The Range of Slavery to Freedom in Labour

From selling the self to the creative product.

The Stepping Stone View.

Abraham Lincoln considered waged labour as another form of slavery but one that was a necessary stepping stone to eventual self-employment.

He believed waged labour to be an impermanent condition. For the person pivotal in abolishing chattel slavery in the U.S. to have such a view, it made it a topic worth thinking about. 

Chattel slavery (i.e. traditional slavery) has been prevalent all throughout human history with the Egyptians of the Jewish people, Japanese of South Koreans, Africans by Europeans, and it goes on with Asians on Asians and Europeans on Europeans, etc.

Though not as visceral as chattel slavery, the theoretical connection to waged labour and slavery (i.e. wage slavery) is not a new viewpoint. The concept of trading our labour in effort and time for pieces of paper, to now digits on a screen, in hopes of obtaining something with said digits is what the modern economy is.

It’s our world today. A world where “wealth” has been translated to digits instead of the actual mountain of food we would’ve purchased with it.

Striving for Wealth

Today, the stockbroker in Manhattan is considered wealthier than a rural farmer who owns his own blueberry farm. Unless the farm’s value is converted to $$s it’s not part of the wealth equation.

But let’s consider Lincoln’s perspective of how he viewed the end goal of labour to result in employment for the self. That would translate to the kind of independence and control over what one did, when, and where they did it. 

I’m not saying employment is slavery. Far from it. Rather, it depends on the individual’s own internal mindset towards the role. One person’s apprenticeship to something greater can be another’s final step in life.

Consider the parable of the three bricklayers, one rooted in a story related to rebuilding London’s St Paul’s Cathedral per commissioner Christopher Wren:

One day in 1671, Christopher Wren observed three bricklayers on a scaffold, one crouched, one half-standing, and one standing tall, working very hard and fast. To the first bricklayer, Christopher Wren asked the question, “What are you doing?” to which the bricklayer replied, “I’m a bricklayer. I’m working hard laying bricks to feed my family.” The second bricklayer, responded, “I’m a builder. I’m building a wall.” But the third bricklayer, the most productive of the three and the future leader of the group, when asked the question, “What are you doing?” replied with a gleam in his eye, “I’m a cathedral builder. I’m building a great cathedral to The Almighty.”

Whether it’s a sushi master who only gets to cook rice for years or a football coach who runs through game films for years in a dingy room, it’s a matter of mindset. Also, I was referring to Jiro, the greatest living sushi chef, and Bill Belichick, the greatest living NFL coach.  

What People Pay For

What is this all for? I believe it translates to one’s ability to sell independent creativity.

The simplest form is an artisan who sells their art and craft: her creative work. Something uniquely hers.

I believe that the more common and abundant the work is, the more commodity-like it will be and the further away it will be from any kind of wealth creation (i.e. freedom). Now, one can sell commodities (i.e. Amazon) and the individual that did that (i.e. Jeff Bezos) is the unique and scarce individual that commands wealth.

Scarce things tend to hold a higher price. Especially if the good is high in quality (which is scarce) and few in quantity (once again, scarce).

This leads to the perspective that an average factory worker who does nothing but pushes buttons is a replaceable commodity. The product the individual is being paid for is not a result of creativity but their body and its basic functionality.

What will command top dollar will be one’s utilization of independent creativity: Judgment. 

People pay Warren Buffet for his judgment. If Buffet were to start over again, people would be willing to pay him over another hedge fund manager who has managed $100bn because of Buffet’s judgment.

It’s this judgment that is derived from one’s creativity, it’s the art behind the person. Because a person’s judgment can’t be quantified in some linear fashion, it will command an exponentially higher price.

But how does one build such judgment and creativity?

Iteration with Duration

Iteration is required for growth. If one were to do the same thing 10,000 times, one would see improvements only for the short beginning but will cease to see any further improvements afterward. 

To create any kind of exponential growth, constant iteration is required to introduce a new stimulus. Such is the case for strength development and that law is applicable for growth in cognition as well.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results — Albert Einstein.

If rapid iteration leads to growth, continuing to do so with persistence over a long period of time will allow it to become exponential. The simple “iteration x duration = maximal growth = greater judgment”

We frequently see the demand for “x years of job experience” required for jobs. I see this is as an unfortunate use of using duration as a proxy for iteration. 

Assuming the company is hiring for a position where judgment is essential, they’ve decided to assume that someone with 10 years of experience must have had a chance to iterate enough to develop some form of competence in their judgment. The best case will result in someone of great judgment after non-stop iteration and continuous learning. At worst, it will indicate someone of extreme stupidity because they’ve only done the same thing over and over and over again and ceased to learn anything new after the first three months.

Most people assume this would be a normal distribution curve. But, just as those with high levels of judgment are paid an exponentially larger amount, this is applicable to individuals with years of experience where it’s a right-skew with a small number of people with many years of experience actually possessing greater judgment.

I say this because if years of experience alone should be the case, then all the CEOs of 30 years of experience should be the best, and the same should be for investors as well. Turns out, that is not the case.

The reality is that most slow their iteration (i.e. growth) as they get fat and comfortable. They yearn for financial retirement and run away from challenges. Such is human nature.

Years of experience only matter if each incremental year of experience includes a growing number of iterations. If year 1 had 15 iterations, and year 2 had 30 iterations… that’s an exponential growth in the individual just by the sheer number of iterations of decisions that prove what works and doesn’t.

Pace Over Duration

If they are combined at high output together, then you have people like Buffet.

Judgment = Freedom

Then, to break out of one’s domain of ‘slave labour’ where one sells one’s body for something in return, one would have to consider building judgment.

One that is valuable by going through a cycle of massive iteration.

As Lincoln expected, waged labour will be the starting block. It’s one’s mindset to grow and instituting a practice of development to build judgment that will push one further down the path towards freedom through labour.