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AI and workforce


T-Shaped, I-Shaped, X-shaped, M-shaped... Why the obsession with alphabetical labels?
Somewhere this quarter, in a talent review, a manager will describe an engineer as T-shaped. Heads will nod and a box will be ticked. The engineer, who is not in the room, will spend the next year receiving work shaped like the letter rather than shaped like their ability. Nobody will check whether the label was accurate, because it does not feel like a claim. It feels like an observation, but it’s neither.

David Turner
Jul 75 min read
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