This is already playing out in some technology roles. The blue collar work is annotating traces, collating data and testing. The white collar work is defining the behavior of agents and determine which model to point and where. Eventually more and more of the blue collared work gets automated. Just like what happened with manufacturing. First comes standardisation and then automation.
“AI doesn’t eliminate surplus. It expands it and then concentrates who gets it.”
Yes, increasingly powerful technologies are a magnifier of wealth disparity. My preferred future is one where many people are the shareholders of the ever improving thinking machines. (The electrocuted sand lol)
The valuable skills will continue to be decision-making (judgement/taste), emotional fluidity, relationships.
Joe Hudson wrote an article on this last year. He calls it “emotional clarity, discernment, and connection”
Fire blog
Thought provoking piece.
This is already playing out in some technology roles. The blue collar work is annotating traces, collating data and testing. The white collar work is defining the behavior of agents and determine which model to point and where. Eventually more and more of the blue collared work gets automated. Just like what happened with manufacturing. First comes standardisation and then automation.
Nice piece as usual Anu
“AI doesn’t eliminate surplus. It expands it and then concentrates who gets it.”
Yes, increasingly powerful technologies are a magnifier of wealth disparity. My preferred future is one where many people are the shareholders of the ever improving thinking machines. (The electrocuted sand lol)
The valuable skills will continue to be decision-making (judgement/taste), emotional fluidity, relationships.
Joe Hudson wrote an article on this last year. He calls it “emotional clarity, discernment, and connection”
https://every.to/thesis/knowledge-work-is-dying-here-s-what-comes-next
After knowledge work is wisdom work
In post-abundance world the internal is the frontier
White collar (laptop facing) the new blue collar
Blue collar the new gray collar (less susceptible to AI in the near time, but eventually susceptible)
Unemployed artists/musicians the new white collar (AI 'evals' on beauty are likely hurdle. Too many bayesian priors needed)
"Affiliation Arbitrage" is my favorite vocab of 2026. It already won the oscar in my heart.