One thing I disagree with though is that we've not experiences this before. In "Good Strategy, Bad Strategy" by Richard P. Rumelt, Richard writes that in the past century we've had, in OECD countries, 20-30 busts. And each of them we've recovered from. The current one might be the biggest yet, but there's nothing inherent in this one that forces us to change anything, really. I hope something changes – and there are forces that can create change – but...
One thing I am also a big believer in is that there will be more and more leisure time for many of us. That is a global development over the past 100 years I believe, and i think it will continue into a Star Trek like world where many of us choose what to do, rather than being 'forced'.
I'm currently thinking about what that will mean for us all, especially when it comes to taking meaningful action rather than using the extra time (only) for entertainment and chores. I'd love to hear more about what forces you see that can help us all to do more of the stuff that gives us meaning.
Björn, I somehow missed your comment until now; so sorry! Thanks for this.
It's going to be fascinating, and also a little scary, to watch the economy over the next few months. As you say, this is at the least going to be an extremely deep recession; though I do agree that we've been here before and always recovered. Almost certainly, we'll recover from this one, too.
On the other hand, we will always recover – until we don't. I wonder if we're approaching a set of circumstances – around ecological crisis, rising inequality, degeneration of our democratic processes and institutions – where something definitively breaks, and rather than recover we have to transform. I genuinely don't know what's going to happen; I don't think anyone does.
I share your deep interest in the future of work and leisure, and I definitely agree big changes are coming there! I think that in an increasingly automated world, we will essentially have an economy that can run without much reduced human input, and that will free us to do other sorts of things, and those things will be more focused around human creativity and care for one another: things that machines can't replicate. Perhaps we'll continue to call these things 'work', or perhaps we'll come to see ourselves as free from work.
I'll definitely be writing more about all this, and what it means for the quest for a meaningful life, in future instalments!
Thanks for these on-point reflections.
One thing I disagree with though is that we've not experiences this before. In "Good Strategy, Bad Strategy" by Richard P. Rumelt, Richard writes that in the past century we've had, in OECD countries, 20-30 busts. And each of them we've recovered from. The current one might be the biggest yet, but there's nothing inherent in this one that forces us to change anything, really. I hope something changes – and there are forces that can create change – but...
One thing I am also a big believer in is that there will be more and more leisure time for many of us. That is a global development over the past 100 years I believe, and i think it will continue into a Star Trek like world where many of us choose what to do, rather than being 'forced'.
I'm currently thinking about what that will mean for us all, especially when it comes to taking meaningful action rather than using the extra time (only) for entertainment and chores. I'd love to hear more about what forces you see that can help us all to do more of the stuff that gives us meaning.
Björn
Björn, I somehow missed your comment until now; so sorry! Thanks for this.
It's going to be fascinating, and also a little scary, to watch the economy over the next few months. As you say, this is at the least going to be an extremely deep recession; though I do agree that we've been here before and always recovered. Almost certainly, we'll recover from this one, too.
On the other hand, we will always recover – until we don't. I wonder if we're approaching a set of circumstances – around ecological crisis, rising inequality, degeneration of our democratic processes and institutions – where something definitively breaks, and rather than recover we have to transform. I genuinely don't know what's going to happen; I don't think anyone does.
I share your deep interest in the future of work and leisure, and I definitely agree big changes are coming there! I think that in an increasingly automated world, we will essentially have an economy that can run without much reduced human input, and that will free us to do other sorts of things, and those things will be more focused around human creativity and care for one another: things that machines can't replicate. Perhaps we'll continue to call these things 'work', or perhaps we'll come to see ourselves as free from work.
I'll definitely be writing more about all this, and what it means for the quest for a meaningful life, in future instalments!
In the meantime thanks for reading.