1. I will read anything Anne Helen Petersen writes about jobs, work, “productivity culture,” and how none of those things benefit the actual workers. This is from her latest newsletter:
This is the dystopian reality of productivity culture. Its mandate is never “You figured out how to do my tasks more efficiently, so you get to spend less time working.” It is always: “You figured out how to do your tasks more efficiency, so you must now do more tasks.”
[…] Capitalism does not care for that reality, or for the human wreckage it leaves behind. Leaders will seek out workers who can meet the new production quotas that technology suggests they can achieve, and dispose of them when they can no longer do so. And do not fool yourself: this is as true for factory and physical labor as it is for the office and “knowledge work.” I’m not scared that a robot is going to be able to write a blog post, or write my next book. I’m scared that I’ll be expected to write five books in the time I would’ve previously been expected to write one — and for the same amount of pay.
2. In honor of Valentine’s Day Sunday, here’s a love poem from Naomi Shihab Nye (author of this favorite, too). Those last two lines!
