So I'm 49 staring at the big 50. I work in technology, and I am always learning the newest tech, and the newest view of project management, and the newest business models. So the other day I was trying to decide between listening to a podcast of delving into my companies continuous learning tools, and I just didn't want to do either.
I thought to myself, we never really get any of these things to work properly before we move on to the next thing. Always learning and changing. Can't it just stop for a moment and let me catch up? Of course it won't. I'm just being 50 and realizing that work isn't going to be a coast for the last 20 years of my career.
But it is also something deeper, and scarier. I am not so sure that the future we are heading to is going to be better than today. In fact I fundamentally believe that there is a good chance it will be worse. Automation of both mind work and physical work mean that the 7 billion people currently on the planet will be competing for fewer meaningful things to do that add value.
This article sort of gets at what I have been thinking for last year or so.
Deep Learning Is Going to Teach Us All the Lesson of Our Lives: Jobs Are for Machines
Anyway, how do I give advice to my kids if the twin trends of outsourcing and AI will eliminate most meaningful work and what remains will be fiercely competed for?
Lawyer. nope, most of that can be automated, except the very last bit.
Technology. maybe, but it will be less rewarding. The big work will be done by machines helping machines.
Doctor. no way.
Academic. The way society is trending there won't be funding.
We are rapidly coming to a point where the world's oldest profession will become the world's only remaining profession. But I don't want to think about that.
I thought to myself, we never really get any of these things to work properly before we move on to the next thing. Always learning and changing. Can't it just stop for a moment and let me catch up? Of course it won't. I'm just being 50 and realizing that work isn't going to be a coast for the last 20 years of my career.
But it is also something deeper, and scarier. I am not so sure that the future we are heading to is going to be better than today. In fact I fundamentally believe that there is a good chance it will be worse. Automation of both mind work and physical work mean that the 7 billion people currently on the planet will be competing for fewer meaningful things to do that add value.
This article sort of gets at what I have been thinking for last year or so.
Deep Learning Is Going to Teach Us All the Lesson of Our Lives: Jobs Are for Machines
Anyway, how do I give advice to my kids if the twin trends of outsourcing and AI will eliminate most meaningful work and what remains will be fiercely competed for?
Lawyer. nope, most of that can be automated, except the very last bit.
Technology. maybe, but it will be less rewarding. The big work will be done by machines helping machines.
Doctor. no way.
Academic. The way society is trending there won't be funding.
We are rapidly coming to a point where the world's oldest profession will become the world's only remaining profession. But I don't want to think about that.
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