They Took Our Jobs: AI and the Future of Work

Are you ready? For the shortest podcast slash vlog ever? You’re ready? Here we go. Is AI going to take your job? Is AI going to take your job? Well, if you’re more on the answer’s yes. If you are a moron AI is going to make you or Oliver irrelevant and take your job. Let’s have that irrelevant to get our error. What did that sound like? Alright? If you’re a moron like I am, you are at risk of losing your job to artificial intelligence, what can you do to make that not happen? To protect yourself? From our robot overlords, making you completely irrelevant? Just stop being a moron. Good. Good. All right. Have you heard of the future of work? Have you ever gone to a presentation or watched a YouTube video? Because you saw this is going to be about the future of work? Like, yeah, I’m interested in that. And I want to know, in the future, what work is going to look like? And we’re gonna go into the office? Are we going to have work at all? What’s what’s it going to be like? So there’s this entire industry, and there’s tons of what appear to be intelligent people who are talking about the future of work. And I’ve been sitting through these kinds of talks or presentations for the better part of a decade. And what I’ve always discovered is, nobody knows what work is going to look like in the future. They just tell you, it’s going to be different. In the future work is going to be different than it is today. Wow. Okay. So just like work is always different than it was in the past. Is that? Is that what you’re telling me? Future of Work practitioner? Oh, well. So there is an entire industry around it. That’s not really relevant to our conversation today. What is artificial intelligence? What is a AI? Well, the name essentially says it all. Artificial. The a, an AI stands for artificial. So that means it’s fake. Its effect similarly, it is it is manufactured, when you and I have, as human beings have is real, or actual intelligence. So going back to the original thing, if you are unwilling and able to foster and develop your real intelligence, then you might be in trouble in whatever the future of work looks like. And I’m not, you know, there’s greater conversations to be had about what real intelligence is? And why is the intelligence that I have between my ears, different or superior, or better or whatever, then it computers? Sure, that’s an interesting conversation to have. But for the purposes of what we’re doing here, artificial is fake. You and I real. Okay. So, my guess is that you are fine. You’re good. In the intelligence category, you have the IQ necessary to thrive and succeed and to do whatever you want in the current environment of work and the future environment or work, whatever that’s going to look to that you are in possession of a smartphone, or a computer that you are watching listening to this on your computer, your device is, in fact connected to the internet, and that you are listening to this suggest that you have everything that you need. In the intelligence category, you’re not deficient or you have the tools that you need to enter into the game of the future of work. Fact, I think that your future success and position with our robot artificial AI overlords, has really nothing to do with your intelligence, rather, it’s going to come down to your behaviors. So I want to talk about that. Do you remember the story of the little red hen? It’s a children’s book. Like so many children’s book. This one is iconic, and it’s solid. Long and short of it is that the little red hen gets the idea that she wants to bake some bread and figures out what the process is for baking the bread. So she finds some seeds and she asks to the other barnyard animals who will plant the seed. She hears back Matt I from the cat not i from the rat, not I from the other animals. So little hat redhead says oh, well, I will. And so she did. She goes through asking who will cut the wheat not me. me, Okay, I will she says who will Thresh the wheat? Not me. Okay, I will who will carry the wheat to the mill? Me? Okay, I will who’s going to actually bake the bread? Not me. Fine. I will. Then when everything comes to the the bread takes its final form. And the delicious smells are wafting through the barnyard. And the little hen asks, Who will help me eat the bread? Who will eat the bread and all these barnyard animals show up ready to go? It is I will, instead of not I so their game to actually eat the bread, but they weren’t necessarily interested in helping to bake and prepare, do everything necessary to actually do that. And so, of course, the little hen says, No, you will not. Not today. barnyard animals. No, thank you. I will. And she did. So right now. And probably always. I feel like we’ve got way too many other barnyard animals running around, and not enough little red hands. But do you think? Put another way, it’s just wonderful quote. Wonderful quote, nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not the world is full of educated derelicts. persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. Hmm. That comes from Calvin Coolidge. What is omnipotent mean? It means unlimited power. So persistence and determination give you unlimited power. Right now we’re talking about the power of artificial intelligence, power of AI. Powerful. Everybody’s gotta use it. Everybody’s got to jump on this thing right now. Now, you’re going to be left behind. You are going to be left behind you dinosaur. If you’re not fully all in on AI. Maybe, maybe. But I’m with Coolidge on this one. persistence and determination. That is the key to unlimited power. So I think that that’s what each of us really ought to be cultivating. We ought to be focusing spending our time attention on it. Let me put it a third and final way, just to really drive this home. There’s this great address, call it a speech made by someone named Albert II and gray in 1940. It is called the common denominator of success. If you’ve not read the common the common denominator, common denominator, say that 10 times fast. What was I struggling with earlier? From 1940. Mr. Gray says the common denominator of success, the secret of success of every person who has ever been successful, lies in the fact that they formed the habit of doing things that failures don’t like to do. Let me read that again. So it really sinks in the common denominator of success, the secret of success, and every person who has ever been successful, lies in the fact that they’ve formed the habit of doing things that failures don’t like to do. Getting it? Of course you are, you’re an intelligent person. Intelligence is not enough. persistence and determination are omnipotent. To enjoy the benefits, you must do the work. Mr. Gray talks about the key is creating habits of doing things that failures do not like to do and are not willing to do. So the key make habits of doing stuff that losers don’t want to do, that they’re not willing to do. And you don’t have to like doing them. You probably won’t. You don’t have to like probably don’t, but you still need to do them. That’s the trick. Those things, whatever they are, whatever the things are in your life that absolutely must be done. Whether you like to do it or not.

Are your table stakes. That’s what’s going to get you into the game. The game of the future. It’s going to demand It has always demanded that you do the things that other people are unwilling to do. These are your table stakes. No doubt you are familiar with the idea of needs versus wants. I talk a lot about it in the context of budgeting, and money. But you can look at it in the context of just your most valuable resources. time, attention, energy, and money. So how do you make decisions on where to allocate those what to spend those things on? If you spent it all on things you wanted to do, you’re not going to do the things that need to be done. Needs, literally stuff you can’t live without food, housing, transportation, clothing, sleep, medicine, stuff like that, once. That’s, that’s the great stuff. This is stuff that accentuates life, it’s going out for dinner, it’s designer clothing, it’s fancy jewelry, it’s wonderful experiences in vacations. All the awesome stuff I get it needs are things you must have once again, accentuate. So your table stakes, what I’ve been talking about, these are your needs, like eating, sleeping, going to the bathroom, brushing your teeth and getting dressed. So, again, do you know what your table stakes are? Do you know what the table stakes are? For the success that you desired? You want this? Do you know what you need to do to get this? Most of us don’t. And even those that do fail to consistently do them. We start we stop, we start with stop. We’re looking to create real sustainable habits and routines over doing the things that must be done. These are the prerequisites of success that you want and that I want for you. That’s the key to beating the robots. It lies in the doing of what must be done the doing of what must be done. So whether you’re tired, and you don’t want to do it, whether you feel like doing it or not. There’s so many reasons to not do things. I’ll do it tomorrow. Do it next week. I’ll get around to it. Yeah, for sure. And then we rationalize it. We explain it away. That’s not getting you anywhere. That’s putting you at risk for Skynet to come and swoop in and take your job, buddy. Give it the program. You want to dig deeper into figuring out because me just telling you to No, no, do just just do it. Just you need to know what’s most important. I know it’s not obvious. And if it were obvious if it were easy, everybody would do it. You’d like to dig deeper into figuring out what your actual table stakes are. Or taking a big step back. HUGE step back. If you want to figure out what it is they want. And then figure out what your table stakes are. And then figure out how to make habits out of doing them. Courage, check out the purpose book. I’ll link it in the notes. can have it done 90 minutes. Anyway, real intelligence, persistence and determination. That’s where it’s at. It’s where it’s always been at. You know it to be true. So, put yours to work. Do your part, but doing your best