Automation quotes
From Motley Bytes Wiki
Contents
- 1 Tom_DeMarco and Tim_Lister
- 2 Albert_Einstein
- 3 Malcolm_McIlroy
- 4 John_Tukey
- 5 William_E_Vaughan
- 6 Shoshana_Zuboff
- 6.1 Information Produced
- 6.2 Informate
- 6.3 Skill and Effort
- 6.4 Frederick Taylor
- 6.5 Share the Fruits
- 6.6 Divergence of Interests
- 6.7 Deskilling
- 6.8 Education
- 6.9 Information and Automating
- 6.10 Automation and Labor
- 6.11 Automation Fantasy
- 6.12 Computer Dependency
- 6.13 Panopticon Recording
- 6.14 Automated Evaluation
- 6.15 Fundamental Scientific Management Reevaluation
Tom_DeMarco and Tim_Lister
Seldom Manage That Way
"Most managers are willing to concede the idea that they’ve got more people worries than technical worries. But they seldom manage that way. They manage as though technology were their principal concern. They spend their time puzzling over the most convoluted and most interesting puzzles that their people will have to solve, almost as though they themselves were going to do the work rather than manage it. They are forever on the lookout for a technical whizbang that promises to automate away part of the work. The most strongly people-oriented aspects of their responsibility are often given the lowest priority."
- Source: Book:: Entitled: Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams. Edition: 3rd. Written by: Tom DeMarco; Tim Lister. Date published: 1987; 1999; 2013. Publisher: Addison-Wesley. Country: USA; GBR; CAN; DEU; FRA; ESP; ZAF; AUS; JPN; SGP; MEX. Language: en. ISBN: ISBN-13: 978-0-321-93411-6 (alk paper); 0-321-93411-3 (alk paper). Chapter: 1 (Somewhere Today, a Project Is Failing).
- Keywords: Manager_quotes People_quotes Worry_quotes Technology_quotes Seldom_quotes Principal_quotes Concern_quotes Time_quotes Puzzle_quotes Convoluted_quotes Solution_quotes Delegation_quotes Trust_quotes Work_quotes Management_quotes Whizbang_quotes Automation_quotes Development_quotes Project_quotes Responsibility_quotes Priority_quotes Concede_quotes Idea_quotes Interesting_quotes Lookout_quotes Promise_quotes Aspect_quotes
Albert_Einstein
Magnificent Applied Science
“Why does this magnificent applied science which saves work and makes life easier bring us so little happiness? The simple answer runs: Because we have not yet learned to make sensible use of it. In war it serves that we may poison and mutilate each other. In peace it has made our lives hurried and uncertain. Instead of freeing us in great measure from spiritually exhausting labor, it has made men into slaves of machinery, who for the most part complete their monotonous long day's work with disgust and must continually tremble for their poor rations... It is not enough that you should understand about applied science in order that your work may increase man's blessings. Concern for the man himself and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavours; concern for the great unsolved problems of the organization of labor and the distribution of goods in order that the creations of our mind shall be a blessing and not a curse to mankind. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations.”
- Source: Albert Einstein [Speaker];
- 1950-02-16 [Speech/Date]; California Institute of Technology [Location]; CalTech students [Audience];
- 1950-02-17 [Reporting/Article/Date]; “Einstein Sees Lack in Applying Science” [Title]; Anonymous [Article/Author]; New York Times [Reporting/Newspaper]; 8 [Page];
- Keywords: Science_quotes Happiness_quotes War_quotes Wisdom_quotes Peace_quotes Work_quotes Slavery_quotes Automation_quotes Ethics_quotes Values_quotes Empathy_quotes Labor_quotes Distribution_quotes Mind_quotes Humanity_quotes Mathematics_quotes Engineering_quotes Magnificent_quotes Applied_quotes Save_quotes Life_quotes Simple_quotes Answer_quotes Learn_quotes Sensible_quotes Poison_quotes Mutilate_quotes Hurry_quotes Uncertain_quotes Freedom_quotes Spiritual_quotes Exhausting_quotes Men_quotes Machinery_quotes Monotonous_quotes Long_quotes Day_quotes Disgust_quotes Continual_quotes Tremble_quotes Poor_quotes Rations_quotes Understand_quotes Increase_quotes Blessing_quotes Man_quotes Fate_quotes Chief_quotes Interest_quotes Technical_quotes Endeavour_quotes Concern_quotes Problem_quotes Unsolved_quotes Organization_quotes Creation_quotes Curse_quotes Mankind_quotes Forget_quotes Diagram_quotes Equation_quotes
Malcolm_McIlroy
Automate Programmers
“It would be immoral for programmers to automate everybody but themselves.”
- Source: Malcolm Douglas McIlroy in a report entitled Software Engineering: Report of a Conference Sponsored by the NATO Science Committee. Chaired by Friedrich Ludwig Bauer. Edited by P. Naur; B. Randell. Conference held 1968-10-07 through 1968-10-11 in Garmisch, Germany. OCLC: 35337842. See http://homepages.cs.ncl.ac.uk/brian.randell/NATO/index.html ; http://homepages.cs.ncl.ac.uk/brian.randell/NATO/nato1968.PDF ; https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1102020 ; https://books.google.com/books/about/Software_engineering.html?id=Uc9QAAAAYAAJ . Page 56.
- Keywords: Immoral_quotes Morality_quotes Programmer_quotes Automation_quotes Self_quotes Ethics_quotes
John_Tukey
First Use of the Term Software
“Today the ‘software’ comprising the carefully planned interpretive routines, compilers, and other aspects of automative programming are at least as important to the modern electronic calculator as its ‘hardware’ of tubes, transistors, wires, tapes and the like.”
- Source: John Wilder Tukey. A paper entitled "The Teaching of Concrete Mathematics". The American Mathematical Monthly, volume 65, 1958. DOI: 10.2307/2310294.
- Keywords: Today_quotes Software_quotes Comprise_quotes Careful_quotes Plan_quotes Interpretation_quotes Routine_quotes Compilation_quotes Aspect_quotes Automation_quotes Programming_quotes Importance_quotes Modern_quotes Calculator_quotes Hardware_quotes Tube_quotes Transistor_quotes Wire_quotes Tape_quotes
William_E_Vaughan
Really Foul Things Up
“To err is human, to really foul things up requires a computer.”
- Source: A free standing quote. Written by William E. Vaughan under the pseudonym Senator Soaper. Published 1969-04-02. Published in the Free Lance Star (a Fredericksburg, Virginia newspaper), page 1, column 2. Online at https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=9fRKRCJz75UC&dat=19690402&printsec=frontpage&hl=en.
- See Also:
- Keywords: Error_quotes Humanity_quotes Foul_quotes Computer_quotes Mistake_quotes Automation_quotes Require_quotes
Shoshana_Zuboff
Information Produced
“Thus, information technology, even when it is applied to automatically reproduce a finite activity, is not mute. It not only imposes information (in the form of programmed instructions) but also produces information.”
- Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 9. ISBN:0465032125.
Informate
“The word that I have coined to describe this unique capacity is informate. Activities, events, and objects are translated into and made visible by information when a technology informates as well as automates.”
- Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 10. ISBN:0465032125.
Skill and Effort
“These twin functions of the body -- as a source of skill and as a source of efforts -- complicated the way in which employers confronted the problems of labor discipline and the speed with which they invested in labor-saving technology, just as they complicated workers' responses to that technology.”
- Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 36. ISBN:0465032125.
- Keywords: Body_quotes Skill_quotes Effort_quotes Employment_quotes Labor_quotes Technology_quotes Worker_quotes Work_quotes Automation_quotes Twin_quotes Function_quotes Source_quotes Complicated_quotes Way_quotes Problem_quotes Confront_quotes Discipline_quotes Speed_quotes Invest_quotes Response_quotes
Frederick Taylor
“The man who emerged as the chief symbol of the rational approach to management was Frederick Taylor. Though much has been written on Taylor and the philosophy and methods of scientific management, it is worth highlighting a few central themes for three reasons. First, Taylorism explicitly treats the worker's body in its two dimensions -- as a source of effort and as a source of skill. Second, workers' responses to Taylorism reveal the ambivalence that this dual role of the body can create, as it did among the bleach plant operators or the nineteenth-century glassmakers. Third, the logic that motivated the early purveyors and adapters of scientific management has continued to dominate the course of automation in the twentieth-century workplace. As will be argued later, it is a logic that must undergo a fundamental reevaluation as information technology is widely adapted to productive activity.”
- Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 41. ISBN:0465032125.
- Keywords: Scientific_Management_quotes Effort_quotes Skill_quotes Ambivalence_quotes Automation_quotes Information_Technology_quotes Information_quotes Technology_quotes Workplace_quotes Taylor(topic)_quotes Man_quotes Emerge_quotes Chief_quotes Symbol_quotes Rational_quotes Approach_quotes Management_quotes Philosophy_quotes Method_quotes Central_quotes Theme_quotes Reason_quotes Treat_quotes Worker_quotes Body_quotes Dimension_quotes Source_quotes Response_quotes Reveal_quotes Dual_quotes Role_quotes Create_quotes Bleach_quotes Plant_quotes Operator_quotes Glassmaker_quotes Logic_quotes Motivation_quotes Purveyor_quotes Adapter_quotes Dominate_quotes Course_quotes Fundamental_quotes Reevaluation_quotes Productive_quotes Activity_quotes
“Taylor believed it was necessary to share the fruits of such productivity increases and saw the differential piece-rate system, a central tenet of scientific management, as a method of uniting workers and managers in a bond of common interest. But incentive wages are devilishly hard to administer, and all too often, managers attracted to differential wage schemes succumbed to shortcuts that promised fast gains. Managers would frequently change piece rates as workers learned to meet the standards. This led to the complaints of overwork with which unions relentlessly dogged proponents of Taylorism. Scientific management frequently meant not only that individual effort was simplified (either because of labor-saving equipment or new organizational methods that fragmented tasks into their simplest components), but also that the pace of effort was intensified, thus raising the level of fatigue and stress.”
- Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 45. ISBN:0465032125.
- Keywords: Fruit_quotes Sharing_quotes Productivity_quotes Scientific_Management_quotes Worker_quotes Management_quotes Incentive_quotes Employment_quotes Compensation_quotes Cooperation_quotes Fast_quotes Short_Sighted_quotes Change_quotes Exploitation_quotes Union_quotes Taylorism_quotes Automation_quotes Simplification_quotes Organization_quotes Fatigue_quotes Stress_quotes Taylor(topic)_quotes Increase_quotes Unite_quotes Bond_quotes Common_quotes Interest_quotes Wage_quotes Devilish_quotes Hard_quotes Administer_quotes Attract_quotes Differential_quotes Scheme_quotes Succum_quotes Shortcut_quotes Promise_quotes Gain_quotes Frequent_quotes Piece_quotes Rate_quotes Learn_quotes Standard_quotes Complaint_quotes Overwork_quotes Relentless_quotes Dogged_quotes Proponent_quotes Individual_quotes Effort_quotes Equipment_quotes Method_quotes Fragment_quotes Task_quotes Component_quotes Pace_quotes Intense_quotes Raise_quotes Level_quotes
Divergence of Interests
“Taylor had believed that the transcendent logic of science, together with easier work and better, more fairly determined wages, could integrate the worker into the organization and inspire a zest for production. Instead, the forms of work organization that emerged with scientific management tended to amplify the divergence of interests between management and workers.”
- Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 45. ISBN:0465032125.
- Keywords: Logic_quotes Science_quotes Taylorism_quotes Work_quotes Automation_quotes Fairness_quotes Compensation_quotes Worker_quotes Organization_quotes Zest_quotes Production_quotes Amplification_quotes Divergence_quotes Interest_quotes Management_quotes Taylor(topic)_quotes Believe_quotes Transcendent_quotes Wage_quotes Integrate_quotes Inspire_quotes Form_quotes Emerge_quotes
Deskilling
“While it is true that computer-based automation continues to displace the human body and its know-how (a process that has come to be known as deskilling), the informating power of the technology simultaneously creates pressure for a profound reskilling.”
- Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 57. ISBN:0465032125.
Education
“The cognitive demands of intellective skill suggest that computerization should be accompanied by a serious educational effort, if the information capacity of the technology is to be exploited.”
- Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 217. ISBN:0465032125.
Information and Automating
“To the extent that technology is used only to intensify the automaticity of work, it can reduce skill levels and dampen the urge toward more participatory and decentralized forms of management... However, this approach cannot exploit the unique power of an informating technology. In contrast, an approach to technology deployment that emphasizes its informating capacity uses technology to do far more than routinize, fragment, or eliminate jobs. It uses the new technology to increase the intellectual content of work at virtually every organizational level, as the ability to decipher explicit information and make decisions informed by that understanding becomes broadly distributed among organizational members.”
- Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 243. ISBN:0465032125.
- Keywords: Informating_quotes Information_quotes Technology_quotes Automation_quotes Skill_quotes Deskilling_quotes Participation_quotes Decentralization_quotes Management_quotes Work_quotes Intensity_quotes Exploitation_quotes Elimination_quotes Employment_quotes Deployment_quotes Job_quotes Intellectualism_quotes Organization_quotes Decision_quotes Explicit_quotes Understanding_quotes Comprehension_quotes Distributed_quotes Empowerment_quotes Extent_quotes Intensify_quotes Reduce_quotes Dampen_quotes Urge_quotes Form_quotes Approach_quotes Exploit_quotes Unique_quotes Power_quotes Informate_quotes Emphasizes_quotes Capacity_quotes Far_quotes Routine_quotes Fragment_quotes Eliminate_quotes Increase_quotes Level_quotes Ability_quotes Decipher_quotes Broad_quotes Member_quotes
Automation and Labor
“Perhaps the most compelling reality that drives managers to a narrowly conceived emphasis on automation is the web of economic logic in which they must operate. Frequently, new expenditures for technology can be justified only as a capital substitution for labor. It is often assumed that whatever was provided by the human contributor can be transferred to the automatic functioning of the machine system.”
- Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 248. ISBN:0465032125.
- Keywords: Management_quotes Automation_quotes Labor_quotes Economics_quotes Logic_quotes Technology_quotes Expenditure_quotes Cost_quotes Justification_quotes Capital_quotes Skill_quotes Knowledge_quotes Compelling_quotes Reality_quotes Drive_quotes Narrow_quotes Conceive_quotes Emphasis_quotes Web_quotes Operate_quotes Frequent_quotes Substitution_quotes Human_quotes Contributor_quotes Transfer_quotes Function_quotes Machine_quotes System_quotes
Automation Fantasy
“Some managers experience a sense of relief at the prospect of being freed from this dependency. Their enthusiasm reveals an underlying but potent fantasy, one in which perfect control through total automaticity allows them to avoid the messiness and potential conflict of real human interaction.”
- Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 268. ISBN:0465032125.
- Keywords: Management_quotes Relief_quotes Dependency_quotes Automation_quotes Fantasy_quotes Conflict_quotes Experience_quotes Sense_quotes Prospect_quotes Free_quotes Enthusiasm_quotes Reveal_quotes Underlying_quotes Potent_quotes Perfect_quotes Control_quotes Total_quotes Allow_quotes Avoid_quotes Messy_quotes Potential_quotes Real_quotes Human_quotes Interaction_quotes
Computer Dependency
“As managers use computerization to escape their dependency on workers' unique skills, both managers and workers alike become more dependent upon the computer system.”
- Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 269. ISBN:0465032125.
- Keywords: Management_quotes Automation_quotes Computerization_quotes Dependency_quotes Worker_quotes Skill_quotes System_quotes Escape_quotes Unique_quotes Computer_quotes
Panopticon Recording
“Information systems that translate, record, and display human behavior can provide the computer age version of universal transparency with a degree of illumination that would have exceeded even Bentham's most outlandish fantasies. Such systems can become information panopticons that, freed from the constraints of space and time, do not depend upon the physical arrangement of buildings or the laborious record keeping of industrial administration. They do not require the mutual presence of objects of observation. They do not even require the presence of an observer. Information systems can automatically and continuously record almost anything their designers want to capture, regardless of the specific intentions brought to the design process or the motives that guide data interpretation and utilization.”
- Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 322. ISBN:0465032125.
- Keywords: Panopticon_quotes Information_quotes System_quotes Translation_quotes Display_quotes Computer_quotes Surveillance_quotes Universal_quotes Transparency_quotes Illumination_quotes Fantasy_quotes Constraint_quotes Time_quotes Space_quotes Dependency_quotes Physical_quotes Arrangement_quotes Administration_quotes Building_quotes Industrial_quotes Object_quotes Observation_quotes Automation_quotes Record_quotes Design_quotes Capture_quotes Intentional_quotes Process_quotes Motivation_quotes Guidance_quotes Interpretation_quotes Utilization_quotes Human_quotes Behavior_quotes Provide_quotes Age_quotes Version_quotes Free_quotes Laborious_quotes Keep_quotes Require_quotes Presense_quotes Observer_quotes Continuous_quotes Designer_quotes Regardless_quotes Specific_quotes Data_quotes
Automated Evaluation
“The system automatically computed efficiency ratings for each worker by comparing the amount of time it took to complete a job had been priced. Such calculations with the amount of time for which it could have been generated only by a computer system, since 'we could never have enough clerks to compute these kinds of ratios.' The ratings were considered management information and were not accessible to the craftworkers. Many foremen cautioned against taking the ratings at face value. The most experienced craftsperson frequently was loaded with the most difficult assignments. That individual might show the worst efficiency rating simply because his or her assignments were the most complex and required more than the assigned time.”
- Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 331. ISBN:0465032125.
- Keywords: System_quotes Automation_quotes Evaluation_quotes Efficiency_quotes Rating_quotes Time_quotes Calculation_quotes Computer_quotes Management_quotes Information_quotes Accessibility_quotes Transparency_quotes Worker_quotes Craft_quotes Supervision_quotes Surveillance_quotes Experience_quotes Difficulty_quotes Assignment_quotes Individuality_quotes Complexity_quotes Requirements_quotes Computation_quotes Compare_quotes Amount_quotes Job_quotes Price_quotes Clerk_quotes Ratio_quotes Craftworker_quotes Foremen_quotes Face_quotes Value_quotes Frequent_quotes Load_quotes Worse_quotes
Fundamental Scientific Management Reevaluation
“The logic that motivated the early purveyors and adapters of scientific management has continued to dominate the course of automation... It is a logic that must undergo a fundamental reevaluation as information technology is widely adapted to productive activity.”
- Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 42. ISBN:0465032125.
- See Also:
- Keywords: Logic_quotes Motivation_quotes Adapter_quotes Scientific_Management_quotes Domination_quotes Automation_quotes Fundamental_quotes Evaluation_quotes Information_Technology_quotes Adaptation_quotes Productivity_quotes Activity_quotes Early_quotes Purveyor_quotes Science_quotes Management_quotes Undergo_quotes Reevaluation_quotes Information_quotes Technology_quotes