LinkedIn regularly suggests that I congratulate friends for having spent a certain number of years in a job. Very often I know that they hate that job. And yet our cultural norm is that surviving a job that makes you miserable is better than not having one.
I see many articles on the subject of Universal Basic Income and the assumption that automation of white collar jobs will drastically increase unemployment. Will this force us to reconsider our concept of a job — the sense of self that comes with the role, the importance of the job title, the reassuring structure of office hours and the commute?
Will the gig economy expand to accommodate the potentially high numbers of people cast adrift from large corporations? Will we shift our focus and find new and creative ways to help each other and use our time well? Or will we end up languishing in some Wall-E style technology supported sloth?
I guess we are about to find out…
The Obvious? 