The Theory of Conceptual Labor

Tenets of Conceptual Labor

1. Labor can be modeled with fundamental components
2. Individuals experience conceptual labor through a unique mental model
3. Conceptual labor is required when all components of a model are dynamic and interdependent
4. We tend towards models with static and well-defined components
5. Models must be continuously updated
6. Part of conceptual labor is understanding and explaining why it is necessary
7. Conceptual labor tends towards abstraction but is rooted in specifics

Core Concepts

Tenets 1 & 2: Modeling Labor

• We work according to our ideas about work and labor
  • Who we are is part of how we work
  • An individual’s idea of work is their reality of work.
• Complex labor requires a model with many properties and rules for how they interact
• Conceptual labor changes as you do it
• Conceptual labor can be hard to see
• Comparing models is important, legitimate work
  • Conceiving of work is real work
  • Models must be revealed
  • Models must be compared against reality
  • Models may be applied without being understood

Tenets 3 & 4: Labor Changes

• Models embody beliefs
• We follow the conventional narrative if we believe that our model has as least one static component
• The conventional narrative is the default narrative of work.
• We have to do conceptual labor because the conventional narrative fails us all the time.
• We resist conceptual labor for many reasons
• It is difficult to redefine labor at the rate at which it changes

Tenets 5 & 6: Competing Narratives

• Doing work and changing the narrative of how you work must happen simultaneously
• Labor that modifies its own narrative is a conversation
• In this conversation, we must represent our experience
• The ideal state of this conversation is spontaneous, continuous agreement
• Labor that can change its own narrative is cyclical
• Successful conceptual labor cannot be fully planned, only cultivated

Tenet 7: Patterns and materials of conceptual labor

• Specific and relevant qualities of conceptual labor are embodied in the media in which it is performed
• Conceptual labor cannot be fully separated from its media
• To model labor is to abstract it
• Mental models of labor share methods of abstraction and can be measured on a fixed scale.
• Basic patterns of conceptual labor can be learned and developed as skills.