Tedious Work: Developing Novel Outcomes with Digitization in the Arts and Sciences

Abstract

Tedious work is pervasive in creative work, yet it has received little attention in the literature on creativity, including studies of science, innovation, and product development. Drawing from a comparative ethnography of two settings—systems biology and music production—we illuminate tedious work as an essential, previously under-investigated aspect of creative work that becomes increasingly prominent with digitization. Tedious work is repetitive, detail-oriented, and expertise-based, and we classify four types of it: fishing, administrating, polishing, and compiling. We develop a model of how tedious work emerges, why it becomes problematic, and what actors do to reduce its negative effects. Tedious work presents three risks to developing viable, novel outcomes—time drain, disengagement, and information overload—and we identify tactics that actors use to mitigate these risks and support individual creativity and the collective creative process. By unpacking the central notion of iteration and documenting the repercussions of creating novel outcomes with digitization, specifically the potential to amplify tedious work, we provide an important counterpoint to voices that hail digital technology’s low cost and unlimited potential for iteration and refinement.