---
id: "quote-electricity-analogy"
type: "quote"
source_timestamps: ["¶2"]
tags: ["analogy", "infrastructure"]
related: ["concept-electricity-factory-analogy"]
speaker: "Harang Ju"
speakers: ["Harang Ju"]
quote: "When electricity first arrived in factories, managers didn’t redesign their buildings. They simply replaced the central steam engine with an electric motor and kept the system of belts, pulleys, and shafts that distributed power throughout the facility. The result was marginal improvement at best."
sources: ["agentic"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-agentic"
originDay: 6
articleStem: "hbr-ext-17-workplace-set-up-for-agents"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/01/is-your-workplace-set-up-for-ai-agents"
sourceTitle: "Is Your Workplace Set Up for AI Agents?"
---
# The Electricity Analogy

The source's opening analogy, grounding [[concept-electricity-factory-analogy|the electricity factory analogy]].

> When electricity first arrived in factories, managers didn't redesign their buildings. They simply replaced the central steam engine with an electric motor and kept the system of belts, pulleys, and shafts that distributed power throughout the facility. The result was marginal improvement at best.

— [[entity-harang-ju|Harang Ju]]