Average Is Over

Cowen's argument is that the labor market is splitting, and the line it splits on is whether you are good at working with machines rather than whether you are good at your job. The model he returns to is freestyle chess, where a competent human paired with a competent program beats either alone, and the skill rewarded is knowing when to defer and when to overrule. He describes the sorted society that follows rather than recommending it.

Working summary · based on the book itself

The strongest objection

It is a forecast with a date on it, and parts are still open. It also never says what to do about any of it, which is fair to complain about and honest for a prediction.

Working summary · based on the book itself

It stands beside Naked Economics on the row for people who have read no economics, which is odd until you see what it is doing. Wheelan hands you the tools. Cowen points them at the question a reader this decade arrived with, which is what happens to work.

Working summary · based on Toward's records

Read it after Naked Economics, and read it as a forecast you are grading rather than as analysis. It was written well before the current wave of machines, which is what makes it checkable.

Working summary · based on Toward's records