Amazon is moving into the publishing arena. Not just e-publishing books in Kindle format, but the full-blown publishing gig.
I’ve only started to understand what they are doing, but it will be one more radical change in the publishing world.
Category: Change around us
radical changes taking place around us now
Reshoring
Mark Perry points out an article about a company called Taphandlers that moved their production to the US from China because the cost advantage had disappeared.
The post: “Back in the USA” –Seattle Manufacture Provides A Lesson on Reshoring. Expect More of It. Lots More.
Reasons summarized: Continue reading “Reshoring”
Downside to the radical change around us
Previously discussed Seth Godin’s idea that we are in two overlapping recessions. One is cyclical and will end. The other is systemic and permanent.
I don’t know what we are going to call the new work world. Doesn’t seem to be a description in use that has caught on.
Whatever it’s called, the transition to this new set of rules is going to be horribly painful.
Two overlapping recessions? One cyclical and temporary. The other systemic and permanent.
Seth Godin has generated discussion from his post, The forever recession (and the coming revolution).
He suggests that we are currently in two recessions:
The first is the cyclical one, the one that inevitably comes and then inevitably goes. There’s plenty of evidence that intervention can shorten it, and also indications that overdoing a response to it is a waste or even harmful.
The other recession, though, the one with the loss of “good factory jobs” and systemic unemployment–I fear that this recession is here forever.
The first one will end. Continue reading “Two overlapping recessions? One cyclical and temporary. The other systemic and permanent.”
What is reshoring?
Reshoring = Unwinding offshoring.
Or, bringing jobs back to the US that previously had been moved overseas.
There isn’t much reshoring taking place, yet it is happening. It goes against conventional wisdom of what is happening in the U.S. economy so it is something we ought to ponder.
I’ve been reading for some time that China has lost its place as the low-cost producer. Manufacturers seeking the lowest cost are going to Vietnam and other places in Asia.
This has changed the economics of offshoring.
Having fun or stuck on stupid?
The rules have changed. Tons of rules that applied to work, careers, running a business, and marketing have changed.
The whole point of this blog is to grapple with that idea.
Seth Godin has a great comment in Tribes that is on point. Continue reading “Having fun or stuck on stupid?”
Radical changes in the work world are painful. Don’t laugh too hard at people who don’t understand what is happening.
Transitions from changes in the new world of work are going to hurt. A lot.
Some people are in serious denial. That does not prevent the changes or reduce the pain.
Simple illustration of how work is changing
Previous post gave a big-word description of how work is changing. Megan McArdle extends Mr Kling’s concepts in her post, The New New New Economy.
She paints two alternative paths as a choice between risk and being an assembly line drone when she says: Continue reading “Simple illustration of how work is changing”
A big-word description of how work is changing
The nature of work is changing. Radically.
Here are two fancy ways of describing the change that is taking place all around us along with my simple explanation.
Arnold Kling says this in his post, The Job-Seeker’s Paradox: Continue reading “A big-word description of how work is changing”
Locked in time or Continuous learning? Your choice.
If we are going to adapt to this rapidly changing world, we are going to have to be constantly learning. Always picking up new ideas. Continuously gaining new skills and knowledge.
The alternative is to get locked in time.
Continue reading “Locked in time or Continuous learning? Your choice.”
Space shuttle as illustration of opportunity cost and cul-de-sac
How to combine the idea of opportunity cost, cul-de-sac, and government overruns in one post?
Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal editorial (behind paywall) says:
When it was first conceived, the shuttle was supposed to be a kind of space truck, going into orbit 50 to 75 times a year and carrying large payloads at a cost of $54 million a launch in 2011 dollars. It didn’t work out that way. The shuttle went aloft an average of five times a year. The cost-per-launch averaged some $1.5 billion. Its heaviest payloads barely exceeded what an unmanned Delta IV rocket can carry.
Let’s do some math, shall we?
Continue reading “Space shuttle as illustration of opportunity cost and cul-de-sac”
Why change is hard
For another perspective on why change is hard, let’s hear from noted futurist Douglas Adams (yes, THAT Douglas Adams) (hat tip Signal vs. Noise)
“I’ve come up with a set of rules that describe our reactions to technologies:
Peering forward – technology is destroying and creating jobs
“Technology is eating jobs”
So says Andy Kessler in his Wall Street Journal article, Is Your Job an Endangered Species?
He says there are two kinds of workers today:
Continue reading “Peering forward – technology is destroying and creating jobs”
We live in an age of overwhelming complexity. Will you choose to adapt?
We live in an age of overwhelming complexity. Things will not get simpler, the change will only accelerate.
Do I really need to explain that the complexity of everything is overwhelming? Consider merely the new 990, increasing regulation of every area of running a ministry or business, and the exponential growth of fantastic technology tools.
We need to decide whether we are going to adapt or not. It is actually possible to opt out of the growing complexity. Consider the cost though. If our ministries do not adapt they may die. More likely they will shrivel, then shrink into irrelevance. At a personal level, we need to adapt or get left behind.
I choose to adapt. I may be struggling and bumbling in my efforts, but I will move forward. How about you?