ennobles became the slogan for upward mobility Technical progress additionally spurred the growth of crafts In larger medieval cities there were as many as 100 different types of them As blacksmiths tailors or cobblers weren t able to eat the fruits of their labor and bar ter exchange became increasingly complicated the practice of paying money for work that has been preserved to this day became more and more prevalent Naturally the amount of money was also an expres sion of how much the work for which it was paid was valued and thus provided an additional stimulant to the reward system in the midbrain The example of the Fuggers a family of former weavers proves the truth of the old adage A trade in hand finds gold in every land From early 16th century Augsburg Jakob Fugger ruled over a global merchant and banking empire in which the sun never sets as the saying went in those days Expressed in today s terms his assets purportedly amounted to 400 billion dollars which would make him the richest person in history even surpassing all the Bezos Gates and Buffets of today s world Work ennobles and the Fuggers were an extreme example of the veracity of this phrase Other families of craftsmen managed to rise to the level of the middle class as well and in doing so defined the importance and worth of work that s still valid today Reformer Martin Luther spurred the diligent on by pithy statements Humans are born to work like birds are born to fly he found and even criticized the upper class s common indulgence in sweet idleness as a form of blasphemy Idleness is a sin against God s commandment who has commanded us to work here The meaning of work But let s return to the crafts once more which to this day are deemed to be particularly fulfilling as repeatedly confirmed by surveys Cre ating something with one s own hands from A to Z something of lasting value All this releases a rush of happiness cocktails from our reward center different smithing specializations have been identified in historic records about medieval Cologne For instance there were blacksmiths farriers and smiths that would forge nails scissors helmets axes boilers and pans Bell makers and pewterers needle spur and spear makers were related crafts Unsurprisingly the last name Smith derived from this metal working occupation and said to have originated in England and its various forms in other languages is ranked in eighth place of the most common last names worldwide 43 Technological developments that changed the world of work Mills Book printing Steam engines Mechanical looms Coal iron technology 1800 Railroads Telegraphy Photography Cement 1850 Chemistry Automotive Electrification Aluminum 1900 Plastics Television Nuclear power Electronics Aerospace 1950 Robotics Digitization Microelectronics Genetic engineering Multimedia 1990 Virtual Reality Internet of Things G5 wireless technology Quantum computers 2015 32

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