Comments on: Shop Class as Soulcraft http://third-bit.com/blog/archives/2818.html Data is ones and zeroes | Software is ones and zeroes and hard work. Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:07:30 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Lorin http://third-bit.com/blog/archives/2818.html#comment-2907 Lorin Mon, 24 Aug 2009 22:47:47 +0000 http://pyre.third-bit.com/blog/?p=2818#comment-2907 Sounds interesting, that's going onto my CiteULike. Does Crawford talk about software developers at all? It seems to me that building software can be deeply satisfying in ways that may not be analogous to the work of our fellow cube-farm dwellers. Sounds interesting, that’s going onto my CiteULike.

Does Crawford talk about software developers at all? It seems to me that building software can be deeply satisfying in ways that may not be analogous to the work of our fellow cube-farm dwellers.

]]> By: Greg Wilson http://third-bit.com/blog/archives/2818.html#comment-2906 Greg Wilson Mon, 24 Aug 2009 18:26:50 +0000 http://pyre.third-bit.com/blog/?p=2818#comment-2906 @Sam Crawford is definitely *not* advocating a return to a craft-based economy---as I said, he is coolly scathing when discussing the cuddly inanity of that particular meme. He *is* pointing out that the push for a knowledge worker economy is driven by exactly the same forces that gave us an assembly-line worker economy, and that the result is already as dehumanizing. @Sam Crawford is definitely *not* advocating a return to a craft-based economy—as I said, he is coolly scathing when discussing the cuddly inanity of that particular meme. He *is* pointing out that the push for a knowledge worker economy is driven by exactly the same forces that gave us an assembly-line worker economy, and that the result is already as dehumanizing.

]]> By: Sam Penrose http://third-bit.com/blog/archives/2818.html#comment-2905 Sam Penrose Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:06:23 +0000 http://pyre.third-bit.com/blog/?p=2818#comment-2905 Hhmm. Not having read the book I'm at a bit of a handicap, but I'd find the summaries (yours and others) a lot more attractive if they included some macroeconomic analysis. A world without automated production is a Malthusian world -- presumably he doesn't want that. Assuming he can work the square of skilled labor around the circle of a ~1950's era economy, the next question would be whether he thinks there's any casual connection between the tremendous increase in the economic and social status of women in the west and the simultaneous growth of the information economy. WRT Malthus more specifically, see http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/2008_pdf/20080519_1870.pdf and note that contemporary observers saw a revolution away from skilled hand labor and towards automation and knowledge work (and lots and lots of brutal unskilled labor). WRT women more specifically, two words: birth control. Which we have thanks to biological research labs, statistical analysis, and medical bureaucracies (not to mention lawyers!), not Plumber Joe tinkering in his humble yet tidy workshop of a Sunday afternoon. Hhmm. Not having read the book I’m at a bit of a handicap, but I’d find the summaries (yours and others) a lot more attractive if they included some macroeconomic analysis. A world without automated production is a Malthusian world — presumably he doesn’t want that. Assuming he can work the square of skilled labor around the circle of a ~1950′s era economy, the next question would be whether he thinks there’s any casual connection between the tremendous increase in the economic and social status of women in the west and the simultaneous growth of the information economy.

WRT Malthus more specifically, see http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/2008_pdf/20080519_1870.pdf and note that contemporary observers saw a revolution away from skilled hand labor and towards automation and knowledge work (and lots and lots of brutal unskilled labor).

WRT women more specifically, two words: birth control. Which we have thanks to biological research labs, statistical analysis, and medical bureaucracies (not to mention lawyers!), not Plumber Joe tinkering in his humble yet tidy workshop of a Sunday afternoon.

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