A sweeping and authoritative look at the future of the tech-work connection.
A comprehensive guide focuses on adapting to machines of all kinds in the workplace.
Many readers encountering Uechi’s book will likely be horrified by its United States cover, which shows a group of humans working on some problem at a table—with glasses of water, cups of coffee, and an open laptop—right alongside a human-shaped robot with an expressionless face and a transparent skull. It’s a benign but stark picture of a future many people find terrifying, resembling a scene from the film I, Robot, starring Will Smith. But the author is well aware of this, and his wide-ranging work approaches the whole subject calmly and factually. After a brief survey of the growth of mechanization and automation, the manual explores the impact of technology on a handful of key industries, looking at the probable trends in those areas over the next 25 years. The world, he contends, is undergoing a civilization-level transformation that will move it into a new era, and in these pages, Uechi draws on his own experience as an IT manager to take readers through the likely workplace/tech developments up to 2046. His aim is to inform his readers and soothe their anxieties about things like the growing prevalence and sophistication of artificial intelligence. He goes into great detail under the headings of agriculture, manufacturing, construction, transportation, food services, health care, administration, and education—virtually every employment field that will affect most readers.
Everything from systems to sensors and robots comes in for a careful, painstaking examination in Uechi’s chapters, and he does a skillful, low-key job of breaking down a vast amount of research and technical information for general readers. His decision to spread his inquiry over such a large range of industries is a wise one, giving the broadest possible spectrum of readers some useful details on his predictions and extrapolations. This kind of decision goes hand in hand with his consistent and very convincing note of reassurance. He knows that many of his readers are worried that increasingly complex automation will threaten their jobs. While he's informing those readers of the facts and prospective trends, he’s also mindful of their fears. His steady, methodical approach is helpful—every chapter is segmented and buttressed with extensive notes in case readers involved in that section’s field want to research the topics further. The end result is a tranquil, remarkable, and indispensable guide even if some of the author’s extrapolations may be debatable. Occasionally, he is so diligent that he ends up sounding like an android himself. “Without a job, a person cannot earn income,” he computes at one point. “Without income, a person cannot buy and consume food and other products necessary to live.” But a certain amount of robotic style is probably inevitable in such a deep-dive approach to the complexities of industrial technology in all its endless facets, everything from pulse monitors to heavy grain loaders. The extent of Uechi’s research is genuinely impressive. Readers nervous about the future of their jobs and wanting to know the most likely ways that technology will change those positions will certainly want to read this book.
A sweeping and authoritative look at the future of the tech-work connection.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-03-203837-7
Page Count: 202
Publisher: Productivity Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 6, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
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