Jobs are going to just get obsolete. Work is different.
Work is creating value.
Just found this thinker Douglas Rushkoff and am in the middle of Life, Inc. Today I check out his blog, and there’s this video.
Just to warn you, there is an AD at the front of this:
Reminds me of Michael Linton’s “Open Money” concept. Local currencies.
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Wow. Well.. Who is “we”, and what is “need”? Do *some* people need a job? Yes. They do.
It’s easy for those of us in the creative class to talk about jobs vs career vs calling. And while his points are generally quite good, he has also fallen into the trap of equating value with work.
Which I think gets to the more fundamental question of our future.
When goods and services can be produced largely without the input of human labor, what other kinds of value remain that humans can create? And would this value creation still be considered “work” in the traditional sense.
Have you read Schrödinger’s Cat Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson? In its hypothetical planet earth, a radical President offers rewards to whoever invents machine to outsource his/her own job. I know, it’s really just a joke, but it’s a fun comparison/aside.
On to your questions:
Do some people need a job, in the economy that’s based on real value exchange? I really doubt that, albeit this is only still at the theoretical, and not practical, level. Sure, people will have jobs, but that will be a choice, not a need.
And the answer to the second question (what remains?) is, in my opinion, creativity. Seth Godin, in his book Linchpin, makes a good argument regarding everyone having a choice to become a creative, and thus, a value-provider. Whether that’s traditionally defined as “work” in the society is besides the point, IMHO.
Exactly, whether or not what someone does to create value can be considered “work” in the traditional sense is irrelevant. Also, another of Rushkoff’s points is that we would do well to expand the definition of what constitutes work to include creative activity and anything else that generates value.
I couldn’t agree with you more, anyway l love your site layout. Is nice and clean.