- In Jason Fried’s Tedtalk “Why work doesn’t happen at work” he mainly uses comparisons to help his get his point across that work doesn’t happen at work because of the various distractions present in the office. One of his comparisons was that when a person is trying to sleep they need to be distraction free so they are able to have a good nights rest. Fried says this is the same case for work as well, you must be distraction free to get your best work done because you won’t be able to get deep into your work (or your sleep) if you are constantly being interrupted. He gives examples of distractions that are present at work that aren’t at other places like work meetings or frequent check-ins from managers.I think that by making these comparisons Fried gets across his message that people do their best work on their own schedules when they are in control of their environment.
2)Margaret Heffernan’s use of real world examples allows her to effectively support her claim . Heffernan began by talking about an American Supermarket which switched over to functioning more digitally in hopes of making the store more efficient. She contradicts the idea that it would be more efficient by mentioning that the machines could not do what employees could, things such as predicting when a kid would knock something over, or when someone would drop things. Heffernan said that efficiency is only beneficial when you can predict exactly what is needed, but when the unexpected happens efficiency is not longer an asset. She reasons that this same reason is why “Companies are blindsided when plastic straws and bags and bottle water go from staples to rejects over night.”. We spend too much time relying on things that we do not consider having any alternatives in case these things unexpectedly don’t work out. By including all of these real world examples Heffernan is then able to support that every time we lean on technology to do the things that we can do ourselves the trade-off becomes increasingly steep. Margaret Heffernan is able to utilize this information to express that the idea of efficiency makes us necessarily on Technology which us from working at our full potential.
Oumou,
I thought Heffernan’s TED Talk was very effective as well. Her use of real-world examples perfectly proved her point that we can’t rely on technology for everything. What was really interesting to me was when she said efficiency is only beneficial when one can perfectly predict what is needed out of a situation. It made me realize that we can never perfectly predict anything, therefore, efficiency can’t even be predicted. So, by taking away the need for efficiency as a whole, one is able to see a situation for how it really is, and solutions may be easier than they seem. By eliminating efficiency, there is now an abundance of solutions and tools at our fingertips that may have been overlooked before. Just like you, this TED Talk had me really thinking. I want to continue thinking this way in the future, especially at times when it seems like efficiency should be the answer.
I definitely agree with what you’ve mentioned, I also think that efficiency in a way hinders us from doing things to our full potential or learning how to do things on our own. For instance I know that when I’m doing a task like math homework I want to get it done efficiently so I don’t waste time, but most of the time when I do I feel like I don’t actually learn how to solve the problem because I wasn’t allocating the right amount of time to understand it, if that makes sense. I think we should definitely value experiences over efficiency because like Margaret mentioned, when we don’t the trade off is very high. Thank you for your feeback!
Hi Oumou,
I think your last line in response 1 summarizes the point of the video perfectly. I think how Fried constructed his arguments through providing examples and comparisons helps us viewers connect to him. I also thought his occasional humor and sarcasm in the phrasing of some of his statements was engaging because it made it feel like a conversation/explanation rather than a boring lecture. What did you think about the solutions he provided at the end? Do you think they helped strengthen his point?
Oumou,
I found Jason Fried’s TEDTalk interesting as well. His humor in delivering the message was perfect as he related the stories of a workday that many of us could relate to. I find his comments to be quite timely since many organizations (Syracuse University one of them) are deciding if and when employees need to return to the office full time. The sudden closure of many workplaces due to COVID ushered in a new era of remote work for many people. I believe it may indicate a significant shift in the way many organizations operate in the future. Most workers who say their job responsibilities can mainly be done from home say that, before the pandemic, teleworking was not an option or a consideration. One of my friends who works in hospital management commented to me last summer about how they were rethinking office usage. Some employees could work from home and that space could be utilized for patient care.
Jason certainly convinced me that location of work should be considered from a different lens. I’d like to see him do a revised talk post-pandemic.
Particularly when we’re making an argument that we expect our audience might be resistant to or challenged by, it’s really important to ensure that our evidence is comprehensible and relatable. Heffernan’s choice of a grocery store for her example matters–it’s something readily understood by a range of different listeners–so it provides an opportunity to illustrate her argument about technology in a way the audience can follow along with. That’s especially important because she wants to take her audience somewhere new in terms of attitudes toward technology.