Conversation

Most admired elites in the west: 1940s: decorated military veterans 1950s: spies 1960s: rocket scientists 1970s: brain surgeons* 1980-1987: investors 1988-1997: hackers 1997-2015: entrepreneurs 2015 - now: nobody * when did ‘brain surgery’ replace ‘rocket science’?
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There have been no paradigmatically admired elites for 5 years now. This feels genuinely weird. Not even doctors now after pandemic. Nurses get some idealization but they aren’t elites, and doctors don’t have unmixed admiration for pandemic response.
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What changed in 2015? I remember it's the year when everyone started to get obsessed with automation and the future of work, but was there an objective determinant?
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Huh? Future of work conversation kicked off much earlier, like 2001-04 I think. Not sure what you’re thinking of. 2015 techlash took the sheen off entrepreneurship though.
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In Europe 2015 really was dominated by the gig economy as the new frontier + Brynjolfsson & McAfee's "The Second Machine Age". It was a different flavor of techlash compared to the previous year, which was all about the war between Uber and the taxis (more about regulations).
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