Work is what structures adults' lives: it gives us purpose, focus, a set of responsibilities, and an identity. So when people are not participating in the labour market, all sorts of other things often start to go wrong.
David AutorRead
Our machines increasingly do our work for us. Why doesn't this make our labor redundant and our skills obsolete? Why are there still so many jobs?
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote questions the impact of automation on employment and skills.
David Autor highlights a paradox in the modern workforce where advancements in technology and automation ostensibly reduce the need for human labor, yet many jobs still exist. He prompts a reflection on how new technologies have transformed job markets, creating new opportunities and roles rather than merely rendering existing ones obsolete.
Themes
AutomationJobsTechnologyEmploymentSkills
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the future of work at a technology conference.
More from David Autor
All quotes βThe fact that a task cannot be computerized does not imply that computerization has no effect on that task. On the contrary, tasks that cannot be substituted by computerization are generally complemented by it. This point is as fundamental as it is overlooked.
David AutorRead
There's always new work to do. Adjusting to the rapid pace of technological change creates real challenges, seen most clearly in our polarized labor market and the threat that it poses to economic mobility. Rising to this challenge is not automatic. It's not costless. It's not easy. But it is feasible.
David AutorRead
Similar quotes
No matter how beautiful, no matter how cool your interface, it would be better if there were less of it.
Alan CooperRead
If you love a medium made of software, there's a danger that you will become entrapped in someone else's recent careless thoughts. Struggle against that.
Jaron LanierRead
Many of the technologies that are now racing ahead most rapidly, replacing human workers in factories and offices with machines, making stockholders richer and workers poorer, are indeed tending to accentuate the existing inequalities in the distribution of wealth.
Freeman DysonRead
I'm still a hacker. I get paid for it now. I never received any monetary gain from the hacking I did before. The main difference in what I do now compared to what I did then is that I now do it with authorization.
Kevin MitnickRead
If you look at our current technology level, something strange has to happen to civilisations, and I mean strange in a bad way. And it could be that there are a whole lot of dead, one-planet civilisations.
Elon MuskRead
I am hoping, though, that many of them have kids, who, when they have a moment to take a break from their iPods, Internet, or Google, will explain to their parents running the country just how the world is being flattened.
Thomas FriedmanRead