We need to update our metaphors (and our thinking) from the physical metaphors of the Industrial age to nature based metaphors, which better reflect the Internet age. Late Stage Institutionalism Part 3
This is the third and final post in the Late Stage Institutionalism blog series where I am exploring the transition away from the Industrial institutions that currently dominate society.
In the first post I explored the idea that society is like an ant colony that has depleted its food source and we, the ants, need to explore to find new sources of food. In the second post I explored the psychological effects of being in a society dominated by late stage industrial institutions, which feel like they will inevitably collapse but at the same time we are unable to imagine a world without them.
In this post, I’ll offer a way out. I think it begins with the language that we use. More specifically we need to update our metaphors. We need to rid ourselves of the metaphors that we created from the Industrial revolution and update them with ones that reflect the Internet age that we live in.
The Metaphors that Surround Us
There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, “What the hell is water?
David Foster Wallace
Metaphors not only help us describe the world, they also shape how we think about things. We often dont notice the metaphors that surround us in our everyday lives.
I think that the most damaging thing right now is that the dominant metaphors and language in today’s society reflect thinking that was suited for the Industrial Revolution. This Industrial style thinking is focused on manufacturing physical and mechanical objects and prizes static and quantifiable things.
Let’s take a look at some of the most damaging metaphors that we commonly use today.
Humans as Machines
The most damaging metaphor that we have currently is where we treat humans like physical machines.
- We treat humans work as if they produce work at a constant rate (work 8 hour days)
- We still organise our companies as if we are building a car on an assembly line and we split them down into functional departments.
- We treat humans as essentially upgradeable robots as if you can just bolt on a new module (MBA, leadership training etc)
- We literally refer to humans as “human resources” as if they are the same and replaceable similar to a machine part.
I regularly encounter this type of thinking at work. Resourcing for projects and departments is built around the concept of man hour. For example, let’s say that there’s a project with 2 coders on it. The project is running behind. The product manager asks what extra help or resourcing can be put on the project? Great the project manager says – let’s just put 2 more coders on it. That way the resourcing is doubled and they should finish in half the time. But the real world isn’t so simple.
In fact a good project manager knows that the fastest way to slow down a project is to put more people on it. That means the 2 existing coders who can push the project forward, are instead spending their time briefing the new coders and trying to get them up to speed.
As more and more of our work is moving to knowledge work we need to move away from the metaphors and management practices that have been developed for the industrial age.
Knowledge Work is not the same as Physical Work
We need to stop viewing tangible outputs as the outcomes of the work. The code is not the most important thing. The thinking that produced the code is the most important thing. I once watched a front end coder rebuild an entire codebase just to build in 1 more feature. They threw away all of the existing code, but that’s not throwing away work. Instead they incorporated all the learning that was inherent in the previous codebase.
I hate the idea of “let’s not double work this”. That’s fucking stupid. Double work. Triple work. Quadruple work it. It’s the only way to get a really great product. Keep reworking it. Those earlier iterations aren’t wasted work. They generate new information which help you get to the new and better thing.
Organisations vs the Network
The way we think about organisations, especially companies is incredibly outdated. An organisation that has well defined boundaries, will soon become a thing of the past.
I think the metaphor that we need to get rid of is the clear distinction between someone who is “inside” the company and someone who is “outside” the company. People inside the company (employees) we pay them money, we give them all the secrets to how our products work, they act as representatives of the company.
Meanwhile the Internet has amorphous clouds of people who freely associate in changing networks and who contribute in different amounts. Take reddit for example. You have lurkers who just view content, people who like and comment and poasters, people who make posts and even above those are moderators who set the rules and enforce them for different communities. These different levels of involvement. Being a member of one community doesnt mean you cant be a member of another.
This transition to internet memberships of communities has already begun. You can see this in the r/overwork community where people discuss working multiple remote jobs simultaneously. I believe we will see more examples of working arrangements and possibilities that look closer to members of an internet community.