Back to the Future?
I have a theory that we’re returning to many of the societal norms of the 1700 and 1800′s. Stick with me here. If I’m right, it will have some serious implications for your future.
It wasn’t until the industrial revolution (1760-1850) that we began reporting to little spaces in big buildings to do our work for a set period of time. Until then we worked together in smaller collaborations featuring partnerships, craftmanship and apprenticeships.
I’m not saying that having a small space in a big building is bad (I would have loved to have had a small space in Thomas Edison’s Menlo Park lab). However, I don’t believe it is the optimal way for humans to work creatively on a long term basis. Even Edison’s lab operated more by rote experimentation than imaginative exploration (>6,000 filament materials tested).
But it isn’t just the work environment that I think we’re revisiting. Instead of focusing on what degrees we’ve accumulated, I think our approach to education is beginning to value again what we know, who has invested in teaching us and what valuable experiences we’ve encountered. Also technology has made it possible for the “gentleman” scholar to once again learn everything there is to know about his chosen field. Lastly, technology has also made it possible for these field specific experts to find each other and correspond.
It’s probably a good thing to resurrect some of these old norms. After all the buildings can only get so big and the individual work spaces so small.
