June 25, 2003 9:19 AM

The high cost of efficiency
Posted by Jason Butlerat 9:19 AM

J. Bradford DeLong, in Wired, takes a look at whether computers really raise or lower productivity.

Computers are tremendous labor-saving devices. They give us power to accomplish extraordinary amounts of work in extraordinarily short intervals of time: financial analysis, data mining, design automation. But they also give us the capability to do things like play solitaire. Or send instant messages. Fiddle with fonts. Futz with PowerPoint. Twiddle with images. Reconfigure link rollovers.