Comments on: The Huckster of Efficiency http://savageminds.org/2009/10/11/the-huckster-of-efficiency/ Notes and Queries in Anthropology — A Group Blog Sat, 26 May 2012 03:33:33 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: TB http://savageminds.org/2009/10/11/the-huckster-of-efficiency/comment-page-1/#comment-619548 TB Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:18:56 +0000 http://savageminds.org/?p=2815#comment-619548 "Update: Added missing link." I thought that was Tim White... “Update: Added missing link.”
I thought that was Tim White…

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]]> By: Carl http://savageminds.org/2009/10/11/the-huckster-of-efficiency/comment-page-1/#comment-619547 Carl Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:35:16 +0000 http://savageminds.org/?p=2815#comment-619547 Good point, MTB, but I'd say that was later and consequent to the original disposition as it played out in context. Plus there were lots of other Italian Communists locked up by the Fascists who weren't impressed by taylorism and didn't write thousands of pages of notes. Good point, MTB, but I’d say that was later and consequent to the original disposition as it played out in context. Plus there were lots of other Italian Communists locked up by the Fascists who weren’t impressed by taylorism and didn’t write thousands of pages of notes.

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]]> By: MTBradley http://savageminds.org/2009/10/11/the-huckster-of-efficiency/comment-page-1/#comment-619457 MTBradley Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:44:06 +0000 http://savageminds.org/?p=2815#comment-619457 bq. Gramsci had a discipline fetish. […] No doubt the product of an anxious habitus triple-whammy—petty bourgeois, provincial, hunchbacked. May I suggest that it was a quintuple-whammy? Life or death political engagement and survival as a political prisoner don’t require self-reflection, but they do require discipline. bq. Gramsci had a discipline fetish. […] No doubt the product of an anxious habitus triple-whammy—petty bourgeois, provincial, hunchbacked.

May I suggest that it was a quintuple-whammy? Life or death political engagement and survival as a political prisoner don’t require self-reflection, but they do require discipline.

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]]> By: Carl http://savageminds.org/2009/10/11/the-huckster-of-efficiency/comment-page-1/#comment-619418 Carl Tue, 13 Oct 2009 21:29:32 +0000 http://savageminds.org/?p=2815#comment-619418 Gramsci had a discipline fetish. Very tightly wound, and not at all self-reflective about it (there's a whole subgroup of his disciples who revere this about him; I do my best to politely ignore it like spinach in the teeth). No doubt the product of an anxious habitus triple-whammy -- petty bourgeois, provincial, hunchbacked. Anyway, ambivalence, check! Gramsci had a discipline fetish. Very tightly wound, and not at all self-reflective about it (there’s a whole subgroup of his disciples who revere this about him; I do my best to politely ignore it like spinach in the teeth). No doubt the product of an anxious habitus triple-whammy — petty bourgeois, provincial, hunchbacked.

Anyway, ambivalence, check!

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]]> By: Kerim http://savageminds.org/2009/10/11/the-huckster-of-efficiency/comment-page-1/#comment-619410 Kerim Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:04:54 +0000 http://savageminds.org/?p=2815#comment-619410 No mistake. There is an unresolved contradiction and ambivalence which I have towards these technologies of the self. No mistake. There is an unresolved contradiction and ambivalence which I have towards these technologies of the self.

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]]> By: Jason C. Romero http://savageminds.org/2009/10/11/the-huckster-of-efficiency/comment-page-1/#comment-619408 Jason C. Romero Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:02:44 +0000 http://savageminds.org/?p=2815#comment-619408 In this post you say, "I know I personally would like to spend less time “getting things done” and more time on the couch reading…" But in your previous post on GTD you said, "I actually find it easier to take time off to play with the dog when I know exactly what has to be done today, and what can be put off till later." These seem to contradict each other. Did something change? Or am I pairing these statements incorrectly? In this post you say, “I know I personally would like to spend less time “getting things done” and more time on the couch reading…”

But in your previous post on GTD you said, “I actually find it easier to take time off to play with the dog when I know exactly what has to be done today, and what can be put off till later.”

These seem to contradict each other. Did something change? Or am I pairing these statements incorrectly?

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]]> By: Kerim http://savageminds.org/2009/10/11/the-huckster-of-efficiency/comment-page-1/#comment-619377 Kerim Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:55:06 +0000 http://savageminds.org/?p=2815#comment-619377 Yes, David Harvey has a similar line about academic Taylorism in his online lectures on Marx. Yes, David Harvey has a similar line about academic Taylorism in his online lectures on Marx.

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]]> By: Fred http://savageminds.org/2009/10/11/the-huckster-of-efficiency/comment-page-1/#comment-619330 Fred Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:48:28 +0000 http://savageminds.org/?p=2815#comment-619330 Getting things done, when you are labouring and someone is telling you what needs to get done, is a lot easier than when you are hemming and hawing over a research paper. I've always held the opinion that getting things done can be explained mostly in terms of entropy--most of what we do is not effective, but merely supportive of order. In other words, most of our time spent is cleaning up the world about us, ordering our books on the shelf, spending time folding the laundry, going shopping for groceries, and that sort of thing. Even at the office, most of what is done is keeping things in order. Order means someone else can then retrieve what we've ordered at an earlier time. As for Frederick Taylor's efficiency moving pig-iron, I can only say what a useless task. Any capitalist in his right mind would qucikly realize the greater efficiencies acvhieved by automating the task, say by putting in a conveyor belt to carry the pig iron. That is more or less the basis for Fordism, leaving aside mass production and consumption. From my point of view, Taylorism almost seems quaint, similar in tone and style to what one reads in mass marketed time management books--the "sell" is the whole of your life can be more efficient (more happy) if you just manage the clutter and get more accomplished at the appropriate time. I hate to admit it, but Taylorism still lives, in the university. How many professors sadly shake their heads when a student complains about needing more time to finish an essay, and then tells said student they have to manage their time more efficiently. Well, I have spent enough time on this, I have other things to get done, like efficiently spending some time with Sherlock Holmes (I read along to the Naxos unabridged CDs, thereby accomplishing my task in an enjoyable but constrained period of time before moving on to other things that need doing--ah, entropy, my laundry needs folding). Getting things done, when you are labouring and someone is telling you what needs to get done, is a lot easier than when you are hemming and hawing over a research paper. I’ve always held the opinion that getting things done can be explained mostly in terms of entropy–most of what we do is not effective, but merely supportive of order. In other words, most of our time spent is cleaning up the world about us, ordering our books on the shelf, spending time folding the laundry, going shopping for groceries, and that sort of thing. Even at the office, most of what is done is keeping things in order. Order means someone else can then retrieve what we’ve ordered at an earlier time. As for Frederick Taylor’s efficiency moving pig-iron, I can only say what a useless task. Any capitalist in his right mind would qucikly realize the greater efficiencies acvhieved by automating the task, say by putting in a conveyor belt to carry the pig iron. That is more or less the basis for Fordism, leaving aside mass production and consumption. From my point of view, Taylorism almost seems quaint, similar in tone and style to what one reads in mass marketed time management books–the “sell” is the whole of your life can be more efficient (more happy) if you just manage the clutter and get more accomplished at the appropriate time. I hate to admit it, but Taylorism still lives, in the university. How many professors sadly shake their heads when a student complains about needing more time to finish an essay, and then tells said student they have to manage their time more efficiently. Well, I have spent enough time on this, I have other things to get done, like efficiently spending some time with Sherlock Holmes (I read along to the Naxos unabridged CDs, thereby accomplishing my task in an enjoyable but constrained period of time before moving on to other things that need doing–ah, entropy, my laundry needs folding).

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