and rise and rise. This means the rewards to the collective workforce will fall and fall and fall. This means that the standards of production, and delivery, will become random and unpredictable. This means that hours of actual work will fall and productivity will decline to meet the new norms of incompetence, sloth, and the political misallocation of vital resources.
This all will come to mean that the new world of work is an ever expanding bubble of misery.
Richard.
Comments