The future of work 🤖

"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do."
– Steve Jobs

💭 Just a thought

In April of 2022, I created a note called "The Future of Work" where I dumped my thoughts on what, I think, the future of work will look like. It was born out of two things:

1. With the pandemic possibly ending soon, there were a lot of debates about what the future of work will look like in the new normal—back to the office, fully remote, hybrid?
2. And honestly, I just finished watching WeCrashed from Apple TV 😂 (a miniseries dramatizing the rise and fall of WeWork). WeWork wanted to build the future of work. A rush of ideas came flooding into my head.

In my notes, I wrote about how I think the future of work will be shaped by 3 principles: Optimization, Impact, and Connection. Since then, these became my guiding principles, especially in the work I do at Symph.

Optimization 📉

I define optimization as eliminating unnecessary work. I believe the future of work will make use of our hearts & minds. A work that makes us feel human, not one that makes us feel like a cog in a machine.

Last year, I thought optimization will be primarily attained by automating – automating unnecessary & repetitive work.

In November of 2022, OpenAI introduced ChatGPT which expanded what I have in my head as optimizing work. There are now stories where people don't have to hire a new employee because they have tools with Artificial Intelligence (AI) that can do the work. This sounds scary for most, initially. In the long term – I'd like to think that we, as people, can develop to fill a new need.

Impact 🚀

We don't optimize for the sake of itself. The reason for optimizing is to create the most impact possible. A business exists because it fills a need for various people. A business ceases to exist if it doesn't create an impact.

A meaningful business is one that creates an impact. Impact paves the way for meaningful work.

Connection 🤝

I believe the future of work keeps people connected. I think there is work that cannot be replaced by automation, or at least it shouldn't be. Most of the digital innovations in the 21st century exist with the mission to connect people — connect the world (Facebook), without boundaries (Twitter), belong anywhere (Airbnb).

Life & work is meaningful because of connection.

To put in other words, meaningful work is possible when it fosters connection. Connection is fostered in a work that creates an impact. Impact grows by optimizing.

💬 Closing thought

I see the future of work keeping these three principles:

• eliminate unnecessary work
• make the most impact possible
• keep people connected

For some of us in the tech space, we are re-discovering the possibilities of AI. One of the discussions I liked on AI is from Reid Hoffman's podcast, Possible. They discussed how using AI to clone yourself does not sound like the best way to capture its potential. You will just have more of you and what you can do.

The better way of using AI is when it allows you to grow and think differently, like a digital coach. This allows us to be more productive, and be better humans. I see the future of work aligning with this.

In this new wave of digital innovations, my positive outlook on it lies in the hope that more of us will get to do more of the things that give us life.

📣 Things I'm excited about

At Symph,

• We just wrapped up building 30 AI Apps until April 30. You can check out all the tools & use cases here: https://symph.ai/ (yes, there are more than 30).
• We're building Friendlist and it's launching soon. With the rise of AI tools powered by large language models, I see a world where we access the internet through conversations.

On AI,

• There's this tweet that blew up: 90% of My Skills Are Now Worth $0.
• I discovered Reid Hoffman's new podcast, Possible, just yesterday. Hence, the reference above. It also happens to explore the topic of what the future of work looks like across different professions.