Book Discussion "Work: A Deep History" by James Suzman

Note the date: June Book Discussion is the 4th Saturday of the month rather than the 3rd!

Our book for June is the Work: A Deep History, from the Stone Age to the Age of Robots by anthropologist James Suzman.

From Amazon:
Work defines who we are. It determines our status, and dictates how, where, and with whom we spend most of our time. It mediates our self-worth and molds our values. But are we hard-wired to work as hard as we do? Did our Stone Age ancestors also live to work and work to live? And what might a world where work plays a far less important role look like?

Drawing insights from anthropology, archaeology, evolutionary biology, zoology, physics, and economics, [James Suzman] shows that while we have evolved to find joy, meaning and purpose in work, for most of human history our ancestors worked far less and thought very differently about work than we do now…[and he argues] that we are in the midst of a similarly transformative point in history…[where]…automation might revolutionize our relationship with work.

“An incisive and original new history that invites us to rethink our relationship with work – and to reimagine what it means to be human in an ever-more automated future.” – Susan Cain, author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking