Time to be productive
Mankind from a consumer perspective has generally benefited from the Industrial era; more choice and lower prices.
But from a work perspective the benefits have been less obvious. Prior to the Industrial revolution (approximately a quarter of a million years) we were paid on what we produced, eg. caught rabbit, reared cow, built cart.
Then all of a sudden the model changed. A movement from the workshop / farm to the factory saw a transition in the way we were paid. Now we were selling our time rather than our productivity. So the skill of the typical worker became ‘how do I do as little as possible for a given unit of labour time?’.
This in turn created the management industry focused on how to counter this mindset.
The time-oriented approach still permeates both the traditional factory (conveyor belt) and modern factory (desk). Admittedly some roles are paid bonuses based on productivity, most notably sales, and so have a sense of ‘eat what you kill’.
Over time more and more of us are going to see a more direct correlation between our economic survival and our output. You are encouraged to embrace this model even if your employer doesn’t. Think of it as your insurance policy for the digital era.
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The move from hunter-gatherer to farmer and city dweller was no-less traumatic. Many hunter gatherers only need to gather for at most a few hours a day, and hunting is more for social than survival purposes. Perhaps this is the model we should aspire to ?