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Re:The Anthropology of Farming Simulator by jerf on Monday October 03, 2022 @02:08PM (#33071381)
I think one of the underappreciated issues with the 21st century economy is how many of us do the same thing, day in, day out, hyperoptimized to the point it's economically hard to justify switching tasks. (Or, perhaps more accurately, the 20th century economy, which is still largely with us.)

Do a little of this today, a little of that tomorrow, even a little of this and that within a day, and I feel like we could all tolerate a bit more mundanity (for lack of a better word) in our lives. Cut vegetables, drive a truck, pump sewage, work a factory line, it'd all be easier if we weren't doing the same thing all the time, 40+ hours a week.

Re:The Anthropology of Farming Simulator by m463 on Monday October 03, 2022 @02:24PM (#33071589)
> economically hard to justify switching tasks.

I vaguely remember some factories would not let workers change jobs once they got good at them, to their detriment (with carpal tunnel and other RSIs)

Re:The Anthropology of Farming Simulator by bluGill on Monday October 03, 2022 @06:59PM (#33074810)
That is less so now that factories are more automated. The factory I used to work at (not in, but same building) bragged that within 3 months everyone had done every station once. While a little productivity is lost because of experience, the boredom factor means less people quit and so overall they do better
Re:The Anthropology of Farming Simulator by 5d8767c68926 on Monday October 03, 2022 @08:56PM (#33075576)
I suspect having that cross training is also desirable that there will always be someone who can run machine X and that everyone becomes disposable.
Re:The Anthropology of Farming Simulator by bluGill on Monday October 03, 2022 @10:47PM (#33076233)
People are not disposable because they need to be trained. Sure we have books, but everytime you need to look up order in the book a minute is lost compared to someone who knows.

The wrenches don't allow doing steps in the wrong order or wrong torque, but that only gets so far