A coincidental convergence of recent tweets: we are wasting the surplus from technical and economic innovation on mandatory, soul-killing busywork. 1/https://twitter.com/literalbanana/status/981730992330174464 …
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David Chapman Retweeted David Chapman
2/ It’s tax season in the US, so everyone in the country is forced to spend a couple days doing administrative work we hate and consider idiotic. IRS official estimate is that for individuals this takes 13 hours on average. Including biz, ~$500 bn/year.https://twitter.com/Meaningness/status/981732729388544000 …
David Chapman added,
David Chapman @MeaningnessReplying to @literalbananaSeems to me that all the time saved by mechanization has been taken up with administrative negative externalities. Everyone spends 20 hours/week dealing with dysfunctional institutions that demand form-filling and phone calls with low-level bureaucratic staff3 replies 4 retweets 29 likesShow this thread -
David Chapman Retweeted David Chapman
3/ What makes dealing with health insurance, credit card company errors, retirement plan allocation, and taxes so awful?https://twitter.com/Meaningness/status/981734411304497153 …
David Chapman added,
David Chapman @MeaningnessReplying to @literalbananaI think it’s: (1) they are mostly obviously pointless, (2) they take much longer than they need to, (3) outcomes are unpredictable and out of your control, and (4) they can impose vast arbitrary costs. Everyone is doing taxes now, which is an obvious case.2 replies 3 retweets 22 likesShow this thread -
David Chapman Retweeted David Chapman
4/ Mandatory unpaid administrative busywork is mostly new, enabled by innovations in IT. We could use IT to free ourselves from nonsense; instead, collectively, we’ve used it to enslave ourselves.https://twitter.com/Meaningness/status/981733918918389760 …
David Chapman added,
David Chapman @MeaningnessReplying to @Meaningness @literalbananaI don’t think my parents spent much time on this stuff, and I don’t remember having to do much before ~ the mid-90s either. Cheap mainframe computers have made it possible for govs & cos to impose huge amounts of pointless work on other people4 replies 9 retweets 41 likesShow this thread -
David Chapman Retweeted David Colborne
5/ We’ve replaced the drudgery of actual work with the drudgery of talking about work (mostly done by machines). Actual work may be rougher on the body, but at least you feel like you’ve done something.https://twitter.com/ElectDavidC/status/981745576365535232 …
David Chapman added,
David Colborne @DavidColborneReplying to @Meaningness @literalbananaTrouble is, mechanization made it possible to work at scale, and humans really don't do that very well. The way we work around that is by communicating, which technology has also enabled at scale, so now our work is sorting through our communications to find the effects of work.2 replies 3 retweets 33 likesShow this thread -
David Chapman Retweeted Vicki Boykis
6/ “Talking about work” is now most of the economy.https://twitter.com/vboykis/status/981939305483563008 …
David Chapman added,
2 replies 5 retweets 42 likesShow this thread -
7/ Quantifying our waste of human lives on pointless administration (

@slatestarcodex) https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/04/why-its-time-to-rethink-the-meaning-of-work/ …pic.twitter.com/kvxdTnM448
1 reply 9 retweets 37 likesShow this thread -
David Chapman Retweeted ЬᏂauϮᏂ
8/ Collectively we have frittered away the vast surplus generated by systematization. And, we’ve allowed those systems to rust. Basic institutions of modernity are increasingly dysfunctional—and we’re so rich we can get away with neglecting maintenance.https://twitter.com/peroxycarbonate/status/981739924968751106 …
David Chapman added,
2 replies 3 retweets 38 likesShow this thread -
David Chapman Retweeted Venkatesh brrrRao
9/
@vgr made a similar point in a long tweet thread a couple days ago:https://twitter.com/vgr/status/981603366508756992 …David Chapman added,
1 reply 0 retweets 16 likesShow this thread -
David Chapman Retweeted Venkatesh brrrRao
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@vgr’s thread is both terrifying—because he points to evidence that systematicity is collapsing overall—and hopeful, because he thinks alternatives are possible.https://twitter.com/vgr/status/981603954009108480 …David Chapman added,
4 replies 1 retweet 26 likesShow this thread
David Chapman Retweeted Venkatesh brrrRao
11/ I agree with @vgr’s objection here: systematicity should be optional for most people.
It’s unnatural and most people are bad at it and don’t like it. We haven’t yet got a good alternative…https://twitter.com/vgr/status/981958713031385088 …
David Chapman added,
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12/ Can a future society provide the emotional rightness of pre-modern community, smoothly-functioning systematic institutions, space for diverse subcultures, and creativity for all? I believe so:https://meaningness.com/fluidity-desiderata …
2 replies 4 retweets 30 likesShow this threadThanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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