Economics Commentary: The Philosophy of Employment

[B.H.]

Hi everyone,

Here are some quick thoughts on being employed that I just thought of.

The key idea is: There are three things that can help you get better at a job or skill, just like getting better at playing chess (I've gotten much better at playing chess myself). The three things are: Available Advice (purchased or available for free), Analysis, Practice.

The idea is, if someone publishes valuable advice on the internet for free, then leaving aside supply and demand for a moment and considering "the number of available job slots in the economic system," we will have a situation where the publisher will have changed "the definition of what entry-level means." I.e., if you publish great info on how to get ahead at copy editing, whether that's valuable principles, great job leads, or best practices/processes for competing, then if that information is "generally available to (almost) the whole economy," then if it is indeed valuable/essential for copy editors, such workers will absorb all of it, and everyone interested in the field will too. It will become part of the "basic job description," and all entry level workers will likely be expected to know it or at least something equivalently valuable.

The thing is, that is a "kind move" when the skills are valuable to other endeavors, including personal life fun, health, and other jobs that make more money. It is a more "vicious move" when it simply causes entry-level employees to have to learn more information and "study" (and maybe practice) more to have a one-job-only skill to get hired in the first place.

That is why my cashiering advice was nice and my CS advice and information is mostly mean. I don't like being locked out of even entry-level jobs in my own field that I was educated in--math/CS.

-Philip White (philip...@yahoo.com)