Recently I was asked to give a talk about the future of work for some students visiting London. In doing so I was reminded of the things which frustrate me about the subject, and the things I want to see included more often.
Briefly, we’re being too lazy and I believe we can aim much higher. Let me explain…
The narrative which appears to have been set for this topic is bleak — robots will soon be able to do more of the jobs that we currently do, whilst artificial intelligence will start to outpace us. In short, techonology is going to put a lot of us out of work.
I find this intensely frustrating. The tone of the debate is one almost based on fear. A lot is written about how many jobs will be disrupted by technology in this way, and these articles seems intent on painting a dire future.
What adds to the frustration is the sense that no-one really knows what’s going on right now.
The world of work has already changed dramatically, and Somewhere exists to try to comprehend that shift.
We can do more, though. I want to talk about the future in positive terms because I’d like the debate to be more hopeful than fearful.
If I have a voice in the future of work, then Somewhere is my opinion on what it should look like. Clearly, I believe in opening up the world of work, and that greater transparency will benefit us all.
If I have an opinion on how things should progress, then my response would be to solve the hard problems.
The hard problems are the ones we’re ignoring right now. Whenever we get excited about how robots will affect us, how AI will change the landscape of work, let’s stop and consider the hard problems of transparency, equality and diversity.
These are the foundations. Nothing else matters until we can answer those questions.
Once we have greater transparency, equality and diversity, then we can talk about the exciting possibilities afforded by new software and, increasingly, hardware.
It’s easy to lose focus, of course. When we’re faced with difficult problems that involve admitting we haven’t done enough it’s easy to get distracted. It’s difficult to admit we’ve not done enough, but we have to acknowledge it.
This should be an easy problem to fix. With more awareness, we could make big changes to the diversity and equality of the teams we work with.
It’s my belief that Somewhere can play a part in that process. Greater transparency around our daily work can play a role in making the future of work a better place, not one to be scared of.
We all have a voice in this future of work, and we can build it together by promoting the things we believe in today.
