To simplify the complex technology that is work, we must unpack the dual premise that, all work is predicated on the use of certain tools, and more importantly, that and all tools are elaborations of two original tools:
the shovel and axe.
Work is rooted in the act of turning something (material, ideas, value) into something else through activity. Work cannot be accomplished without the use of a tool. If you're an accountant, your tools are GAAP, financial technologies (money, debt, credits, and so on), and spreadsheets. If you're a plumber, your tools are the accoutrements of most tradesmen (a wrench, plumb-line, and, importantly, the education and skills required by the craft). Even more esoteric or abstract lines of work like philosophy, teaching, and preaching still use tools like cognition, reasoning, pedagogy, and exegesis. These disciplines each require a technology, whether developed through linguistics or material, to function.
For the second premise, we have to go back.
Leopold writes that when our earliest ancestors created the shovel, they became "givers" as they could plant trees or dig wells, posts, and foundations. When the axe was invented however, pioneers of work became "takers" as they chopped down those trees and unmade what was made.
These paragons, which certainly maintain primeval ancestors, designed the behaviors every technology follows: to give and take (this doesn't omit the potential for a shovel's misuse in attacking people or undermining structures, nor an axe's in creating grooves to loft scaffolding or chopping wood to supply lumber- these categorizations simply represent the philosophical intent primal tools indicated about the desire of humankind in labor).
The invention of language allows for fellowship in the same breath that the invention of class names the “plebeian” to strip away dignity. The printing press gives access while barbed wire takes interdependence. The Industrial Revolution rushed forward with the invention of the assembly line. This tool gave collaboration a new meaning but worked alongside labor tech to subjugate citizens to the clock and whistle. The era of efficiency began, but we didn't seem to be leading the charge.
At the end of the Industrial Revolution, Thoreau went so far as to call people "tools of their tools." Pre-modern civilization after the industrial revolution doubled-down, developing education and accreditation around people's ability to use tools well. An entire system of colleges, teachers, and thought leaders geared up a generation to be engineers and material scientists within every field. This was the direction economy, politics, and society ran through the 20th century as everything from entertainment to status roles to social justice was shaped by the tools individual's chose to wield.
The Digital Revolution, of course, changed everything.
Work became rooted in turning bits of information into more palatable, salable, and visual indexes of information.
Our tools became coopted by software. Our infrastructure became controlled by a cloud connection. Our interaction in the physical world became superfluous to digital education and social media's wholesale substitution. Our seasons became dependent on quarterly earnings and turnover, and our days became dominated by scrolling.
It's been said that if you don't pay for the product, you are the product. Even if we opt-out of certain platforms, we live in a world run by our tools, and those tools turn us into a commodity by mere osmosis with culture.
Smartphone owners are simultaneously the advertisement and the user. You are the unwitting developer team and update recipient. You are the vital extension of the product more than it is the extension of you.
You are a tool of your tools.
We once used tools with artistry and brilliance to create and reshape the earth. Dreaming larger than life, we shot for the moon and landed among the stars. Simple shovels were used for a day then set down to rest with no sovereignty over us. Now a device that fits in pockets controls our waking and sleeping with digital precision and ruthless abandon. When our work became under threat of “tool rule”, we still had weekends and nights to seek reprieve. In a world of digital devices, this escape becomes harder and harder to find with every device added to our ecosystem...
