The Jobs of the Knowledge Economy Are Not What You Think

The knowledge economy is about producing ideas, not goods, the story goes. And manufacturing, the kind of work that involves producing physical goods, does not involve knowledge. 

This is a false dichotomy, says Harvard Business School professor Willy Shih. We have a misconception that making things “isn’t knowledge work and it isn’t about ideas,” Shih tells Big Think. In the video below, Shih explains how this is an assumption that rings especially false today. 

“It used to be that manufacturing was a path to the middle class for those who didn’t have as much education,” Shih says.  “I think those days are gone.” The bar is simply higher for everyone. 

Watch here:

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