You’ve got news… Topic: The future of work is brain science, not just computer science

“The future of work”. It promises so much, and yet I fear it can deliver very little. This is an eternal problem, existing since the dawn of technology. We are stuck in the application cycle Information technology instead brain science. Take email, for example. Yes, it’s an amazing tool that has transformed communication (faster, bigger, and cheaper are the most obvious barometers of success), but it fails to replicate the way people interact with physical mail.

When we receive a stack of letters (paper emails), we instinctively sort them by immediate relevance, creating dynamic piles for bills, personal correspondence, or urgent matters. It’s a fluid and adaptive process, driven by the complexity of context that lies far beyond the stack. It’s a perfect fit for our brains, which are wired to understand spatial relationships. But email, with its deep roots in computing, requires us to predefine categories, assign labels, and navigate rigid structures that don’t naturally fit our cognitive processes.

The science of digital content management

There is a great book called Learning to manage our digital materials by Ofer Bergman and Steve Whittaker, which delves into how our brain processes information. It highlights how traditional computing ignores our evolutionary predispositions. For example, when managing digital documents, we often struggle with predefined folder structures and naming conventions. In contrast, our brains are adept at organizing physical objects spontaneously, based on their immediate meaning.

This discrepancy highlights the need for more intuitive, brain-friendly design in our computing environments. These thoughts are reflected in Cal Newport’s concept of the workflow of the “hyperactive collective mind”; another observation that perfectly captures the chaotic, fragmented nature of modern work driven by poorly designed digital tools.

Brains as computers, not computers as brains

Our interaction with computers often feels chaotic because today’s desktop interfaces were not designed with human productivity as the primary focus; instead, they emerged from the need to solve IT problems, such as ensuring multiple programs run simultaneously and interact seamlessly on a single screen. Although this approach has increased productivity by making computers more user-friendly, on a human level they are still difficult to work with. From my perspective, the future of work depends on integrating brain science into our computing environments. If we set ourselves the goal of maximizing human potential from the beginning, our digital tools would look completely different, enabling seamless collaboration and effectively supporting multiplayer workflows.

Take situational awareness as one example. In digital environments, it is crucial for both individual and business productivity. Modern software can notify us of new messages or changes to documents, but it does not understand the context of why these updates are important to us, even if intelligent filters do their best to fulfill this role. This forces us to sift through notifications and decide what is relevant, often leading to information overload. According to a study by Stripe and Harris Poll, knowledge workers they spend about 60% of their time at work about work, rather than the skilled work they were hired to do. Our brains are evolutionarily wired to understand spatial relationships far better than abstract tags or folders, so it’s critical that we design tools that align with our instinctive ways of sorting and prioritizing.

Unlocking value in meaningful work

What is the immediate value in redesigning our computing environments according to the principles of brain science? It goes beyond incremental gains at the task level and can unlock the potential of both the individual and the organization. For example, better aligning human cognitive processes with digital tools can reduce wasted effort and minimize the build-up of confusion resulting from misdirected work. This leads to more accurate work the first time around, accelerating project completion and creating a vicious cycle of productivity. Too often, I see teams collectively pushing in the wrong direction; inefficiency and inefficiency. This also comes at a significant cost in value. If you’re more interested in numbers, consider that an IDC report estimated that—for Fortune 500 companies alone— The cost of lack of productivity is over $30 billion a year.

Computing environments powered by brain science will fundamentally change the way businesses operate. While traditional task-level improvements offer incremental benefits, aligning human and computer understanding promises exponential increases in productivity. Proper alignment ensures people perform the right tasks, reducing wasted effort and creating a more efficient, innovative work environment.

The future of work shouldn’t be about gaining that “edge,” it should be about opening the productivity gap. There is a huge, untapped opportunity in rethinking how we integrate brain science with computing. By focusing on these areas, we can unlock unprecedented productivity and creativity in our work environments, creating a more engaged, efficient, and innovative workforce, and achieving true operational excellence.