Just listened to his Sam Harris interview. With Dennett sadly gone, I need a new target to critique and Cal may be it.
So.
Cal Newport wants to make things more happy and productive within the current work paradigm.
And which paradigm is that?
You know the one. It’s that, (ahem) MANDATORY work paradigm that’s all the rage at the country club.
Very interesting. Very very very interesting, CAL.
Don’t worry Cal, imma be civilized. Not like I was with my Dennett critique two days ago in the free will sub and on my Galan Jones stack. Karma got me on that one with Dan’s passing (RIP) so I’m going to be nicer this time.
So, where were we, OH YEAH, making things oh so lovely WITHIN the traditional employee/employer model, is better, you say, for the WORKER than abundance and post-scarcity, where everyone owns their time?
Hm, from where I’m sitting, it seems like mandatory work always favors the ownership class. It’s that word mandatory. Funny how a little word can have such a big impact. You should try saying it some time.
But it kinda sorta seems like you want to not say it, talk about it, address it, you want to snow it over and make it irrelevant since people will want to be there anyway, making its mandatory nature irrelevant.
WOW.
So I guess the plan then is to keep that system going by infusing a little opium into the mix, but instead of foosball tables and free lunch and yoga rooms like last time, the new ORG PSYCH is letting people tap into their yummy surplus intellectual energies once the administrative and repetitive bullshit is removed by AI. After all, people will want to work. Sounds like what you’re saying is all’s well in DOMINANCE ORIENTATION land. Everybody wins. The little ants win and the ethereal Gods at the top win, too.
How NICE, Cal.
Should I be celebrating? The work-to-live dynamic is under no threat according to you, Cal.
But Cal, have you considered that as long as people HAVE to work to live, owners have some leverage to pursue business models that yield the most profit, rather than the ones that yield the most personal satisfaction for the workers?
Do you have an answer to that one, Cal?
Shhh, careful, Cal. Your conservative readership might be listening. Don’t answer too honestly. Leave that to the people below.