If you and your skills are a complement to the computer, your wage and labor market prospects are likely to be cheery. If your skills do not complement the computer, you may want to address that mismatch. Ever more people are starting to fall on one side of the divide or the other. That's why 'average is over.'
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of adapting one’s skills to complement technology for better job prospects.
Tyler Cowen's quote suggests that in today's job market, the ability to work alongside technology, particularly computers, is crucial. Those who have skills that enhance or complement technological capabilities will likely see better opportunities and rewards, while those whose skills do not align with technological advancements risk becoming obsolete. This reflects a growing divide in the workforce, highlighting that simply being average is no longer sufficient in an increasingly automated world.
In practice
This quote can be used in a workshop on career development and adapting to new technologies.
The key questions will be: Are you good at working with intelligent machines or not? Are your skills a complement to the skills of the computer, or is the computer doing better without you? Worst of all, are you competing against the computer?
Economists love to talk about incentives, but the bottom line is that people hate being controlled or manipulated, even when done through voluntary institutions. This is one of the most important tensions in capitalism.
There is people who make stuff with words. There is people who make stuff with programs. And I really believe that that whole creative culture, people didn't realize how creative programming is. And anybody who's done it of course knows that not only is it creative, but it's incredibly absorbing.
For decades, the pace of technological change in manufacturing has outstripped that in the economy as a whole. And, so, firms - manufacturing firms - have found it easier to continue producing by - with - reducing their workforces.
I mean, you can't have advertising be the only official business of the information economy if the information economy is going to take over.
For technology to be a force for peace and food security, we must widen access to reliable and affordable Internet, accompanied by training in digital literacy and cybersecurity.
The promise of artificial intelligence and computer science generally vastly outweighs the impact it could have on some jobs in the same way that, while the invention of the airplane negatively affected the railroad industry, it opened a much wider door to human progress.
People thought I was crazy thinking about a phone you can just put in your pocket.
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