“They were mowing slowly over the uneven, low-lying parts of the meadow, where there had been an old dam. Levin recognized some of his own men. Here was old Yermil in a very long white smock, bending forward to swing a scythe; there was a young fellow, Vaska, who had been a coachman of Levin's, taking every row with a wide sweep. Here, too, was Tit, Levin's preceptor in the art of mowing, a thin little peasant. He was in front of all, and cut his wide row without bending, as though playing with the scythe.
…
Levin took his place behind Vaska and began to mow. The first row seemed very hard work to him. But when the row was finished, and Tit, wiping his scythe with a handful of grass, began to whet it, Levin looked back at the row he had cut and felt very happy. He was happy because he had got through it so well, and had not lagged behind the peasants.”
— Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
Leo Tolstoy’s description of the peasants clearing fields transports contemporary readers to a time with a different economic system and division of labor. Although beautifully rustic, their lives were marked by economic uncertainty and hard labor.
The Friction of “Progress”
Prior to putting himself in their shoes in the excerpt above, Levin had observed the lack of enthusiasm the peasants displayed for the newfangled mechanical agricultural equipment that had recently appeared.
Levin’s experience working alongside the peasants stands in contrast to his brother’s enthusiastic description of a farming revolution. His brother’s attitude mirrors that of today’s tech leaders when speaking about our own futures.
Compared with the days of serfdom and peasantry, our lives today are remarkably comfortable:
We have stable employment.
We enjoy improved nutrition.
We experience an astonishingly high standard of living.
Looking at cancer rates, urbanization, and pervasive economic disparity, we can see that much has been gained and lost, while some things have stayed exactly the same.
The Winding Path of Progress
Humanity’s trek from an agrarian to an industrial to a technological society has shown that the number and diversity of jobs have increased along with the standard of living. Yet, at each step, there was trepidation and claims that the end was nigh.
What can we take from this?
In the book, where most saw mechanization as the primary avenue for improving productivity, Levin and the peasants saw that humanity still had a central role in increasing agricultural production while also improving the land and the station in life of every man.
Why We Are Betting on Humanity
In such a time, Retention Insights has chosen to build employee retention software for humans. Our choice represents a bet on humanity. While progress will not be linear or pain-free, we know that humanity’s best days are ahead as we stumble along the uneven path of progress.
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