200 Years Ago, Luddites Lost the Fiery Battle Against Innovation: What Pharmacist with Pitchforks Can Learn
You've heard of a Luddite before: someone opposed to new technology or ways of working.
Luddite-type thinking today exists by disliking technology, especially technology that threaten existing jobs
Pharmacists & pharmacy organizations are trapping themselves in Luddite-like thinking. Let's compare the state of pharmacy today to the state of weaving 200 years ago and see what we can learn.
To get this comparison, you need some background info:
Let me tell you a story....
On a Saturday night about 200 years ago, a bunch of guys got together at a pub: Shears Inn. It is dark, smoky. These are big guys. They're drinking beer, and they are not happy.
Then they pick up their weapons:
and head to the factory. They are not there to attack the owner. They are there to attack the machines.
They are going to destroy the machines taking away their jobs.
200 years ago in England cloth was big. Very big.
Cloth was a big business, required many workers, and paid well. Those who weaved the strands of cotton into cloth were called weavers. They had a good run for many, many years. These weavers had a very specialized skillset and were generously paid. That was part of their undoing.
The people who employed the weavers at the start of the Industrial Revolution saw machinery popping up everywhere. They began to think, "there has got to be a cheaper, more efficient way to produce cloth." Thus, the mechanical loom was born.
The weavers did not like this one bit. They were a very well-paid, in-demand trade, and they were not about to lose their livelihood to some machine. These guys looked around, and they saw these machines making cloth faster and cheaper than they could, and the workers think, this is wrong; maybe we can stop it. So they launched a kind of underground war against these machines.
A secret army is born, named after a fictional general: Ned Ludd (hence, the name Luddites). What is interesting to me is that they were not like an anti-machine cult or anything. They were fine with steam engines and other modern technology. They just hated the machines that were taking their jobs. That's what they were attacking.
Within a few months, the Luddites are attacking everywhere. Burning down factories. Then, they take an even bolder step:
They want Parliament to pass laws that banned the new machines or they wanted rules that require higher payments for work that's done by hand.
Instead, the opposite happens: Parliament passes a law that makes destroying machines punishable by death. The army sends out thousands of soldiers into the area where the Luddites are active. And the factory owners start arming themselves. The government holds a mass trial, finds a bunch of people guilty, and some even get executed.
Wow, grim story, Jamie.
When I heard this story on a podcast in 2015 it has been in my brain ever since. I can't help but relate it to my profession of pharmacy.
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It is shocking when you step back and look at what happened in England around this time. England is building the first modern high-tech global economy on the planet.
You certainly can sympathize with the Luddites for wanting to save their unique skills and livelihood. However, they were going up again an unwinnable cause. Progress always marches forward. Jobs are always eliminated for efficiency, convenience, and changing times, even when it is really unfair and painful for those being eliminated.
What jobs exist today that existed 200 years ago? Very, very few.
Pharmacy's Mistake Today
We are living now in the middle of a second machine age. It's computers and software this time, not weaving machines. But some of the same things are happening.
In pharmacy, we are fighting to keep the pharmacist selling medicine. We've got to get out of this game.
Sweeping automation to replace the dispensing pharmacist won't happen overnight, but once change comes to the pharmacy we will never go back to the way things were before.
So let the Luddites:
The progressives are going to:
If we put our energy into fighting against technology, I fear that is a losing battle. How much more effective is that energy funneled toward seeing the writing on the wall and truly innovating what a pharmacist can do?
Many of you opted into pharmacy because it is a very 'safe,' quiet profession that doesn't change. Well, the weavers thought 200 years ago about their craft.
Change is inevitable. Those who can see it coming, plan ahead, play the long game, and embrace new roles will rise.
Those who don't will be left with smoking pitchforks--all their energy invested into fighting change rather than pivoting with it.
Jamie
(If you want to listen to that episode that planted this seed in my brain 7 years ago you can check it out here on one of my favorite podcasts: Planet Money )
PS- Whenever you're ready, there are 2 additional ways I can help you:
Centsei Co-Founder | Systematize Your Finances
2 年Great read, Jamie! Even as a non-pharmacist, the ideas resonate. There is so much automation developing across a ton of sectors, and you make a great case for investing our energy in redefining our roles rather than in fighting to preserve them as they have been. Viewing it less as oppression and more as opportunity.
Chemistry and Pharmacology Instructor
2 年Rise of the Robots is a good book, though it's been a little while since it's been published. A few weeks ago, Sam Altman and others say that it's not the dispensing jobs that will be gone but the white-collar jobs. Instead of going through 1 year of residency, AI can go through hundreds of thousands of years of residency. It starts right around the 53-minute mark, where Guy and Sam talk about https://wondery.com/shows/how-i-built-this/episode/10386-hibt-lab-openai-sam-altman/
Speaker | Author | Founder | Consultant | Clinical Pharmacist | Nvolve Advisor and Mentor | USF Advisor | The Power of Yes to help others move their careers and lives to the next level.
2 年Love this - great comparison! I still find it odd that we count tablets and capsules for an Rx. Many countries moved away from this a long time ago. Let's have the pharmacists work on unique prescriptions and counseling patients - what we were really trained to do. Thanks for sharing!