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Sports is a zero-sum game. Productive labor is not. The mathematician Paul Erdos used amphetamines to make many major breakthroughs. This was a great benefit fo
by xocyabencl 9y ago
Sports is a zero-sum game. Productive labor is not. The mathematician Paul Erdos used amphetamines to make many major breakthroughs. This was a great benefit for society, regardless of whether he perhaps took a professorship that some less productive mathematician would otherwise have obtained.
- emodendroket 9y agoThere is a pretty limited set of fields of endeavor where you could make this argument without it being ridiculous on its face.
- xocyabencl 9y agoWhile many industries have an element of zero-sum competition, that's not the default. Whether you're designing a car, doing a surgery, giving a haircut, cooking a hamburger, etc. you are giving something of value to your customers.
- Analemma_ 9y agoYou’re describing retail jobs, where that might be true. But most white-collar workers never interact directly with customers. They have to demonstrate value to their boss, which does make it a zero-sum situation.
- xocyabencl 9y agoI don't think any of the jobs I listed are retail. I went out of my way to include a variety of industries, including knowledge work. "Demonstrating value to your boss" could include zero-sum bullshit or actual production. As a programmer, I've done both kinds of work.
- emodendroket 9y agoEven assuming (optimistically) that an exceptionally good hair stylist could somehow... uh, I don't know, be so good that they can hire more stylists? Assuming there's space?... it's pretty rare to have, say, multiple heads of the same department.
- xocyabencl 9y agoYou could cut more people's hair by getting it done faster, or do a better job cutting each person's hair. The point is that jobs where productivity improvement is possible are very common. Economically, productivity and technology are equivalent, and are the basis for prosperity. Productivity is not, in general, zero-sum.
- emodendroket 9y agoThe post uses accounting, which, well, maybe it's a different story if we're talking about complicated tax schemes that can save a lot of money, but in general I think we can say that if the workers are more productive fewer rather than more are needed.
- xocyabencl 9y agoMore productivity allows the work to get done with fewer workers, which is generally a good thing in normal economic conditions.
- emodendroket 9y agoIt seems to me like this claim contradicts your previous assertion that there's "no zero-sum game." The zero-sum game is, they only need so many workers, and if all your coworkers are achieving levels of productivity only possible with chemical enhancement, then you get left behind.
- xocyabencl 9y agoThis is no different than saying that the street sweepers were left behind by street sweeping machines. Or that accountants got left behind by the invention of accounting software. This is what technology is all about. It's not zero-sum, because there's other work in the world waiting to be done to make people's lives better. You may have have a bad work environment where you feel like the only goal of your work is to one-up your co-workers. But your boss is not paying you and your co-workers to compete for sport. The reason you are getting a paycheck is because you are giving someone something they value. That person would be happier if they could get it for less money by putting you out of the job. But if that happens, that doesn't mean you should be unemployed - it means you could be helping society in a different way. In a well-functioning labor market, every worker will be more prosperous if they all produce more.
- Analemma_ 9y agoPromotions, and the salary/opportunity increases that come with them, absolutely are a zero-sum game. I’m a little baffled that anyone could think otherwise, actually.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- fragmede 9y agoAssuming the company is doing well, financially, it's not zero-sum if there's enough money for everyone to get a salary increase.
- emodendroket 9y agoHow does that work out for cost centers?
- adderaldecade 9y agoIt doesn't, because you've already failed at branding yourself. You need to emphasize how the code you write brings in a fuck ton of money like the sales guys you do.