Skill-biased technological change (SBTC) has been a leading explanation for the rise in wage inequality almost since economists first noticed the increase in wage inequality that began at the end of the 1970s. A recent wave of research, however, has questioned important aspects of the standard version of SBTC models of wage inequality, offering a new, technology-based explanation for wage inequality built around a "tasks framework" first discussed by Autor, Levy, and Murnane (2003). This paper assesses the usefulness of the tasks framework as implemented in a growing body of empirically oriented papers. We argue that --the elegance and theoretical insights of the tasks framework notwithstanding-- the new approach fails to explain the most important developments in wage trends observed since the end of the 1970s.