Make no mistake, there is a war going on. There may be no guns firing, yet, no tanks out on the lawn, and no bombs raining down over your house… yet. But you are in a battle, no doubt. And it’s only going to intensify.
This isn’t a war over territory or national treasures. This is a war about resource ownership, about who accrues riches, fame, and all the other advantages success brings.
It’s a war over who gets to earn big profits doing whatever the hell they like, and those stuck fighting like rats in a barrel over the few boring, mundane, and soul-destroying jobs— soon all that will be left in the corporate world.
We have a huge enemy coming for us, and not one of our so-called leaders have the slightest clue what to do about it.
That enemy is called automation, or AI.
Perhaps when you were a kid you used to watch sci-fi movies and get scared that the robots were coming to get you.
Well, now they are.
Automation is on its way, and it’s coming for pretty much every sector of the economy. Low-skilled jobs will go, of course. Amazon already has robots packing parcels in warehouses and drones delivering them to households.
But it doesn’t stop there. Increasingly, even what were previously regarded as ‘skilled jobs’ will be at risk. Aspects of legal work can be automated. So can accountancy. Even simple medical prescriptions can be compiled and dispensed mechanically. And, while academia is still alive (just), people—increasingly turned off by outrageous university fees—are able to study in virtual classrooms online.
A great many corporate jobs will fall victim to this new trend. Advertising, the sector that I worked in for many years, is becoming more and more automated as programmatic advertising across TV, radio, and the internet becomes the norm. Banking jobs—including trading—can be done by machines.
Many, many forms of work that we used to take for granted are about to dry up. And no one really has a clue what to do about it. Of course, we hear platitudes from politicians and those with vested interests about retraining and ‘upskilling’. But if you’ve worked all your life in the motor industry, and you’re over fifty, is it really feasible that you’re going to retrain as an AI technician (or for whatever other jobs are available).
Not only is all of this inevitable, it is unstoppable. There is absolutely nothing you or I can do about it. Even if politicians could affect it, they are powerless in the face of big business. Business always seek to cut costs as much as is humanly possible.
When faced with such a dire situation, it’s easy to look into the future as though one is staring into the abyss. It’s easy to feel helpless. Fortunately, though, there is a solution.
This is the introduction to my new book RELENTLESS PRODUCTIVITY. If you would like to receive a copy free of charge, simply join my DAILY email list and then drop me a note to confirm you’d like the book.
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