I've been thinking a lot about this too. Indeed I seem to be the only one who has used AI to literally reduce hours worked. And I've replaced this time with personal pursuits: personal writing, more climbing, more socializing with friends. Meanwhile all I can read is people who use AI reporting they are working *more* now that they have the tools.
Great read! My favorite observation is that new technology is repeatedly met by the same criticisms - there was a time people were mad about newspapers, since reading quietly on the train ate into "social time".
I've only really started taking AI's impact in my industry seriously in the last few weeks (I'm a software developer by trade), and so far it looks like all the same "laws" are in effect: Just because the tools are there, doesn't mean people want to use them. I mean, we've had Google for nearly 2 decades now, everyone has a smartphone, and most people still don't look things up out of curiosity.
I'd wager AI's impact on knowledge work (or specifically, the workers) will pan out as the early experiments have shown: High performers, early adopters and fast learners that take advantage of the new thing to do their work will get better output. Folks who don't, will eventually start falling behind.
I doubt most companies would simply let people go wholesale because of AI (ClickUp being a notable exception) - it's more likely just going to be many years of difficult ROI conversations and stalled salary bands.
"I want to argue that we crave these stories, and they go viral, because they are socially acceptable way to show how much we love work." That's quite an insightful and fascinating take on it Paul. It resonates with me personally. I find myself expressing a lot of outrage at the push to automate things, but it's easier to complain and judge than it is to stand up and say "I just love to work!" Very useful essay. Thanks
One of my favorite essays I've read this year. Appreciate the observations of related historic narratives around work and the parallels (threats?) around technology taking over our right to employment
Great essay Paul. I'm right there with Russell-- I've been able to cut my consulting hours in half without affecting my pay (essentially doubling my contract rate). Only a matter of time before the industry wakes up and I loose my "competitive edge", but I'll ride it out while enjoying some extra spare time to read, build things, and play outside.
Six months out from selling the company I ran for ten years. I didn't have the money to stop before the sale, so quitting was never really on the table. Figured the sale would settle something. It didn't, honestly. The work was holding up more of my life than I knew, and the drive is still here looking for a job.
I once wrote about the grand canopy of life and how for many of us all its weight pulls on a single tent pole. Our work. It leaves the work with a responsibility is was never deigned to bear.
For context, I was made redundant five times in a decade, so I've needed to get busy raising up other structures that can support the grand canopy so I can sit its shade.
Like you, the drive persists (or maybe it's the fear), but it feels more balanced... for now.
Thanks, Dan. Five redundancies in a decade and you rebuilt every time. The drive maybe being the fear, that's the part I keep chewing on. I spent years calling myself driven, and a lot of it was fear with a work ethic. It still built real things though. These days I'm trying to give it better assignments.
I’ve always noticed that it’s those who have a certain mobility—who’ve reached a certain threshold that allows them to “play” and create new “work configurations”—who like to preach that work isn’t the end-all, be-all. And yet it’s never occurred to me that the two are connected. They see work (referring to its traditional container: the job) as optional precisely because their lives and identities are so fused with work; they don't even see the activities they do as work. And because they don't have the language to think about the non-economic value work has on their lives, they resort to incomplete messages: "work isn't everything; you just need to work smart, build an online business, do things that scale so you can create a dream life where you don't need to work that often anymore".
But that isn't true. Work is more than just income or a job; it is all the other activities of creation that give our lives meaning too. And we ought to start thinking about solutions that can fill the impending non-job, non-income, but undoubtedly work-shaped, gaps.
Indeed, what the “reality” in “reality television” seems increasingly to signal is this aestheticization of occupational activity, in a perfect marriage of aesthetic conviction with capitalist competition.
The thing the task-and-workflow folks miss is that the absorbing part of work, you know, where you're in flow state, where time disappears? LLMs take, or at least break, that first.
They snatch away making and saddle you with checking. You're promoted from maker to manager, but let's be real, you're just QA. The flow gets dammed up; the workflows run on and on.
I feel this makes your "bigger language" point land harder.
Still it's worth asking how much of our love is from the doing versus the verdict the doing earns us. Which parts are truly of intrinsic value? Which are external and validation driven?
These are different and may not deserve defending in quite the same way.
I've been thinking a lot about this too. Indeed I seem to be the only one who has used AI to literally reduce hours worked. And I've replaced this time with personal pursuits: personal writing, more climbing, more socializing with friends. Meanwhile all I can read is people who use AI reporting they are working *more* now that they have the tools.
When there’s no leisure practice it’s hard to work less
Great read! My favorite observation is that new technology is repeatedly met by the same criticisms - there was a time people were mad about newspapers, since reading quietly on the train ate into "social time".
I've only really started taking AI's impact in my industry seriously in the last few weeks (I'm a software developer by trade), and so far it looks like all the same "laws" are in effect: Just because the tools are there, doesn't mean people want to use them. I mean, we've had Google for nearly 2 decades now, everyone has a smartphone, and most people still don't look things up out of curiosity.
I'd wager AI's impact on knowledge work (or specifically, the workers) will pan out as the early experiments have shown: High performers, early adopters and fast learners that take advantage of the new thing to do their work will get better output. Folks who don't, will eventually start falling behind.
I doubt most companies would simply let people go wholesale because of AI (ClickUp being a notable exception) - it's more likely just going to be many years of difficult ROI conversations and stalled salary bands.
"I want to argue that we crave these stories, and they go viral, because they are socially acceptable way to show how much we love work." That's quite an insightful and fascinating take on it Paul. It resonates with me personally. I find myself expressing a lot of outrage at the push to automate things, but it's easier to complain and judge than it is to stand up and say "I just love to work!" Very useful essay. Thanks
Thanks Rick
You're hitting the nail on the head, Paul.
One of my favorite essays I've read this year. Appreciate the observations of related historic narratives around work and the parallels (threats?) around technology taking over our right to employment
Appreciate it jason
Great essay Paul. I'm right there with Russell-- I've been able to cut my consulting hours in half without affecting my pay (essentially doubling my contract rate). Only a matter of time before the industry wakes up and I loose my "competitive edge", but I'll ride it out while enjoying some extra spare time to read, build things, and play outside.
Oh I’m with you too
Agreed! I love work so much I have quit many jobs in order to keep doing it.
Exactly
Six months out from selling the company I ran for ten years. I didn't have the money to stop before the sale, so quitting was never really on the table. Figured the sale would settle something. It didn't, honestly. The work was holding up more of my life than I knew, and the drive is still here looking for a job.
Thank you for sharing!
I once wrote about the grand canopy of life and how for many of us all its weight pulls on a single tent pole. Our work. It leaves the work with a responsibility is was never deigned to bear.
For context, I was made redundant five times in a decade, so I've needed to get busy raising up other structures that can support the grand canopy so I can sit its shade.
Like you, the drive persists (or maybe it's the fear), but it feels more balanced... for now.
Thanks, Dan. Five redundancies in a decade and you rebuilt every time. The drive maybe being the fear, that's the part I keep chewing on. I spent years calling myself driven, and a lot of it was fear with a work ethic. It still built real things though. These days I'm trying to give it better assignments.
Writing this down: drive is just fear with a work ethic 🙌
Took me long enough to say it plainly. Glad it's useful.
So good!
I’ve always noticed that it’s those who have a certain mobility—who’ve reached a certain threshold that allows them to “play” and create new “work configurations”—who like to preach that work isn’t the end-all, be-all. And yet it’s never occurred to me that the two are connected. They see work (referring to its traditional container: the job) as optional precisely because their lives and identities are so fused with work; they don't even see the activities they do as work. And because they don't have the language to think about the non-economic value work has on their lives, they resort to incomplete messages: "work isn't everything; you just need to work smart, build an online business, do things that scale so you can create a dream life where you don't need to work that often anymore".
But that isn't true. Work is more than just income or a job; it is all the other activities of creation that give our lives meaning too. And we ought to start thinking about solutions that can fill the impending non-job, non-income, but undoubtedly work-shaped, gaps.
Indeed, what the “reality” in “reality television” seems increasingly to signal is this aestheticization of occupational activity, in a perfect marriage of aesthetic conviction with capitalist competition.
- Sianne Ngai
The thing the task-and-workflow folks miss is that the absorbing part of work, you know, where you're in flow state, where time disappears? LLMs take, or at least break, that first.
They snatch away making and saddle you with checking. You're promoted from maker to manager, but let's be real, you're just QA. The flow gets dammed up; the workflows run on and on.
I feel this makes your "bigger language" point land harder.
Still it's worth asking how much of our love is from the doing versus the verdict the doing earns us. Which parts are truly of intrinsic value? Which are external and validation driven?
These are different and may not deserve defending in quite the same way.