workism is for chumps

The Future Of Knowledge Workers In An AI-Driven World

this is a great writeup. there’s a fair amount that i’ve discussed with friends and coworkers over the years. having worked in tech for my entire career, i don’t even bother trying to explain to people what i do, it’s wholly uninteresting.

this was an interesting little blurb to me.

Workism is a microcosm of the larger spectacle: a world where appearing busy, important and uniquely knowledgeable is as valuable as actually being any of those things, and where work needs only to appear impactful rather than actually be impactful.

there’s also a component of this that has historically been american status assertion. i’m soooo busy. which was often shorthand for some sort of subtle claim of importance or workist criticality in the pipeline.

underlying all of this is the spectre of AI. personally, i do not feel particularly threatend by a lump of linear algebra. but it is creating new dangers and i can understand the anxiety and dread that this induces. we’re likely cooked. enjoy what you can, do what you must.