Technology is taking away jobs faster than before. Today, with advances in AI and ML coming daily, is not the same as yesterday, which brought slow but important improvements in manual tasks.
As an entrepreneur and humanist, this excites me. These are opportunities to make the world safer (self-driving cars), cleaner (smart agriculture), and more accessible (cheaper goods brought by lights-out factories).
As an entrepreneur and humanist, this worries me. These same advances will take away jobs at a faster rate than we've seen before.
These jobs - long hours delivery driving, manual labor picking crops, dangerous and toxic (looking at you, Foxconn) factory work - are not glamorous (but neither is pharmaceutical sales). And they're often not well-paying (but neither is art). And they're often not fun or rewarding (but neither is management consulting).
But a job is more than the paycheck. As JD Vance writes, it is pride and hope. It gives us comfort to support ourselves and our families. It moves society forward. It creates a ladder towards mobility and self-improvement.
So while I am excited, I am also worried. I worry for the hundreds of food delivery drivers I have managed. I worry for the many more that self-driving delivery vehicles will (but not for a while) replace. I worry for the factory workers and the laborers and the financial advisors. Sometimes, I worry for myself.
But in every worry is an opportunity. What that exactly looks like, I have yet to decide. But it's out there.
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