Just Because You Can: The Eggbeater Effect Revisited

About this episode

Tara McMullin revisits the concept of the eggbeater effect, discussing how labor-saving tools can lead to increased work and the implications of this phenomenon.

Eight months before ChatGPT launched to the world, I wrote about "the eggbeater effect," or the tendency for labor-saving tools to create new labor. Four years later, I'm revisiting that idea. Remember: just because you can doesn't mean you should . Footnotes: Read the essay version of this episode. " The Stepford Wives " on You're Wrong About More Work for Mother by Ruth Schwartz Cowan " The Illusion of AI Productivity Gains " by Philippa Hardman " AI Doesn't Reduce Work—It Itensifies It " by Aruna Ranganathan and Xingqi Maggie Ye in Harvard Business Review " AI's big productivity boost? It's happening from the sofa " at Stanford Institution for Economic Policy Research " Seeing Software " by Tara McMullin on What Works " The Eggbeater Effect " by Tara McMullin on What Works (original) " How the Push for Efficiency Changes Us " by Tara McMullin on What Works (work intensification) MIT State of AI in Business 2026 " Beyond Productivity: Measuring the Real Value of AI " from Workday (00:00) - Making Things Fancy (01:19) - The Eggbeater Effect (06:01) - More Work for Mother (16:09) - Just Because You Can Doesn't Mean You Should (19:43) - How to Decide When Doing More is the Right…

People in this episode

Host: Tara McMullin

Topics covered

• AI productivity
• labor-saving tools
• work intensification
• decision making
• efficiency
• technology impact

Keywords

• eggbeater effect
• AI
• productivity
• labor
• efficiency
• decision making
• work intensification

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Harvard Business Review, Stanford Institution for Economic Policy Research, MIT, Workday

Books & works: The Stepford Wives, The Illusion of AI Productivity Gains, Seeing Software, The Eggbeater Effect, How the Push for Efficiency Changes Us

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