Can There Be a Theory of the Email Job?

I think and read and talk and write a lot about education and its role in the economy. (Read The Cult of Smart!) I’ve been gratified, the last few years, to be able to engage in some discussions and analysis with various academics and thinktankers in this regard, away from my public-facing self online. I wrote a white paper on tests of college learning (the subject of my dissertation) for the New America Foundation years ago; while I haven’t done anything with that kind of official imprimatur since, I always enjoy when I can get into these conversations with policy types. And there’s a consistent dynamic that I think betrays a certain missing part of the picture when it comes to educated labor.