Mining for the truth and delusion of the future of work...

There is a lot being written of the future of work. Not a lot of it is interesting or challenging.

It should be, but it’s not.

The questions being asked about the future seem to be self-interested and derivative.

There is no doubt that big changes are a foot in the world of work but we don’t seem to get to the crux of the issues.

Why do I think this? Because nobody seems to be uncomfortable or uncertain. Those outlining the problem are also confidently leaping to their solution.

Real questions are uncomfortable and uncertain. Solutions are not apparent. There are no neat bullet point answers. Real questions are mysterious and unnerving.

I was reminded of the following passage from Robert Prisig’s, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

The atmosphere was explosive. Almost everyone seemed as frustrated and angered as he had been by the question. ‘How are we supposed to know what quality is?’ they said.

‘You’re supposed to tell us!’

Then he told them he couldn’t figure it out either and really wanted to know. He assigned it in the hope that somebody would come up with a good answer. That ignited it. A roar of indignation shook the room. Before the commotion has settled down another teacher had stuck his head in the door to see what the trouble was.

‘It’s all right’, Phaedrus said. We just accidentally stumbled over a genuine question, and the shock is hard to recover from.’ Some students looked curious at this, and the noise shimmered down.

He then used the occasion for a short return to his theme of ‘Corruption and Decay in the Church of Reason’. It was a measure of this corruption, he said, that the students should be outraged by someone trying to use them to search for truth. You were supposed to fake the search for truth, to imitate it. To actually search for it was a damned imposition.

Robert Prisig

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, 1974, p. 199

We are not mining for the truth and delusion of the future of work. We are imitating the search in order to find the easy answer and the quick win.

I wish it was easy because the search is a ‘damned imposition’.

I’m afraid I can’t provide a ready answer. So, the search continues for an uncomfortable question.

Sources:

‘....truth and delusion’ from ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Part 7’, Wish you Were Here, Pink Floyd (‘Come on you miner for truth and delusion, and shine!)

Photo Credit Evan Bray Unsplash found here.