The I of the basic word I-Thou is different from that of the basic word I-It. Martin Buber, I and Thou (1923) In this week’s essay, I want to discuss the concept of management: not just the management of a company or other organisation, but the notion of control in general. We really, really likeContinue reading “On management and control”
Tag Archives: economics
On economic growth
Yes! There will be growth in the spring! Chance, the gardener in the film Being There (1979) It is a truth universally acknowledged that economic growth is a good thing. Well, not quite universally, but it’s the view you’ll find in the mainstream media and on the lips of pretty much every politician and pundit.Continue reading “On economic growth”
On resilience
When life hands you a lemon, make lemonade. Anon. After last week’s discussion of efficiency, it’s time to talk about its complement: resilience, literally the quality of springing back, like a rubber ball. It’s a broader and vaguer concept, with none of the satisfyingly crisp arithmetic we can bring to bear on efficiency, but IContinue reading “On resilience”
On efficiency
There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all. Peter Drucker Surely if there is one thing we can all agree on, it is that efficiency is a good thing. By efficiency I simply mean the ratio between what one puts in and what one gets out. FuelContinue reading “On efficiency”
On time, its uses and abuses
Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so. Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Only the Maya can claim to have been half as obsessed with time as our industrial civilisation is, and even they only went as far as devising a calendar so accurate it is said to be used by NASA. (ThisContinue reading “On time, its uses and abuses”
On water
Water belongs to us all. Nature did not make the sun one person’s property, nor air, nor water, cool and clear. Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book IV (tr. Michael Simpson) [For World Water Day, 22nd March 2021] Without water, there would be no life. It’s true that certain creatures – the rotifers spring to mind – canContinue reading “On water”
On quantification
Counting is the religion of this generation. It is its hope and its salvation. Gertrude Stein, Everybody’s Autobiography Industrial civilisation is in love with numbers. We have numbers on pretty much everything that can be quantified, and some things that arguably can’t. When someone wishes to assert incontrovertibly that X is the case, the magicContinue reading “On quantification”
On jobs
In an advanced industrial society it becomes almost impossible to seek, even to imagine, unemployment as a condition for autonomous, useful work. The infrastructure of society is arranged so that only the job gives access to the tools of production. Ivan Illich Once upon a time, nobody in the world had a job. Of course,Continue reading “On jobs”
On quantification
Counting is the religion of this generation. It is its hope and its salvation. Gertrude Stein, Everybody’s Autobiography Industrial civilisation is in love with numbers. We have numbers on pretty much everything that can be quantified, and some things that arguably can’t. When someone wishes to assert incontrovertibly that X is the case, the magicContinue reading “On quantification”
On value
Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing. Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray Following on from last week’s discussion of wealth, I want to investigate the related notion of value. As Oscar Wilde pointed out, we often tend to conflate value and price, but these things are distinct in importantContinue reading “On value”
