Dissonance in the Workplace (24-Year-Old Thoughts on 24 More)

... should not be tolerated, but is, increasingly so.

Fair disclaimer, this is not strictly about the workplace, I just liked the title. I've been thinking a fair bit about skills, about how you keep yourself relevant in this increasing AI craze. Let me explain. As some of you who've known me a while may know, I did my crazy, beautiful education-at-home stint until I was about 18 or so, then at 19, I started working in the digital sphere, as (what else) a copywriter. It was a field I was tremendously lucky in, especially in that, working as a freelancer, I was able to sift through projects and find things I genuinely enjoy doing. It was just a job. (It still is, even as I am more laid-back on that plane at the moment, as I focus on writing fiction.)

And to me, as someone who for the five-ish years that I've been in the "workplace",as someone who's only known this job, the rise of AI is fucking terrifying. It's not that I don't recognize the potential for good. It's just that I don't think we're gonna pursue it. I think, much as I am an optimist and try to strive for the good, that the notion of humanity discovering these new, innovative technologies and advancing into this enlightened species is, judging by historical evidence, just sci-fi. I'd like the believe, I just think the people running the show aren't really "think of all the good we could do with this" kinda people.
Largely, humans are creatures of convenience. Observe the smartphone. The smart anything, really, as digital appliances have an increasingly larger hold over our day-to-day lives. It's convenience, and hey presto, it's convenience these AI developers are promoting primarily. Save your time and energy, let the AI do the work.

It's a nice, comforting thought, except I don't think Elon Musk or Bill Gates or the Google guy woke up this morning wondering how to make my life a little easier. I just don't think my personal welfare and satisfaction enters into their consideration a lot. So I'm a little skeptical about these "convenient" AI implements.

The AI didn't wanna take a picture, so here's one with me, instead, being all cosmic and trippy.

Especially as I see them take over the field that, for this brief (but for me, essential) time working in the real world, put food on the table. I've no illusions of grandeur, I'm the first to admit a lot of the copywriting work one does is basic, repetitive junk. It's not even a reflection of the writer's quality, but the buyer's demand. I've had this conversation many, many times. Buyers want basic, easy to scan through repetition of already-existing content, so maybe someone will check out their product, too.

The AI can do that.

And for me, and for all those people who got paid or still do for doing it, that's bad news. So on the one hand, you've got the "real world" where mechanic, repetitive jobs are being swallowed up whole...

... and then, you've got this place. I've been lucky here too. I'm also quite old (at least on here :D) that a lot of people know me from way back, so I do alright. The real kicker is, here, I get paid for writing the random stuff that goes through my head on the average afternoon.

I know this is no revelation to a Hive user, nor am I looking to write one of those gushy "oh aren't we cool here on the blockchain" posts.

I'm just saying it's mindboggling. Looking at it from the perspective of someone who's, you know, 24. Still quite young, especially in the working world. With universities and master's degrees, many of the people my age I know haven't even held a real job past the summer gig at the local cafe. So, as someone who's still getting used to what this world means, and what people are willing to give you money for, so that you can survive, there's this extreme dissonance between job loss, and streamlining, and essentially becoming redundant, and being paid and encouraged to write original, crazy content.

The other day, I stumbled on this podcast episode with a dude I'd never heard about, called Kevin Kelly. Essentially, he's a dude who wrote a book about how to live a more fruitful, satisfying life, but one thing he said really got to me. He said,

If you manage to hold on to that which made you weird as a kid, you're well on the way of being a successful, happy adult. If you manage to hold on to it.

His idea being that the more authentic you are, the more likely you are to build a new path. The harder you are to replace, says he, in this AI revolution. Obviously. This is the perfect example. What I used to write for some of my clients, easily done by a computer. Not to the same notch, obviously, I was and am good at that job, as well. But still, passable. But this, the crazy, drively stuff? Not so replaceable.

I also liked the idea of holding on to it. The insistence. Because many people lose it, as they go. It's very tempting to fit in, to bend yourself into a socially acceptable shape until there are no odd angles or corners jutting out. And it was so refreshing, hearing someone say, you know, maybe keep those angles and corners. Just like it's refreshing to have this place, which is essentially saying the same thing.

Still, the mind wonders. What about the people who aren't so lucky or refreshed, you know? It's very strange, and very hectic to me. Hell, I know we live in hectic times, but that doesn't make living them any less weird. So I think about the people who are a little younger than me, who are maybe coming up on an even worse dissonance. And I think about the people who've done the same jobs 30 years, and now, suddenly, they're told both how much they matter, and that they're irrelevant.

Dissonance.

What about the people who never hear that? Or those who maybe don't have that many edges and angles sticking out? Sure, they're a little flat by nature, but they still deserve to survive. I don't think they deserve to have their jobs taken by AI, certainly.