Let's boil the 3,000 year history
of work down to three minutes.
First, there were hunters and gatherers.
Everyone contributed, and their business
was basically to survive.
Eventually they began to tame plants and animals,
opening up new kinds of work.
And, if you were lucky, pleasure.
In early civilizations, powerful ruling classes
emerged for the first time.
They could outsource work to slaves and servants
because that mundane, hard work was considered
beneath their dignity, even though it
made their lifestyles possible.
In the Middle Ages, new religious philosophies
changed that.
Working hard became synonymous with doing good, pleasing God,
and repenting for one's sins.
Then came the rise of the family farm.
Working the land took on a sense of community.
All family members literally pitched in,
depended on each other, and the farmer's work was never done.
But as civilization ticked on, more and more people
moved to cities.
In those cities, artisans specialized more and more,
and along came the craft stage of work,
like shoemakers and carpenters, all very skilled
and specialized.
Then the Industrial Revolution came along and brought with it
mass production.
Humans adapted.
New kinds of factories created new kinds
of workers eager to earn a living however they could
in a rapidly changing world.
Some workers banded together.
They took historic stands for humane work conditions
and demanded all kinds of fundamental rights including
the 40 hour work week.
The development of computers, the World Wide Web,
and widespread education ushered us
into the knowledge-based economy.
As fewer people and fewer hours are
needed to do the work of yesterday,
people are adapting again.
Today some do work that didn't even exist five years ago.
So here we are.
Is this the end of work's evolution?
No.
How you live and work will invent the future.
You'll work to eat.
You'll eat by outsourcing food production to other workers.
You'll tap into a deep human drive to work on something
and to make a genuine difference doing it.
You'll rely on your networks and connections to help you out,
and you will help others in turn.
You'll specialize in something no one
has thought of before using technology
no one's seen before.
You'll wonder how to better tip the balance of work and life
to the needs of a new world.
So keep on working, creating, and inventing
the future of work.