True technology has made our lives easier but technologies contributions to the work that we do effectively changes the nature of the jobs that we do. Take automation. Robots are removing jobs but they are also changing the nature of those jobs. It's akin to saying AI isn't going to replace every writer out there but rather change what a writer actually does. What is considered meaningful in our eyes effectively changes.
I'm aware that smartphones made leaps and bounds, I imply that in the article that earlier iterations are way more useful and robust or that an "upgrade" in phones would be buying a phone that's 3 or 4 versions ahead of your current one. The question is, why does Apple and other companies release new phones literally every year when they could make a superior product two or three years from now? I'm not expecting them to re-revolutionize the smartphone or make something so amazing smartphones become a relic of the past, but they could use that extra time to make way more effective products. How about a battery life that lasts much longer? Maybe adding a few more features after listening to consumer feedback for once?
Our education system isn't exactly built to help people. It hasn't changed in several decades and is designed mostly to train people to be workers bees. Homework is a great example. It doesn't really do much, but you feel compelled to do it because you are told to do it. Your grade reflects how well you're able to listen, absorb, retain, and follow through with that information. I'm pretty sure billionaires are pretty well aware and educated but because they live such isolated lives they really don't care about their fellow human beings. They feel the only people that understand them is other rich people.
What you are presenting are things and what I'm talking about are jobs, specific actions that have to be taken. Yes we pour meaning into the various tools and objects in our lives and therefore it's all subjective, but these our individual specific actions. To some people, it's alarming that people who are in higher positions are looking at certain jobs and craft them in such a way where they serve a specific and regressive purpose.
Going back to your squirrel analogy, imagine a third blind squirrel is introduced and its job is to break the hands of the masseur squirrel's hands or to ensure the chef squirrel is not able to cook food. What then? This new job doesn't seem to provide any tangible benefit beyond crippling the seeing squirrel if they really needed a massage that day or a fancier acorn meal.
