The Knowledge Revolution

The Knowledge Revolution

Overview

Around 100 years ago, 90% of people earned their living by getting things out of the ground or out of machines -- or, transporting those things from one place to another.

In other words, almost everyone performed one of these three (3) activities:

Growing things (agriculture):

    

Making things (manufacturing):
        

Or moving things (transportation):
        

The others -- less than10% of people -- made their living as “Knowledge Workers”.
                            

Knowledge Workers were people like doctors…
                

 lawyers….
             

 teachers….
            

and salespeople…
          

 – and they earned their pay by selling their knowledge to their customers (their clients or employers).

Throughout the last century and a half, technologies were invented that made farmers and factory workers more efficient.

Those technologies included electricity…
           

and the electric motor…
            

 the internal combustion engine….
            

and new materials, chemicals and fertilizers….
          

Thanks to these technological inventions, less workers were needed to grow, make and move things, because:

-- Each farmer could grow many times more crops

-- Machines got better and better, so that only one or two workers were needed to operate them

-- Few or even only one worker (a driver) was required to move massive amounts of things using trucks, trains and boats

In other words, technology enabled massive productivity gains for farmers and industrial workers.

The evidence:

Today less than 10% of people grow, make or move things.

The Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions were indeed REVOLUTIONS.

As a result, today over 90% of us are Knowledge Workers.
              

And the Knowledge Revolution has begun.

In the next chapter, we'll look at what enables the Knowledge Revolution: The Knowledge Economy