A Working Life

Plato once described the origin of sexes as the separation of an original creature with four arms and legs torn apart by the gods. The myth is an explanation of the origin of our desire for one another and the feeling of completeness we have when we find our "other half".

I remember working with my brother in the summer during college. He was a plumber. We worked on gas pipe for a couple of public schools. It was hard work and I almost quit after the first day but he wouldn't let me. I felt like I'd been hit by a truck after sitting at a desk for endless hours all winter but after a week or so I got used to it. It wasn't something I longed for afterward but I came to look back on those days as formative. I found a new strength that I didn't know I had. My brother asked more of me than I thought I was capable and I managed to, more or less, rise to the challenge. I wasn't impressive and I didn't show any natural talent but, for the most part, I saw what needed to be done and I did it.

This is a strong need that I came back to as an adult after many (too many) hours in a chair in front of a screen. I was seduced by the invisible illusion of a hierarchy of work. There is a sickness in our society, in our national conscience that can't be brushed off with the fashionable progressive conversation around racial and equity and equality. The desire for physical mastery over our own bodies and the world around us is a deep and timeless need no matter how we may try to deny it.

We are one creature torn apart. It shows everywhere and the cost of denial is so much higher than we admit to ourselves and to our society. We are torn apart and forced to choose one role, one identity one source of validation and joy in the world. "You can be anything you want" we're told so often when we're young but we're never told, "you can be everything you want". Maybe neither of these phrases are actually completely true but I find it telling that we focus on the former rather than the latter. Through school and social pressure, we're shaped and conditioned to accept predefined roles that no longer serve our society.

Our economy is becoming so dynamic that the modes and methods of training our workforce are breaking down. There is a global skills mismatch of epic proportions and our systems are exacerbating the problem. This is obvious to most observers but what is missing from the conversation is a deeper causal analysis of the fundamental changes causing these disruptions. In a future where automation reduces the need for traditionally valuable skills, especially in white-collar roles, we need to re-evaluate the human contribution.

What can humans do that machines cannot? The answer is neither obvious nor static; it is a continuum. Ironically, automation in the 21st century requires training. Much like people machines must, now, learn the more complex tasks they are being employed to accomplish. Some tasks require skills that will take much longer for the economy of machines to surpass that of the human in particular domains. One of those domains that may not be obvious is complex fine motor skills. Yes, machines are progressing rapidly but try to replace your plumber, for example, and think about how long it might take a machine to surpass the economic efficiency of this skillset.

I would extend this example to all of the skilled trades. Most of the trades will experience some form of automation for specific challenging and repetitive tasks such as exploration of existing infrastructure–think about crawling under your house or through your attic taking note of what pipes or wires are connected to which orifices or outlets. But in comparison to their more privileged cousins, engineers, they are relatively safe from automation. Most of engineering boils down to physical laws and rules of thumb which are far easier for a machine to learn than a human, given modern machine learning techniques.

Currently the deepest disdain in our society is reserved for the most essential members of it. The people who make things work, who show up every day and take ideas from imagination to reality. We worship knowledge and services but we assume that someone else will show up to make it all happen out there, in the real world, where it actually matters. If you ever try to start a business or run one you will quickly learn that ideas are cheap; it's execution that really matters.

Whether it's the lone inventor or the heroic entrepreneur we give all the credit to those who stay above and profit off of others. This is an upside-down economy. I, for one, miss working with my hands but I like working with my mind as well. Unfortunately there are vanishingly few opportunities to do both within the bounds of modern career categories. It's not just about  dignity and respect from others, as important as those they are, it's about the ability to live as a full human; to, "bring your whole self to work".

As important as racial and ethnic equity and equality are, we will never get to the root of the problem until we address the economics. Diversity is not a dog whistle for race. It is a fundamental property of dynamic and resilient systems. Diversity of thought is the real reason why racial, ethnic and sexual diversity are valuable in our system. Diversity of experience leads to diversity of thought and diversity of thought leads to better outcomes.

And so we must re-unite with the other half of ourselves in order to realize our greater selves and become a greater society.

There is a future in which we are all individual brands and businesses, one which is not as far fetched as you might be thinking (nor as dystopian, for that matter). Often unintended consequences come in both positive and negative directions. The recent victory of Gig-economy companies in California might point toward the mass adoption of a third way for workers; or at least the mass desire for one.

Personally I fear that money and influence has tainted the legal ruling and see the impetus behind  proposition 22 as predatory but looking forward, now that it has passed, with provisions for "stipends" for health and some pay guarantees, you can imagine a new relationship other than employer and employee. This could be a way to give the American worker more autonomy and provide new work and careers that can be more fluid and allow for a greater diversity of income streams, but such grand possibilities are absurdly unlikely without a vast array of support, namely in education, insurance and healthcare.

I do think there are ways to show up for our dreams, right now. I for one have dropped into economic low-gear (once again) and gained the experience and training necessary to become a license electrician (despite already holding an engineering degree) to allow me to build the projects I envision. Luckily I enjoy working with my hands but also skilled trades persons are scarce and becoming more so (as opposed to lawyers or politicians). I am concerned that this shortage could be a large impediment to  building a sustainable economy. This is certainly not an obvious path to most, in fact, it took me quite a while to see it, myself and not the easiest either.

Luckily I don't have a family or large private debts and I don't really care what other people think of me. Also my family has been supportive probably because they were worried that I would never find stable work after my whimsical career in energy efficiency breezing from an engineering firm to a think tank to consulting to a failed startup.

If we don't want to find ourselves with a bunch of empty visions on a dangerous and chaotic planet with few resources with which to realize them, we'd better reimagine work in our society. There needs to be a  vocational training and physicality in play and learning. We need to support students in putting principles into action and trusting them to contribute with their learning rather than giving them busy work. We need to support workers outside of the corporate benefits model, which has been so hollowed out as to have failed the American worker.