Has the decline of knowledge work begun?

All knowledge work follows a distribution of skill…lots of people are in the middle of the curve when it comes to ability to do a varied set of tasks.

If I quizzed someone in the middle of that curve on (1) basic keyboard shortcuts, (2) how to VLOOKUP in excel, (3) how to buy a domain, (4) how to make a presentation that truly looked good, (5) detect if an email is a phishing campaign, (6) make a secure password, (7) do research in their industry…

You get my point…The skill of an average knowledge worker today is miles and miles away from elite levels.

Knowledge work is not declining, we’re just watching the average ability of a typical worker go way up, over the course of a generation.

Was this person employed in It? Did you ask them to quiz you in return? "How to buy a domain" is exactly something a HNer would ask as an obvious question. I wonder how many of us know when to plant carrots, the chemical structure of benzene, or can show Malawi on a map.

>The skill of an average knowledge worker today is miles and miles away from elite levels.

Wouldn't that by definition always be true? Average and "elite" are dynamic values. I'm unsure if that gap is increasing or not.