Carragee Consulting

Work Satisfaction vs $$$

If a company wants to pay you money to do something you think is dumb (not evil), should you do it?

We all have finite lives and most of us want to contribute to something meaningful with our work.

It’s extraordinary unlikely you’ll contribute something truly novel like thinking up Binary or Boolean logic (although some young individuals did just that).

With so many incredible inventions and the level of understanding in the world already has in math, engineering, psychology, etc it’s a lot more likely that you can find novel applications of existing products and ideas and if you can be successful in commercializing and distributing those incremental ideas you can live comfortably or even get rich.

The gif I attached to this post is a scene from the Simpsons when Homer “automated” part of his job at a nuclear power plant by having the drinking bird select “Yes” on his keyboard.

This is akin to Robotic Process Automation when computers manage Excel spreadsheets and file through front end interfaces designed for human users.

It’s entirely incremental improvement gained from computers flawless, repeatable execution of tasks, not better strategy, positioning or growth tactics.

There are lots of jobs you can do to ekk out efficiency in otherwise ridiculous processes and make a good living and even quantify a significant net value you contribute to an organization.

Getting people to make fundamental, strategic and structural changes to adopt disruptive innovation is entirely different and far less common.

Even when much better ideas and methods exist, unlike in the Field of Dreams, it’s tough to get them adopted and into broad use — case in point:

“During the Age of Sail, it was assumed that 50 percent of the sailors would die of scurvy on a major trip. A Scottish surgeon in the Royal Navy, James Lind, is generally credited with proving that scurvy can be successfully treated with citrus fruit in 1753. Nevertheless, it was not until 1795 that health reformers such as Gilbert Blane persuaded the Royal Navy to routinely give lemon juice to its sailors.” – Wikipedia

On some level it’s satisfying to deliver even incremental improvement rather than try to roll out a grand alternative for maximum effect and be stone-walled.

I imagine a lot of technically savvy people feel like James Lind — trying to save 50% of their companies with proven solutions but facing years of resistance to change.

https://lnkd.in/gvT_6GR7