The meaning of work and the meaning of life, living, and being a human.

Elon University survey finds Americans fear AI will hollow out the meaning of work
An Elon University national survey finds Americans worry AI will reduce jobs, pay and purpose at work, even as many use AI and expect to adapt.
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Fearing AI, young workers retrain for hands-on jobsSome young workers are leaving office jobs for teaching, health care and the trades out of concern about AI. The shift shows how anticipated automation is already shaping career choices and trade-offs.
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Will AI leave us in charge of our own work?Economics Observatory examines whether AI adoption will preserve or erode workers' control over how they do their jobs, a question central to job quality.
Human take
Most will be a meat proxy. Better question: Will AI leave us in charge of our own world?
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Developers are burned out, disengaged, and facing an AI-powered reset, a survey of 30,000 workers foundA Stack Overflow survey of about 30,000 developers found wide adoption of AI coding tools alongside burnout, disengagement, and distrust of AI-generated output.
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AI could push 11 million Americans into new careers by 2035A McKinsey Global Institute report projects AI could force about 11 million Americans to change careers by 2035, identifying shrinking and growing jobs and the workers facing the hardest transitions.
Human take
11 million is conservative, and so is the timeline. This will happen faster and at a larger scale than this estimation.
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The rise of the 'two-job job': 61% of workers say they're now doing more than one role | FortuneA Korn Ferry survey of over 16,000 professionals finds 61% now do more than one role, with rising workloads and falling motivation as firms flatten management and rely on AI.
Human take
If you are not a developer, you can use AI to code an entire video game. If you are not a tax professional, you can use AI to do your taxes. There's still value in human specialized skills, especially for checking AI work, but this is a gap to close, not a forever-feature.
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US payroll data shows young workers' jobs most affected by artificial intelligenceUS payroll data shows employment for 22–25-year-olds in AI-exposed roles fell 4.4% year-on-year in August, continuing monthly declines since October 2023, a sign of early-career displacement.
Josh Alley