A Lot Of “Knowledge Work” Is Just Performative Nonsense
Good newsletter here from Paul Millerd, whose stuff is usually pretty good:
If you’re into new ways of thinking about work, definitely read through that. Basically Millerd is taking pull quotes from a Vox article about how a lot of people in “Knowledge Work” — offensive term, as most plumbers have more knowledge than “marketing managers” — don’t really work that hard. They jiggle their mouse a few times per day and they respond to fire drills. Otherwise, they’re streaming stuff, taking walks, spending time with their kids, or — and I myself have seen and done this many times — sitting at the bar with a beer and a burger.
This is the greatest “open secret” of modern work. Because of at-scale tech and SaaS and the automation of some platforms, plus over-hiring to prove growth to investors, a lot of jobs require, at most, 8–12 hours a week. And most of those 8–12 hours are the aformentioned fire drills.
We tend to think this is a bad thing, because Americans are obsessed with both “work ethic” and “being busy,” in large part because those things are tied to money.
I went out yesterday and got some lunch. Had a beer or two. In the entire time I was gone, I didn’t hear from my main contract at all. Nary an email or a Slack. I was checking periodically. While there, I texted my friend in Cincinnati. She has a full-time job at a mid-stage startup. She was doing yard work, then cleaning her…
