I was wrong about Mythos' impact—ask Mozilla, I debunk an argument about automation, smart money and dumb money square off, and we discuss gold, oil, and diamonds all in one go!
I think the ATM/Teller comparison stands but in a different sense. These jobs that are being automated are being automated because we've reached a new milestone in human achievement. Being put out of work is a setback but it's going to force people reshape their focus and to use their skills to become more creative, more resourceful and as a result, more versatile. This tool that kicked them out has actually opened their world up to being able to contribute in more meaningful ways and capitalize at a greater level as it did for the teller. How long until they figure that out?
This is a new era for our species. We take for granted how much less bogged down by minutiae our lives our compared to our great grandparents. People's entire lives used to be dedicated to farming and a specific craft prior to the industrial revolution. The most valuable gift of the 9 to 5 culture was not just stability, it was time. Time to create microchips, nuclear fusion, the internet leading all the way up to AI. That time and the need to survive is what spawns creativity and ingenuity. Entrepreneurship is a byproduct of that and the keystone of capitalism. AI gives the average person access to knowledge resources greater than world leaders had in the 90s. We saw a spike in the gig economy during COVID. I think prolonged exposure to AI is going to cause a proliferation of innovation and self made entrepreneurs from all fields and income levels to an extent that we've never seen. The curing of diseases, space travel and settlement. It all opens up from here. This new age is going to be a paradigm shift that far transcends traditional "employment."
We're right to remember those things, you make some good points. I do what I can to listen to techno-optimist narratives out of Silicon Valley that disagree with my take. It's always insightful to see the other side.
And I'm living proof of that optimism to some degree—I'm a guy working at a startup, writing a newsletter for a few hundred people (new media), and participating in the attention economy.
I've been telling people in my life repeatedly, “There's never been a better time to build things.”
Everybody seems to agree with me. Few of them seem to mean it.
But that doesn't mean that there won't be pain for some in the transition, and I worry that our headline statistics, our narratives, and the old stories that we still tell obscure what's happening right now.
Truthfully, we can't say that AI is killing bank tellers, but we can say that mobile is. The problem was that we spent most of the inflection years where mobile was killing teller jobs talking about the past data showing ATMs actually growing teller jobs.
I look forward to how employment changes, largely because I believe this next generation is genuinely interested in redefining it to their benefit, not to corporate benefits—even those at the corporations.
I think the ATM/Teller comparison stands but in a different sense. These jobs that are being automated are being automated because we've reached a new milestone in human achievement. Being put out of work is a setback but it's going to force people reshape their focus and to use their skills to become more creative, more resourceful and as a result, more versatile. This tool that kicked them out has actually opened their world up to being able to contribute in more meaningful ways and capitalize at a greater level as it did for the teller. How long until they figure that out?
This is a new era for our species. We take for granted how much less bogged down by minutiae our lives our compared to our great grandparents. People's entire lives used to be dedicated to farming and a specific craft prior to the industrial revolution. The most valuable gift of the 9 to 5 culture was not just stability, it was time. Time to create microchips, nuclear fusion, the internet leading all the way up to AI. That time and the need to survive is what spawns creativity and ingenuity. Entrepreneurship is a byproduct of that and the keystone of capitalism. AI gives the average person access to knowledge resources greater than world leaders had in the 90s. We saw a spike in the gig economy during COVID. I think prolonged exposure to AI is going to cause a proliferation of innovation and self made entrepreneurs from all fields and income levels to an extent that we've never seen. The curing of diseases, space travel and settlement. It all opens up from here. This new age is going to be a paradigm shift that far transcends traditional "employment."
We're right to remember those things, you make some good points. I do what I can to listen to techno-optimist narratives out of Silicon Valley that disagree with my take. It's always insightful to see the other side.
And I'm living proof of that optimism to some degree—I'm a guy working at a startup, writing a newsletter for a few hundred people (new media), and participating in the attention economy.
I've been telling people in my life repeatedly, “There's never been a better time to build things.”
Everybody seems to agree with me. Few of them seem to mean it.
But that doesn't mean that there won't be pain for some in the transition, and I worry that our headline statistics, our narratives, and the old stories that we still tell obscure what's happening right now.
Truthfully, we can't say that AI is killing bank tellers, but we can say that mobile is. The problem was that we spent most of the inflection years where mobile was killing teller jobs talking about the past data showing ATMs actually growing teller jobs.
I look forward to how employment changes, largely because I believe this next generation is genuinely interested in redefining it to their benefit, not to corporate benefits—even those at the corporations.
Thanks for the insightful comment. Cheers!
Great article man, actually interesting
Subscribed, would love to have you along too🙂🙌