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Around the world, there are many craftspeople who do what they do out of love. Many are not ambitious, but they love the pursuit of their craft, mastering technique and making something beautiful. They can work many years happily in the satisfaction of what they’ve made.
I’ve been thinking a lot about craft lately, so Sarah Clatterbuck’s piece caught my eye. I don’t want to ruin the close for you, but the gist is that working with inquisitive people who care not only about how things work, but why they work, and enjoy making those things goes a long way to enjoying one’s career (and improving one’s own craft).
I’ve often been lucky to work with such people, but what’s been taking up cycles in my brain lately is this: what happens to craft in a world of AI?
There is a lot of mundane in my job. A good chunk of it I would be happy to have AI take away, but some of that mundane is integral to a process where I get deep enough in the details to notice things that someone else wouldn’t have noticed. I have to because I am driven by the “how” and “why” questions of design and software engineering. And also by the empathy to consistently imagine the person who will ultimately use the thing I’m making, and what they will experience.
Even in the best scenario where AI simply lifts us out of the drudgery, I worry that something will be lost in the learning process that helped me develop what I consider to be a high level of craft in my work. What replaces that? What becomes the craft if the idea is all that is needed to execute? Is that good or bad? Or maybe something altogether new that I can’t think of?
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I try not to link to social media threads here, but sometimes that’s where the good stuff resides.
If you wanted to crawl into my head and do a better job of articulating my anxiety and muddy thoughts around how AI has changed (or might? (or will??)) the trajectory of my career, Kyle Hughes has done it.
Granted, it almost has to be business as usual because what other option is there? Either it won’t happen or we’ll be homeless.
Right, like do I stay in a job longer than I would have before because it feels “secure”? Do I pretend several CEOs (named and unnamed) haven’t put a giant target on my back and apply to work for their companies, hoping to eek a few more years of pay out before AI sends me off into the sunset? What’s the best course of action in an environment like this? It’s unknowable, in my opinion.
What do we tell students?
Oof, yeah, this. I have several friends with kids at the “considering college” age and I do not envy that calculus right now.
My brain plugged along for 30 years without ever having the passing thought that my value could be automated. In some ways, I physically can’t comprehend it.
Same. It’s one thing to watch a job move another country and see different humans take it on at a cheaper rate; that’s comprehensible. But to be told that you—and any other human who does what you do on the planet—simply won’t be needed in the near (maybe less than 12 months) future is just something else! And, twist: good luck finding a new career that isn’t also similarly affected.
Interact
In this thread, I will explore some ideas on why Tokyo is so fashionable. Some of it does have to do with culture, but as you’ll see in the thread, culture is also shaped by political, economic, and institutional forces. IMO, one should look for structural reasons for outcomes.
Again with the social media threads, yes, but this is a masterclass!
Derek Guy makes some excellent observations and arguments as to why multiple facets (and forces) of Japanese culture & society right now are driving fashion choices in Japan’s largest city.
Is this the effect of appreciating craft? He argues that’s too simple of a reason.
But to be honest, when I feel the most optimistic about Sam Altman’s proclamation that “much of society will soon be up for debate” (paraphrasing), I hope for something like Tokyo’s fashion scene on a grander scale: a movement to value physical objects, experiences, and perhaps even digital craft in a way our current digital economy eschews.