Are You an Artist? If Not, You Should Be!
A few weeks ago, I turned 23. For my birthday my wife and I decided to get a game we were both interested in. The basic premise is that androids are a major part of human life. One thing that interested me the most, was the everyone once in a while, there was a discussion of how androids had taken over many jobs and how people were dealing with it.
I don’t know how far away human-like androids are, but robots and artificial intelligence are at our doorstep and are beginning to break into the workplace and replacing jobs. Economically, it makes sense. The other day, I watched a few videos about robotic restaurants. They were able to make higher quality food for less money. A salad that would cost $11 at a regular restaurant, cost only $7.50 at a robotic one.
As of right now, we are not entirely sure how much and how soon robots will be doing regular work. But we do know it is coming and that people need to be ready for it. We will need a different kind of workforce. One that will be able to adapt, use, train with, create and innovate with new technology.
This means, that the demand for high-quality work, will become even more essential. It means that we can no longer have people working like cogs in a machine (because machines will be doing that anyway). To be successful, organizations and people will need to do something different. They need to create art.
For example, at one of the restaurants I mentioned earlier, the robot exists in place of the cook. However, each recipe was crafted by a chef. Seth Godin makes this exact distinction in his book, Linchpin: “A cook follows a recipe. A chef creates art. You can find plenty of cookbooks, but have you ever found a chefbook?”
A robot can replace a cook, but it cannot replace a chef. Each recipe was first the delicate creation of a chef, a thoughtful act to make a dish that people would love. The care that the chef put into each dish, to make sure it would make people happy, is what makes this restaurant remarkable, not that a robot made it. A robot cannot create art.
What do I mean by “art”? Seth Godin defines art on his blog as “… made by a human being. [It] is created to have an impact, to change someone else. [It] is a gift. You can sell the souvenir, the canvas, the recording… but the idea itself is free, and the generosity is a critical part of making art”. This opens up the definition of art so that we can become artists.
Now, there are a lot of jobs that will have to supplement machines, but I don’t want to get into that. What I want to emphasize, is that you shouldn’t expect to get to work and do something. You will be required to create something. Whether that is creating amazing recipes, a life-changing discussion, a program or a book, it will be the work you create that will matter most.
The title of this post asks if your work is remarkable. Art isn’t always good, but it is always remarkable. If you are constantly creating something to give, then you have more opportunities to give something that is great. Remarkable doesn’t mean it is perfect, it just means it is something that people can like and share with others.
So you can replace this question with “are you consistently creating and shipping something?” If you don’t produce something, even if it is bad, then you will never produce anything that is good.
Even though AI and robots will change things, being successful won’t be too different from today. We already need innovative creators. The most valuable people are artists. The thing that people are in most dire need is other people. In my opinion, machines will just be the force to drive people to do more of it.
So what are you going to create? What kind of art is waiting to pour out of you? Don’t wait until the machines are here to be an artist, start creating today.
