By Josh Tyrangiel
Publication Date: 2026-02-10 11:00:00
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In 1869 a A group of Massachusetts reformers persuaded the state to try a simple idea: counting.
The Second Industrial Revolution ripped its way through New England, teaching mill and factory owners a lesson that most MBA students today learn in their first semester: that improvements in efficiency usually come from somewhere, and that somewhere is usually someone else. The new machines weren’t just for spinning cotton or shaping steel. They worked at speeds that the human body – an elegant piece of technology developed over millions of years for completely different purposes – was simply not designed for. The owners knew this, just as they knew that there is a limit to how much misery people are willing to endure before they start setting things on fire.
Nevertheless, the machines continued.
So…
