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Creative Work

Entry 2240, on 2022-09-28 at 10:10:55 (Rating 1, Comments)

I recently listened to a Joe Rogan Experience podcast which I thought was worthy of discussion here in a blog post. Note that Joe, and his podcast, are often denigrated by people - especially those on the political left - but he has some of the most sophisticated, thoughtful, intelligent people as guests, along with some other, more controversial ones (not thinking of anyone in particular of course... Alex Jones).

Anyway, the guest on this occasion was Naval Ravikant, an American (originally Indian) entrepreneur and investor. There were many topics covered by I want to concentrate on one in particular: the future of work.

Originally humans worked for themselves, or in small groups, as hunters and gatherers, then with the agricultural revolution they became farmers which were also in most cases working for themselves or with a few other individuals. When the industrial revolution came along, then corporatisation, we changed to having large, formal workplaces with strict hierarchies, very specific and narrow roles, and many restrictions, rules, and regulations.

There is no doubt that superficially we all have far better standards of living as a result, except for one thing: independence. Our lives are now strictly built around inflexible working hours, a hierarchy where independent thought and action is discouraged or even punished, and very narrow roles which are usually tedious and often don't make use of the workers' true abilities.

And I think that is why many people are unhappy at work, even though they might have a nice house, car, the latest iPhone, and whatever other material possessions might be seen as desirable. Research has shown that the main thing most people want from their work is not more money, or less hours, but more freedom to work the way that they enjoy, and less control from managers.

A couple of points here: first, I realise that some people do have more flexible work requirements now, thanks to COVID work from home rules; and second, I don't have any formal statistics which prove my assertion that people are less happy in their work now than they might have been in the past.

Also note that I am not comparing now with the situation 50 or 100 years ago; I'm talking about before the industrial revolution when were few large work environments, like factories. Work conditions have improved in most ways since that revolution began, but there are still significant problems compared with before that.

We are now undergoing the next revolution: the information revolution. As automation increases there will be less need for tedious, repetitive jobs which will be done by robots and other forms of automation. The question is what will people do when these jobs (even if they are mindless and unrewarding) are no longer there?

Some people advocate for universal basic incomes (UBIs) which are basic living expenses, provided by the government, which everyone gets even without a job. It's a bit like social security but for everyone. If someone wants more than they can afford with a UBI they would need to find a job to make that extra income.

But Ravikant doesn't like the idea, partly because people will see themselves as having no value if they do nothing and still live comfortably. But he thinks there will still be jobs, and points out that despite more automation the unemployment rate is currently very low. Workers might not be working on production lines any more, because of robots, but they are still finding other jobs to do. I would say a lot of them are completely pointless, but they do exist!

The place where artificial intelligence currently fails is with creativity. Most AI systems learn by imitation, or trial and error, but there isn't a lot of true creativity there. He says it will be a long time before AGI (artificial general intelligence) is developed, and until then there is still a place for creative, flexible humans.

I'm not as negative about AGI as he is, and it may be that the step from current AI technology to the same systems which include creativity isn't as big as he thinks, but currently he is absolutely right.

So technology should allow us to work far more flexibly, creatively, and happily by allowing us to operate in the way we want to on projects which interest us. Currently most work environments are still working under the old, inflexible paradigm, but there are signs that things might need to change because of shortages of skilled workers, a demand for more flexible work environments, and the ability to streamline work through the use of computers and other machines.

The aim would be to have people do the creative "work" - if you could even call it that - and have machines do all the unpleasant, tedious stuff for us. I still think AI will eventually become creative, but that might be a while in the future, so at least humans have an interim role.

Other futurists predict that we will merge with the machines, forming a creative human and dependable machine hybrid with the best of both worlds. I know this sounds like science fiction, but a lot of what we accept today was science fiction 100 or even just 50 years ago.

The attitude I have is this: our current style of work is not natural; it was invented to suit the requirements of large companies and corporations after the industrial revolution. We invented that style of work and we can un-invent it and create something better to suit the next revolution: the automation revolution.

I have always enjoyed working in areas which combine science and art, and the main part of my work which I loosely describe as "art" is the creativity involved in programming and creating websites, databases, etc. Creating computer software in various forms is a nice combination of art and science, and I would do that whether I was paid or not.

And that is the sort of job every one should have; they should be doing stuff they want to do and would do without being paid. This would usually involve some for of creativity, and it seems to me that is a far better use of human's time than the mundane activities many people currently get paid to perform.

Comment 1 (7306) by thetinywoman on 2022-09-29 at 09:29:15:

Great post! One of the many reasons why humans should work on creative pursuits, it's a "skill" that can't be easily replaced.

Comment 2 (7307) by OJB on 2022-09-29 at 09:30:40:

Exactly. And creative pursuits tend to be things which give people greater job satisfaction as well. It's just a matter of whether there are enough creative jobs to go around, and whether there are enough genuinely creative people.

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