31 lines
1 KiB
Markdown
31 lines
1 KiB
Markdown
|
# Saving of Time
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
## Definition
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
The elimination of time lost when a worker passes from one kind of work to
|
||
|
|
another. Smith identifies this as the second mechanism by which the division of
|
||
|
|
labour increases productive power. Time is lost both in physical transition
|
||
|
|
(moving between locations and tools) and in mental transition (the sauntering
|
||
|
|
and inattention that follows switching tasks).
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
## Source Chapter
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Book I, Chapter 1: "Of the Division of Labour"
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
## Context
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Presented as the second of three mechanisms. Smith argues the loss is greater
|
||
|
|
than commonly supposed, encompassing not only travel time but a psychological
|
||
|
|
cost: workers who constantly switch tasks develop habits of "sauntering" and
|
||
|
|
"indolent careless application" that reduce their output even during active work.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
## Economic Domain
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Production
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
## Smith's Original Wording
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
"Secondly, the advantage which is gained by saving the time commonly lost in
|
||
|
|
passing from one sort of work to another, is much greater than we should at
|
||
|
|
first view be apt to imagine it."
|