I’ve noticed this addition in my minimalist email app SuperHuman:
automated followups and automated responses.
On the surface: great
In reality: more busiwork.
Emails create more emails.
AI techbros love to say that AI will free us from the admin work and multiply our productivity…
but will it really?
Just what we needed:
Fifty more emails chasing us for something we only talked about yesterday!
We already suffer an excess of information, folks are struggling with information overload already….
In the 1960s when they introduced of electric hoovers, ready-made meals and microwaves,
housewives believed these tools would free them from responsibilities of running a house.
But what happened?
We adjusted our standards
People now expect spotless homes,
shirts need ironed every day,
delicious meals should be available on demand.
It didn’t reduce the burden, it increased expectations.
Women were forced to shoulder more responsibility, not for the first or last time…
Workplace equality may have been source of empowerment
But the net effect on families was not the expected income boost:
Prices are determined by what people are willing and able to pay.
- So houseprices go up,
- Cost of living increases.
- Families have less disposable income, and a greater financial burden, and less free time.
- Nobody got rich,
- but now both parents are required to work to make ends meet,
- plus keep a spotless house,
- plus raise perfect kids.
Unfortunatley we haven’t learned much from this.
Techbros believe AI is going to help us be more productive human robots, producing ever more value for our tax-mongering governments and corporate overlords.
Before self-scan checkouts entered the supermarket, we used to wait in line for a human to scan our shopping.
Now we wait in line for a miserable underpaid human to shamble over with an electric key to override the scanner which malfunctions every 3rd item.
The net effect is the same;
The supermarket has cut it’s workforce spending.
More profit for them, but somehow we ended up doing more of their work for them. 🤔
And worse, they strip the small social interactions that keep people connected as a species.
Remote workers already struggle with lonliness.
Now whole swathes of the workforce can look forward to spending their day interacting with AI bots.
Knowledge workers will become “checkout operators”, reduced to connecting apps with AI output which won’t integrate.
For the solopreneur, AI has immense s benefits in specific niche areas.
But in a lot of areas I feel it’s creating more busiwork, without adding value.
My fear is not about AI. AI is happening. AI is just another tool in the workplace.
My fear is that the SAAS industry is shoehorning in AI features without thinking about whether they add value for customers.
We don’t need more comms, we need less.
We don’t need more information, we need less.
We need to control our information diet.
We need AI tools that removes admin, busiwork, and labour.
P.s If you ARE scared about AI, here’s the strategy I’m using to protect my value against ai
