wisnain wrote: ↑Mon Apr 08, 2024 6:59 pm
Sorry, the emoticon doesn’t show. I’ll rewrite it:
If I approach this question using conditional reasoning, is it correct to diagram it as follows?
When technology increases, the importance of skill decreases.
When satisfaction increases, the importance of skill increases.
Therefore, when technology increases, satisfaction decreases.
I understand that "depends on" indicates a necessary condition, but I'm unsure if the second sentence translates to "If workers are satisfied, then they believe that their work is difficult and requires uncommon skills." It intuitively feels like it should be the other way around...
Hi wisnain,
Good question! However, it might not be the best idea to approach this question using conventional conditional reasoning diagramming. The important takeaways are as follows:
1. Technological progress makes workers' skills less crucial
2. Workers are more satisfied when they feel their work requires uncommon (i.e., crucial) skills
These aren't easy concepts to simply diagram. For example, the "depends on" could lead us to believe that "believing work is difficult and requires uncommon skills" is a necessary condition for "worker satisfied." But are "difficult" and "requires uncommon skills" one condition, or two? If a worker thinks his work is difficult, but does not require uncommon skills, will he be satisfied? We simply can't say, because this question is not as cut-and-dry as traditional conditional reasoning.
It's a better strategy to list out the premises like we did above, and then try to pre-phrase a conclusion. Based on these two premises, we can figure out that technological progress may decrease worker satisfaction, because we know it makes their skills less crucial.
Once we've made that inference, we can look to the answer choices and find that answer choice (D) basically says that exact thing.
Does that make sense?
→ skill importance 
