CEO, CIO, CTO



Data platforms and applied artificial intelligence from a business perspective.




Part Topic
Prologue
Part 1: "Framing Technology Investment"
Why Does a Company Need to Grow?
The Challenges of Growth
Structural Transformation
What is Knowledge Work?
The Rise of the Information Economy
The Red Queen's Game
How Technology Investment Enables Growth
Part 2: "Building Knowledge Work Platforms"
Knowledge Work Architecture
Analyzing Knowledge Work Architecture
Data Integration
What is a Data Platform?
It's All Games of Materialized Views
The Information Layer
What is Data Engineering?
Transform Engineering
How Data Platforms Change as Companies Grow
Modernizing Data Platforms
The Cost of Coordination
The 3 Ways A Business Uses Technology
Part 3: "The Evolution of Knowledge Work"
The Evolution of Knowledge Work
AI is Just Productivity You Don't Understand Yet
All You Need is More Productivity
What is Artificial Intelligence?
There's No Such Thing as Artificial Intelligence
Why is it so hard to sell Artificial Intelligence Tools?
What is Generative AI?
Decision Intelligence
Conversational User Interfaces
Built for the Wrong Audience
Part 4: "The Tao of Work"
Physical Labor and Cognitive Labor
Defining Tools
Defining Personhood
Can Tools Exist Without Humans?
The Value of Human Capital
Reading is Fundamental
Epistemic Madness
What Constitutes 'Responsibility' for Work?
How Writing Allowed Information to Become Infrastructure
What is Agency?
The Agency Trap
How Agency Bounds Automation
The Fallacy of Autonomy
Part 5: "The Limits of Knowledge Work Tools"
What is Reasoning?
What About AGI?
The Connection Between Reading, Writing, and Reasoning
Do Large Language Models Reason?
Polanyi's Paradox
Tacit Understanding
The Deterministic Nature of Traditional Computation
Automated Reasoning is Subjective Computation
How Automated Reasoning is Different from Traditional Computation
Epistemological Drift
The Durability of Determinism
Part 6: "The Mechanization of Cognitive Labor"
The Mechanical Loom of Mental Synthesis
Cognitive Labor: The Mental Work Behind Knowledge Work
The Types of Task Automation
The Verification Gap
The Cognitive Backplane of Oversight
The Challenges of Risk with Automation
Deconstructing the Underwriter Under Automation
The Minimum Viable Person
A Map for LLM Automation
Part 7: "The Economics of Cognitive Labor"
What Happened to Physical Labor Roles After Mechanization?
Jevon's Paradox
Early Cognitive Labor Evolution After Tools: 1950–2000
Rebounds and O-Rings
The Evolution of the Underwriter
The Layers of Knowledge Work
A Value model for the Structural Transformation of Knowledge Work
Part 8: "The Future of Work"
Will Agents Replace People?
Where Are All the Jobs Going?
The Automation Treadmill
How Work Evolves Under Automation
The Automation Closure
You Can't Go Home Again
Appendix Chapters: "Knowledge Work in Industry"
How Smart City Investment Enables Regional Economic Growth

The rise of Large language models, such as openAI, are advanced artificial intelligence systems designed to understand and generate human-like text. They have also kicked off a new cycle of artificial intelligence hype, research, and investment. However, organizations still struggle with the foundations of building and operating data platforms to run their core business.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Knowledge Work introduces the challenges and complexities of modern knowledge work, particularly in industries reliant on expertise and information processing. It emphasizes how traditional management approaches often fail to address the unique demands of knowledge workers, who require autonomy, adaptability, and effective collaboration to succeed.

This online book will allow you to better understand not only "what is knowledge work?", but also how knowledge work is co-evolving with technology and changing the economic labor distribution. This book will set you up to better frame how you should form your technology inventment thesis into both data platforms and articificial intelligence in a way that focuses on making your business more productive and cutting through the hype.


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