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The difference between "today's task" and "accretive work"

The article distinguishes between "today's task" (immediate, urgent work) and "accretive work" (cumulative, long-term efforts), arguing that modern work environments overemphasize quick tasks at the expense of sustained, compounding projects that build lasting value.

Background

- The author is **Cory Doctorow**, a well-known tech journalist and activist who coined "enshittification" — his term for how digital platforms get worse over time by squeezing users, workers, and business customers. - This essay distinguishes **"today's task"** (urgent, measurable, ticket-worthy work) from **"accretive work"** (slow, cumulative efforts like mentoring, code review, documentation, and building trust). Doctorow argues that modern project-management tools (Jira, Asana, Scrum) and platform business models systematically devalue accretive work. - The piece connects to wider debates about **productivity metrics**, **knowledge-worker burnout**, and **open-source sustainability** — where invisible maintenance labour is often ignored while flashy new features get rewarded. - It also reflects Doctorow's ongoing critique of **platform capitalism**: big tech firms design systems that make accretive work harder, because it doesn't generate the data or transactions they can monetise.

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