Technology enabled work to consume every waking moment across time zones.

Evidence

The grind became even more efficient with technology. BlackBerrys, email, chat, and Skype allowed workers to maximize every waking moment across time zones. Yet the all-encompassing work culture often led to burnout, a fate Tim Ferriss narrowly avoided. A Princeton graduate, Ferriss started a business selling unregulated cognitive supplements under the brand BrainQuicken but found himself consumed by the work, even during vacations. Desperate to reclaim his time, he outsourced tasks to overseas assistants in lower-wage countries. From this experience, he found his true calling: packaging up his wisdom to sell to others. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 317

Categorization

• QUESTION: Ferriss outsourcing personal tasks to overseas assistants anticipates the global labor arbitrage economy — worth checking whether Marx develops this as part of his status mechanism.
• XREF: connects to: Academic schedule flexibility masks ever-accessible unbounded work hours — Brooke Erin Duffy, (Not) Getting Paid to Do What You Love:…, 618; Modern advocates long expected technology to deliver abundant free time; Time-saving technologies become the means of extracting more labor time — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration: A New Theory of…, 451 (+1 more)