Butcher, Baker, Blogger
// June 24th, 2007 // Theories
I’ve been thinking about my future career today. Basically although I think they’re blurring, there are two different types of work:
1. Piece work
2. Knowledge Work
Piece work usually pays per unit or per hour, say a baker, electrician, tesco trolley boy. These jobs aren’t scalable, if you want more money, bake more bread, overcharge more old people for replacing fuses, park more trolleys. You’re limited by time and physics, you can only be in one place, at once, for a maximum of 24hrs a day. Knowledge work is without the these boundaries, because knowledge doesnt incur new costs as it is shared, an idea, becomes a book, which becomes a bestseller, becoming a million books each reproduced effortlessly without input from the author. Why is Bill Gates the richest man in the world? His Intellectual Property costs less to re-produce than the baker or electrician. So surely I should opt for a knowledge work based profession?
In my current profession wedged somewhere between the two, salaried but essentially still piece work, I dont get rich if the fruits my labour make the company rich its very hard to become truly good at something. Because the goalposts are continually moving. An author can immerse himself in a topic for a year, two, 10 if his bank balance affords it. I have a matter of minutes to deliver a newsletter, design idea, complaint response, presentation, project plan, each fundamentally different, not baker vs electrician different, but with enough scope within the task to develop that level of knowledge and specialism. But without the time to perfect it, which I think this system used to deliver. If im the only baker in town, you’ll by my shitty bread until i cook good bread. Now we are not being given the luxury of true specialism. I can turn this into a book and it could sell a million copies on the back of a few good reviews, im rich, i wont post here anymore and i’ll buy my own island, never visit it in order that I can spend every living minute travelling the world telling anybody who listen that I own my own island. I’ve wondered off the point. Ah yes, in piece work the rewards are modest, but reliable. I can open a bar, work my ass off and have a steady income that will last 5,10years or whatever until i drink myself to death. I can get good, not world famous good, but steady good. This will never happen, as im not really into people, so have no desire to watch them get drunk in my bar.
I worry increasingly about the output from level 1 work, and who exactly will do it in the future. Presumably robots, which im totally cool with. The reason I’m worried is the internet, which shifts the balance of power from 1 to 2. It greatly reduces the cost of reproducing IP. Shit blogs like Techcrunch can get massive traffic, quickly, by being perceived as the best in their class. Once their IP starts to shift (more readers, links, referrals etc) it snowballs until your a big site, with big influence. As the reward for knowledge work increases (hum, i’ll start “dogspace” a virtual community for dog lovers and sell it to google for £200m) more people with opt for that choice, and are less satisfied with a job that isnt scalable, that cant offer instant fame and fortune from that one great idea. The obvious response to this mini-essay is that not everyone wants that life, that people like stability, structure and knowing where the next paycheck is coming, shunning spontaneity. I call these people “germans” (joke – germans are very entrepreneurial, just not so spontaneous), the future for me isnt looking so “german” as the tools of knowledge work become increasingly commoditised.
The arguments for doing 1 just dont seem to stack up anymore. Especially as with the Internet, whilst your earning in £’s you can be living somewhere where you spend in Thai bahts.
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Matthew
