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Well, the difficulty is in identifying just who the producers are. Modern society largely labels the financing and management arms of innovation as the produce
by kromem 3y ago
Well, the difficulty is in identifying just who the producers are.
Modern society largely labels the financing and management arms of innovation as the producers.
Perhaps Einstein envisioned the researchers and scientists as the producers.
Thus it would not be Elon who was indicated as the intelligent producer, but rather the nameless researcher tied to a desk at one of his companies doing the work of producing.
And that the "less intelligent masses" includes the management who take that production and mismanage its distribution in maximizing short term gains in exchange for long term losses.
So the interpretation of his sentiment here would really depend on whether he'd buy into the self-branding of the rich and powerful as producers or not.
- coldtea 3y ago>Perhaps Einstein envisioned the researchers and scientists as the producers. Anybody who spent any time in Academia knows that "researchers and scientists" can be as flawed as any other person, personality wise, and when it comes to professional conduct, jealousy, greed, backstabbing, etc. they're hardly better. They're also quite spineless, given all their privileges.
- tetris11 3y agoYou're talking about the ones who've made it to tenure, either by genuine academic merit or old-boys-networks (or both). But given the lack of permanent positions in Academia, one could make the case that a large portion of Academia genuinely do excel on merit alone (albeit in the short time window where they have to face the reality that they will never make tenure, and will have to find an industry job). Complacency and politics occurs at the professor-level, but that's rarely where the science is done.
- coldtea 3y agoNo, not referring to tenured spefically. Holds even at PhD student level. Just because you studied at PhD level and can "produce stuff" and invent, doesn't make you a better person. If you're a shitty person, you're now a shitty person in academia or research, whereas before you'd just be a shitty truck driver or secretary.
- MichaelZuo 3y agoThere are a lot of adjuncts and post-docs, especially outside of the hard STEM fields, that are not ideal role models to say the least.
- schiffern 3y ago>Thus it would not be Elon who was indicated as the intelligent producer Good point, bad example. Musk is hardly just "financing and management." In contrast with ~all other CEOs, Musk actually spends most of his time (and IMO contributes most of his value) on engineering, despite the ongoing propaganda to the contrary.
- freedomben 3y agoIndeed, The incredible amount of engineering expertise and contribution that Elon gives is one of the biggest things that I learned from the new biography from Walter Isaacson. Elon solves real problems in many difficult and specific engineering fields. I would consider him a jack of all trades, Master of none, but understands enough that he can bring his unique solving style to the table and think outside of the box and devise wild experiments. He has strokes of genius at times that most people cannot have because they are too familiar with the rules. Musk also frequently takes lessons learned from one field of engineering and applies them to others in clever ways that few people are able to do simply because the breadth of engineering work that Elon contributes is so staggeringly wide. In short, the dude is a serious individual contributor. He may be the CEO, but he does a lot of groundwork that you would not expect, and has some serious expertise.
- digging 3y agoAnd he also has quite a few incredibly stupid insights and ideas that others have to rein in (or wish they could rein in). It can be great to have someone like him as part of a team, but you do in fact need people familiar with the rules to override him when he tries to redefine well understood concepts because he's angry.
- freedomben 3y agoYep absolutely. It's a pros and cons sort of thing, and having a personality like Elon can make things very difficult. In my opinion, this is a great example of why cognitive diversity is so important to a high-performing team. With team members who think differently, the team can reach incredible heights. If it was just Elon, I think they'd have a very difficult time achieving anything.
- freedomben 3y agoI think that when read in its full context, it's really just to contrast with the other group, which is the masses to explain why "production and distribution of commodities is entirely unorganized so that everybody must live in fear of being eliminated from the economic cycle, in this way suffering for the want of everything". If I were to rephrase it, I would say society works democratically, but unfortunately the masses are much dumber than the real contributors to our society, but because their votes count the same as anyone else, the choices of the masses win elections and make bad choices. This is why there is such food and shelter insecurity.
- czl 3y agounfortunately the masses are much dumber > the real contributors to our society, but because their votes count the same as anyone else, the choices of the masses win elections and make bad choices Their "political votes" appear to count the same but if society rewards them then their economic power gives them outsized "economic votes". Every dollar spent is a vote for the service or product it is spent on.
- trabant00 3y agoI don't think it's up for interpretation, the criteria is in the actual quote "who produce some thing valuable for the community". It could be any profession: researchers, managers, financiers, teachers, manual laborers. If they produce value for the society. And the same professions can be free loaders or even worse, suck value from society. The quote, as I interpret it, is about Price's law. Not about professions, social or economical classes.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]