Dr Schmidt’s smart creatives work all the hours that God sends, and then some. They are, to use his term, “overworked in a good way”. The concept of work-life balance can, he thinks, “be insulting to smart, dedicated employees”, for whom work is an important part of life, not something to be separated. The best corporate cultures, he thinks, “invite and enable people to be overworked in a good way, with too many interesting things to do both at work and at home”.A very good philosophy, that I also discussed here: http://danieltenner.com/2014/11/19/work-and-life-balance-and...
I had not read Eric Schmidt's book at that point, though.
The author continues, however:
But it also highlights the extent to which our world is bifurcating into parallel universes.
No it's not. It's evolving into a new universe. There's no reason why everyone, yes, everyone, can't be in that new universe where they work on what they're passionate about. And when we figure out how to fix our screwed up economic systems to enable that (one possible solution is the Basic Income idea), we will derive, as a species, productivity benefits that we can't even begin to comprehend right now.
At this point in time, the majority of humanity toils for subsistence. A sizeable minority work to pay for their lifestyle (aka the work-life balance level), and they are a bajillion times more productive than the subsistence workers. A tiny slice of us are now able to work with passion, on what we want to do. Like artists working on a song or a painting or a book, they do not draw a clear line between work and play. They're always working and always playing. With this they achieve a level of enjoyment of life and of productivity that the work-life balance crowd cannot touch.
Let's all work together to get everyone into this last category. It's easy to point to the fact that we're not there yet. Harder to make tangible progress towards this goal.
A very good philosophy, that I also discussed here: http://danieltenner.com/2014/11/19/work-and-life-balance-and...
I had not read Eric Schmidt's book at that point, though.
The author continues, however:
But it also highlights the extent to which our world is bifurcating into parallel universes.
No it's not. It's evolving into a new universe. There's no reason why everyone, yes, everyone, can't be in that new universe where they work on what they're passionate about. And when we figure out how to fix our screwed up economic systems to enable that (one possible solution is the Basic Income idea), we will derive, as a species, productivity benefits that we can't even begin to comprehend right now.
At this point in time, the majority of humanity toils for subsistence. A sizeable minority work to pay for their lifestyle (aka the work-life balance level), and they are a bajillion times more productive than the subsistence workers. A tiny slice of us are now able to work with passion, on what we want to do. Like artists working on a song or a painting or a book, they do not draw a clear line between work and play. They're always working and always playing. With this they achieve a level of enjoyment of life and of productivity that the work-life balance crowd cannot touch.
Let's all work together to get everyone into this last category. It's easy to point to the fact that we're not there yet. Harder to make tangible progress towards this goal.