Spaces

Creative Strategy #3: Uncruel The System

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

Spaces

It starts with a boss

but let’s say it starts with a Doctor.

A doctor with awful handwriting.

After writing 10 thousand prescriptions

his focus wavers, his dedication falters

& the first victim is penmanship.

Then science intervenes & gives him a microphone.

& a tape recorder & eventually a phone

that records his patient notes on a hard drive.

This monologue saves him loads of trouble

& spares anyone the task of reading his godawful handwriting.

An excellent typist is hired to translate

his notes into readable form.

These people are medical transcriptionists.

They are heroes

but let’s say they are workers.

They save everyone time & money & trouble.

& they are paid well. Or they were.

Until science intervened again & created an AI

that could take dictation & transcribe it.

Almost perfectly.

This changed the job description of medical transcriptionists.

They became editors. & their pay was cut in half

because their typing was cut in half.

Have I mentioned that they are paid by the line?

Now they merely have to correct the AI:

ix any typos,

look up any abbrvs,

copy any of the specialists the dictator refers to,

etc.

In short: edit the document into a readable form.

In many ways, it’s a lot more trouble than transcription.

But for this “editing” they are paid a lot less.

For, logically, their responsibilities have been abbreviated.

In fact, it should be noted, they are no longer paid for spaces.

It’s true that spaces are an essential part of any document.

(Scan this one & imagine it without any spaces.

Howlegiblewoulditbe?Howclear?Howuseful?)

But  spaces, you see, are invisible.

& nobody can see the labor involved.

(The 10 thousand thumb taps on the spacebar.)

Out of sight. Out of mind. Out of pocket.

Now that didn’t just happen.

Somebody clever decided to take that away.

& that night over dinner

when his wife asked him what he did today,

let’s say he said, I saved my company millions of dollars

by cheating workers out of their pay!

How did you do that, honey?

He swallowed his rice & said

I showed my bosses how to pretend

labor doesn’t exist.

--Patrick O’Leary