What do you sell?

I had an interesting conversation with a colleague yesterday about the nature of how we earn our living—triggered partly by a provocative article on the nature of consulting and partly by the increased fluidity of work.

If we sell our labour, we're exposed to anybody local who can do it better or cheaper, or the work itself moving to somewhere where better/cheaper is in greater supply. So selling our labour is the messiest end of the stick. Measurement based on output, not input.

Selling our skills is scarcely better, given the increasing sophistication of automation technology. Unless we're in some form of personal service business, from Dog Walking to Dentistry, it is little different to selling labour. Skills and talent are also different in that skills can be trained whilst talent cannot.

If we're selling our labour or ordinary skills, we will have to physically or digitally go where the work is.

So perhaps we get down to the liminal spaces surrounding what is created and who pays for…