do these people spend most of their days doing neither deep work
My rough guess is that only 1–5% of jobs involve deep work. Something like 1⁄3 of jobs are manufacturing and 1⁄3 are service/retail, none of which involve deep work.
nor being in social situations that would be rude to suddenly step away from?
I have met many people who believe a phone call takes priority over all other forms of social interaction, for some reason.
That’s unfairly dismissive. I can’t speak to retail, but manufacturing absolutely does require “deep work”. Machining requires concentration and technique in order to ensure parts have the right tolerances, surface finish, etc. Assembly work often involves deep thinking in order to ensure that the machine is correctly assembled and properly configured.
It’s not all routine “mind numbing” assembly line work, just as not all IT is routine mind numbing data entry.
My rough guess is that only 1–5% of jobs involve deep work. Something like 1⁄3 of jobs are manufacturing and 1⁄3 are service/retail, none of which involve deep work.
I have met many people who believe a phone call takes priority over all other forms of social interaction, for some reason.
(My preferences are the same as yours FWIW.)
That’s unfairly dismissive. I can’t speak to retail, but manufacturing absolutely does require “deep work”. Machining requires concentration and technique in order to ensure parts have the right tolerances, surface finish, etc. Assembly work often involves deep thinking in order to ensure that the machine is correctly assembled and properly configured.
It’s not all routine “mind numbing” assembly line work, just as not all IT is routine mind numbing data entry.