#49: Knowledge workers
As long ago as 1959 Peter Drucker predicted that knowledge workers would replace manual workers at the core of the workplace.
Knowledge-workers are those who use their education to deliver value. According to some estimates, knowledge workers already constitute two-fifths of the workforce in the USA, while manual labor has dropped to one-fifth.
Look at it this way: Value in the 20th century was produced mainly with brawn power; value in the 21st century will be delivered mainly with brain power.
In the computer age the path is from data to information to knowledge. But what about wisdom? Don’t hold your breathe, for the information age is not yet the age of knowledge. Widely and freely available information results in more information, more widely and freely available. It does not automatically lead to knowledge.
No wonder wisdom remains in short supply.
I’m james@nonsenseatwork.com
Copyright: 2006 James Henry McIntosh
Knowledge-workers are those who use their education to deliver value. According to some estimates, knowledge workers already constitute two-fifths of the workforce in the USA, while manual labor has dropped to one-fifth.
Look at it this way: Value in the 20th century was produced mainly with brawn power; value in the 21st century will be delivered mainly with brain power.
In the computer age the path is from data to information to knowledge. But what about wisdom? Don’t hold your breathe, for the information age is not yet the age of knowledge. Widely and freely available information results in more information, more widely and freely available. It does not automatically lead to knowledge.
No wonder wisdom remains in short supply.
I’m james@nonsenseatwork.com
Copyright: 2006 James Henry McIntosh
posted by James Henry McIntosh at
7:20 AM
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