Introduction

“Idle hands are the devil’s workshop” goes the proverb. With nothing productive to do, mischief and trouble are easily found. Psychologist Abraham Maslow emphasized the value of engaged activity, writing that human nature includes “the need for meaningful work…”

Unfortunately, “free markets” do not automatically create jobs. They do produce economic cycles and financial bubbles. Remember the overinvestment and global collapses associated with chainmail and broad swords? No? Well, me neither because they didn’t happen. But since the Industrial Revolution, economic depressions and recessions joined war, disease, and natural catastrophes as sources of human distress.

A recent Planet Money article – “What if an AI bubble bursts — and that accelerates AI job losses?” – summarized research on the mechanics of AI-driven disemployment. Findings indicate that economic recessions are when businesses replace employees with new technologies to reduce costs.

Learning on the Job

Early in my career, I worked at a logging camp in Cosmopolis, Washington. My arrival was unexpected and unwelcome. As a “college boy” sent by management, I was (accurately) marked as naïve and inexperienced.

Each morning, no matter how early, I always found Bob Schlessor, the “truck boss,” at his desk reading a book or talking into the company radio coordinating truck drivers from logging sites in the forests to sawmills and woodyards. Bob was a dedicated and wide-ranging reader.

Early on, Bob looked over and asked, “Brooks, you went to college. Right?” The six or seven other men in the office trailer stopped what they were doing to listen.

“Yes, I went to college,” I replied.

“Brooks, how does lightening works?” he asked.

“Bob, I don’t know how lightening works,” I said. Then Bob explained how electricity can build up in towering thunderclouds, and flashes of electricity can discharge between clouds as they draw together, or between charged clouds and the ground.

Days later, Bob looked my way again and asked, “Brooks, you went to college, right?”

“Yes, Bob, I went to college.”

“How does a flintlock rifle work?”

While awkward at first, those situations and Bob offered opportunities, and a choice on how to respond. We do not grow or build skills and trust through leisure or shortcuts. We advance through struggle and navigating difficult situations. Preparing for exams. Getting cold-called in class. Lifting weights. Reading books. Learning languages. Repairing relationships. Taking time to understand both sides. So many ways…

Another View of AI

If AI can do certain things quickly and easily, then those tasks become commoditized and less valuable. AI results become like mowing lawns or washing windows or grating cheese: easily done by anyone with the tools.

AI does not support human resilience, self-sufficiency, or emotional intelligence. While advanced tools can support medical research and other difficult problems, “artificial” intelligence also steals persistence and personal growth while monopolizing attention and concentrating wealth into the hands of a few.

Everything has tradeoffs. Do AI tools and businesses deliver more value to the average person earning for their family and the average child learning in school then they do for their owners? Work offers purpose, financial resources, and social connection, while unregulated AI seems to threaten all three. Leaders at AI firms, in their public words to slow down, know they’ve released a kraken and want space from their own responsibilities and accountability.

Conclusion

President Franklin Roosevelt and economist John Meynard Keyes, during the Great Depression, leaned into the importance of supporting and increasing employment. Without jobs and productive activity, we feel lost, bored, angry and become less self-sufficient. We need meaningful work more than we need social media, milk alternatives, and artificial intelligence.