efficiency 6

Jobs fall with technological efficiency. Farmers in the US fell from 40% (1900) to ~2.7% (1980) and ~74% drop from 1948 to 2019 despite ~175% output growth; wheat harvest efficiency rose ~75* (300>3-4 man-hours). Mechanics & repairers grew from ~140 k (1910) to ~4.64 M (2000); machinery reliability lagged so technician demand surged over decades. Construction workers doubled from 1.66 M (1910) to 3.84 M (2000) even as labor share fell (4.3>3.0%); 5-10* productivity gains met booming development. Switchboard operators plunged from ~1.34 M (1950) to ~40 k (1984) and ~4 k today as rotary-dial and digital switching automated call handling. Travel agents dropped >50% from ~100 k (2000) to ~45 k (2022) while travel demand rose; online booking doubled trips per agent. Elevator operators went from building-staff staple to near zero by the 1940s once automatic doors and button controls arrived. Lamplighters vanished from thousands to near zero post-1907 electrification; Edison’s incandescent lamps eliminated manual lighting. Jobs also grow with technology efficiency. ...

I was at Cream Centre with my father on a Sunday afternoon. We’d finished a light lunch and were debating dessert. (He has triglycerides. I have cholesterol.) This was my fifth visit this year, and I had abstained so far. I couldn’t any longer. I ordered a Sizzling Brownie Sundae. But not for reasons you might think. Expertise comes from experience. I scrape food more than 99% of the people I know. So, I consider myself an expert. Here’s a guide on the art of scraping. ...

Why are you afraid of process? … we bristle when we’re asked for our weekly goals sheets, or when the boss wants us to use a database or when the insurance company requires docs to follow data-driven guidelines. We pass up the tenth novel by a successful author… because the process has become too transparent. And yet, in many cases, process is underrated. Process is your ace in the hole when your intuition stops working. ...

Marc’s Outlook on Productivity – a good blog on productivity software.

Interesting article on The Economist on the value of a cluttered desk. … the assumption that filers can find stuff more quickly is wrong. Filers, they say, “are less likely to access a given piece of data, and more likely to acquire extraneous data…” (There’s a “Clean your desk” initiative at BCG Mumbai going on right now.)

After B2C and B2B, is it now going to be B2E?