Published: Mon 04 January 2021
By Alan Wong
In Lifestyle .
In this essay, I will try to "un-abstract" the notion of work (or
"toil", "labor"). Work is not the same thing as making
money—evidently, there are many people in this world who have a
lot of money through no application of effort on their own
part—e.g. getting money through inheritance, winning the
lottery, or having profited from some form of speculation or
investment.
The issue of the nature of "work" is an important question to answer
because if work is something beneficial to us that we should be
doing most days of the year, it is good to know what this means so
that we can do this.
In modern times, many of us have been quite detached from
understanding the nature of our work, who we are working for, and to
what ends we are doing work. Oftentimes "debates" about work are cast
in terms of false dialectics—e.g. being pro or anti
technology. We need to move beyond that level of discussion—the
presence of certain technologies is a fact of reality. That being
said, in the areas we do have a say in what is going on, we can seek
to be wise in determining where and when to introduce new technologies
versus where the latest fancy thing doesn't add any improvement and
may undermine the most important aspects of our business—how it
brings together people in mutually beneficial ways.
I am writing this essay to think through what it means for me to use
my time in a prudent way and also to share whatever insight I might
have so that you my readers too may use your time better. The hope is
that we better understand how to work together in this respect. By
more clearly characterizing what it means to work I aim to be able
to better able to apply my own efforts to get things done in the world
and establish meaningful connections with those around
me—whether in my physical vicinity or through the Internet.
Let's get started!
Types of Work
Below I'll describe some types of work people do as well as providing
some commentary on the modern manifestations of these roles.
Workers
The most obviously work-like type of work is "manual" or "physical"
labor. You can recognize this sort of work without much difficulty;
often it will involve a lot of repetition. Raking leaves, laying
bricks, and transporting items all fall under this category.
Even people who mainly do "intellectual labors" (which I'll discuss
further on below) can benefit greatly from doing physical work. I
think this is one reason why you get a lot of people who are
professionals in white collar fields taking up a "hobby" like
carpentry or gardening—there is something that cannot be
replaced in directly working with materials using our hands and simple
tools.
In the current age, most people have the idea that it is good to "get
exercise"—do physically exerting movements to become stronger,
maintain fitness, etc. We've kinda cleaved work between the actions of
sitting at a desk for many hours a day and then getting ourselves to
"work out". While "working out" is built into physical labor like
chopping firewood, the modern person must choose to seek out physical
exertion, otherwise weakness sets in. This takes discipline. Insofar
as the above actions contribute to making a healthy body/mind, I would
call working out a kind of manual labor or training. Training a
healthy body lends to an effective, alert mind. This being said, it is
important for the white collar office worker to view physical fitness
as something essential to work—arranging pencils and
paperclips on a desk all day isn't work (it is idling); the least you
can do is be a physically fit.
I also include being a messenger in various capacities under this
sort of manual work. You can think of how in older times, you might
literally have a runner who carries a tablet from one location to
another in order to share some important information. Nowadays, we
likewise often have to do the work of relaying messages—this
could mean sharing links, posting on a bulletin board, etc. Note, this
is not to suggest that that going on Reddit or Discord counts as
"working hard"—rather I am making the point that it does take
effort/application of will to decide to be the vehicle by which
messages travel. Naturally, you should ask yourself whose messages
you are sending and for what purpose...
Managers
The job of a manager is to organize workers. If a manager
understands the nature of the work of the workers this is better
because then the manager won't try to make useless/impossible/etc
demands. Lots of programers will complain about project managers who
tell them to do things which are very difficult to implement (and
hence time consuming and expensive)—a skilled manager
understands the nature of demands placed upon workers and can allocate
time and resources appropriately.
Challenges managers face include
Logistics—having the right stuff in the right place at the
right time
Resolving disputes with or among workers
Hiring workers and ensuring they get paid
Scheduling
Nowadays, this general "manager" type might be called by many names.
We have layers of management in larger organizations—a company
may have a CEO above middle managers who in turn supervise workers,
for instance. "Human Resources" (HR) people might be called managers
who specialize in the hiring/paying of workers.
On a day to day basis, we all have to do a little "self-management".
That is, a properly managed person has a plan for what they need to
do and when they need to do it. It more traditional societies, this
management was often done for people, but in our more "free societies"
where there isn't much of a default routine given to many people, it
is necessary for us to manage our time and resources to make sure the
things we want to get done do get done.
Subtypes of managers include property managers, estate managers, and
(software) project managers. The essential feature uniting all of
these groups is that they organizing how work is to be done though
they might not be directly involved in the "actual" work the of
putting the hammer to the nail. That being said, managers and managing
isn't bad/evil—without the oversight of managers, the scope of
complexity of projects is severely limited. Good management means that
larger scale projects can happen.
Note that in modern times, when machines can replace a lot of the
sorts of work people may have done (e.g. software relays a message
where a person may have previously done this), each of us takes on
more responsibilities as a manager.
Merchants
Merchants buy and sell stuff. They're important for liquidity of
assets—that is, being able to exchange things for money, the
generic medium of exchange. Merchants can support themselves if they
are skilled at buying at lower prices and selling at higher prices as
well as by employment under managers, who may use merchants to buy and
sell stuff for them.
Traders are kinds of merchants, but they often go between businesses
rather than being directly "customer facing". Shopkeepers are kinds of
merchants and may have to deal with many issues like,
theft, fraud, security, etc
managing inventory
dealing with different weights, measures, and media of exchange
Artisans/Craftsmen
Merchants often sell items created by artisans/craftsmen . Artists
and craftsmen are similar to workers, but might be called more
skilled in that their crafts can't just be done by any able-bodied
person—time and dedication must be put into study and learning.
I consider jobs like video editing, computer programing, and
traditional crafts like painting, woodworking, tailoring and so forth
to fall under this category.
You may have heard a self-styled communist talk about seizing the
"means of production". For craftsmen, this means being able to own the
tools to do work. Companies like Adobe exploit starving artists by
requiring these artists to rent products like Photoshop through a
subscription type model. Thus, the digital artist can't own/control
their tools. Sometimes, artists work for large companies that have
corporate licenses such that away from their company,
artisans/craftsmen cannot even use the tools they work with for their
own purposes!
Judges, Lawyers, and Regulators
Finally, there is the category of the judges, lawyers, and
regulators—these people establish and enforce the rules by which
all the other groups operate. Included here, one might put
politicians, lobbyists, and other occupations that involve
talking/writing to order society.
These roles don't provide "goods" or "services" in the sense that
everybody is under their jurisdiction, so they don't need to appeal to
customers. But examining evidence, making decisions, and so forth can
take a lot of time and energy, so I think these occupations do count
as "work" in sofar as evidence is being examined, good decisions are
sought...
Knowledge/Study
In order to do certain sorts of work, it is necessary to learn/study
to know how certain systems are put together or to know some set of
steps to take. When getting started doing something like cooking, for
instance, a cookbook or instructional video/article "teaches" you in
that it enumerates what steps need to be taken to succeed in an
job.
Different sorts of jobs will have different requirements. Engineering
fields, for instance, require a lot of specialized training—you
can't just read a recipe and successfully troubleshoot an engineering
problem. However, complex systems are often designed to be
compartmentalized —there are some services you can do to "fix"
your car (e.g. pump up tires) for which you don't really need any
specialized knowledge for.
There are more general things to learn—I think you might call
this wisdom . Then there are the specifics of how things in the world
work, which I will call knowledge . Wisdom is the same from age to
age, though specific knowledge, models, and tools will differ from
industry to industry. It follows that wisdom is helpful to possess in
any situation—this can then be used to discern what sorts of
knowledge is useful/profitable in a given situation.
Computers and Work
Above, I discussed a bunch of different types of work as well as what
it means to learn/study, which is often a prerequisite for doing work.
I will now move into discussing what exactly computers are, what
all of this "Aritifical Intelligence" buzz is about, and why we
should(n't) be afraid of "being replaced by machines".
Nowadays, we have people attempting to use computer systems to replace
both managers and workers. Robots/mechanical machines are the "lowest"
level here with "Artificial Intelligence" decision making at the "top".
"Platforms" take the place of storefronts as e-commerce blooms.
I think that one of the main effects of the development of IT
infrastructue is the centralization or consolidation of a lot of
control as well as the "atomization" of individuals and the tighter of
institutional coupling —you are more reliant on a central
system (i.e. the Internet) to do stuff.
People wouldn't change over to this system if there weren't any
enticing offerings. The Internet does make many sorts of actions
easier. Perhaps what is most tricky to deal with, I think, is this
general problem of filtering or ranking that we have to deal with.
As explored in other blog posts, people outsource lots of their
thinking and decision making to search engines. Large corporations
like Google therefore get to decide what sorts of things we see first,
what we take as mainstream/normal, and so on and so forth.
What we call "Artificial Intelligence" is often nothing more than
handing over decision making to non-personal parties. Now, we're
seeing the "driverless car revolution"—this means turning over
transportation/traveling to big corporations like many people have
decided to put our trust in "fact checkers" to interpret the sea of
information on the Internet.
Really, lots of these new technologies don't solve new problems ;
even the automobile didn't "solve" a problem that horse/buggies didn't
already do—rather, we saw a transformation of the types of work
people were doing to be more tightly coupled to an industrial
system—in the case of automobiles, the roads and highways and
the cities that rely on them.
The analysis I offer in this essay can be used to clarify how exactly
AI technologies are being used to replace human participation in the
world—as I see it, this is mainly in the field of "decision
making". But this is only possible to do after the road is paved
through standardization and subsequently setting up things to be more
mechanical and less human.
Contrasts
Given the definitions of what work is and some forms it can take, we
can look at what is not work.
Consider the state of being a "couch potato"—this usually means
reclining on a couch and passively watching TV/movies/etc. Reclining
rather than being upright is associated with not working. Often this
is done with snacking or inattentive eating of some sort. The couch
potato indulges various passions and does so passively ; rather
than actively laboring to improve, the couch potato does what is
easiest . This sort of (lack of) activity doesn't even involve
reaching out, engaging other people, and opening up oneself to
rejection, verbal abuse, etc. The couch potato chooses the path of
least resistance —doing that which pretty much has no chance of
"failure". The plan is to fail.
"Idle talk" is not work. While it takes discipline, care, and
attention to speak succinctly in a forthright matter, to talk just for
the sake of talking or distracting oneself or others is not working
and can get you in trouble. I'm guilty of lots of speculation and
writing just to write, even here in this blog.
Notes for 2021 and Conclusions
As we enter a new year, we see how work continues to be affected by
the ongoing COVID stuff. Many, many people are under or unemployed.
What is to be done?
It is important to understand that there is a difference between how
many dollars a person has and how much/hard they work. In some areas,
such as developing physical fitness or manual labor, there is a more
direct correlation between care/effort put in and results—even
still work eventually is "undone" through aging and eventually death.
Likewise, we don't take money down to the grave. That being said, work
can be a very good and helpful thing to us all for building
disciplined, keeping focused, and avoiding idle hands which may lead
us to bad places. Conversely, many people who landed comfy jobs,
inherited money, bought bitcoin at the right time, or otherwise don't
have to work in order to "get by"—it is is important for those
in this camp to not waste time idling.
We should likewise be "frugal" (not miserly ) in the sense that we
aim to be efficient rather than wasteful. Do you eat to live or
live to eat ? Nothing wrong with enjoying nice food when you have it,
but working an extra 20 hours a week to blow on (unnecessary)
alcohol/drugs/luxuries might not be the most prudent use of
time—especially if these things aren't consumed in a way that
develops something else, such as (human) networks.
No matter where we are now in terms of location, money, status, etc.
it is important to manage the resources we have available to us
(especially time) and work hard.