Print time for Problem solver and the nature of work in the new economy
Finalising the first one
I’ve ordered the printing for the first Edaith Essential Skills Series guide – Problem solver.
I started Problem solver back in November. It’s been a long process of deep work, reduction, revising and polishing. During one round of editing I took out a section of drafted material that took many weeks to compose, including accompanying diagrams. But too much information is as bad as having no information, so it needed to be done.
My number one priority has been making something useful and informative for the reader. Something that you want to pick up again and again. Not to try and say everything possible to prove myself as an authority on the topic. Flicking though an Edaith guide should feel as easy and pleasant as scrolling a social media feed. There should be novelty and lightness.
Making the work concise, digestible and yet well researched is such a challenge. It would have been easier to have had a 250 or 300 page book. But the usefulness comes from having gone deep on the topics with reputable sources, spending days reading and then carefully reconstructing ideas to they can be more easily understood.
The editing and refining phase took as much time as the writing. When I completed the draft back in April, I thought it was done. So much has changed since then; I could have never imagined. I went from cutting sections to obsessing over hyphens (FYI no hyphens are being used for 'problem solving' even though this is not technically correct - this Skills Brief intro explains).
The (re)unification of work
Edaith is being enabled by the reunification of work. In our contemporary world where specialisation drives the development of technologies and services that underpin our quality of life, it also causes our greatest challenges for continued human progress.
Each organisation and person competing to be better at the thing, doubling down with expertise, minimising risk. Side effects include the decline of conditions needed for creativity and innovation.
Industrialisation shifted the production of goods from craftspeople to factories. This division of labour enabled the consumer society, by producing things at scale and within a world that saw no environmental limits.
From Henry Ford’s factories to the supermarket experience, there’s tens of thousands of jobs to be done for society to function. We became more and more specialised and capable at specific things. That’s how it’s been possible to build the complex products and systems we benefit from today.
However, our post-industrial society is one geared towards a new economy based on innovation. Organisations now succeed through developing and deploying knowledge. To achieve creativity, quality standards and a service orientation people need to be enabled to continuously learn, to be self-regulated, work autonomously and deliver activities outside of their core work. Both mental and physical space are needed.
I can think of at least 10 jobs that I’ve been working in for Edaith, from website development to researching, graphic design, editing, publishing etc.
Although the (re)unification of work is more difficult and prone to failure, it’s core to making progress in the new economy. Connecting, repurposing and morphing ideas and methods from different professions and perspectives are the constructive grounds that innovation emerges.
Tina
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