The Inevitable Future of Jobs with Wired Founder Kevin Kelly

Everyday in the media is an article about jobs— how they’re disappearing for the middle class, how robots and artificial intelligence are stealing them, how the Gig-Economy is forcing people to do mundane tasks for less money. How true is it that our jobs are disappearing and how much is technology to blame? Just in my lifetime how I do my tasks has changed quite a bit—- the tools I use to do them, where I do my job, how I find work, and the skills I need to do it. Even how movies depict technology has radically changed— from the slapstick robots in 1986’s “Short Circuit” to scary-as-shit “Ex Machina” artificial intelligence. It seems that our fear that the singularity or technology is going to somehow make us extinct is at a fevered pitch. What is the inevitability of the future of jobs and why can’t we imagine what that looks like? It’s hard to imagine talking to anyone better about this, than Kevin Kelly. He’s the co-founder of Wired Magazine (as he calls it the “Senior Maverick”) and he has a recent book called, “The Inevitable” (which has recently been released in paperback). It’s a New York Times and Wall Street Journal Best Seller. What Kevin has done is mapped the 12 major trends that have already made themselves apparent and will definitely shape our future. Kevin is amazing at packaging all those ideas that live within those trends and making those things digestible. As you’ll hear, us humans are pretty horrible at figuring out what’s coming next. In this conversation, we zeroed-in on one of the major changes that’s happening all around us— it really is a megatrend— and that’s the future of jobs, how work is going to change and why. So, if you’re entering the workforce, you’re in a job that feels like it may be made redundant, or you’re just wondering where you should lean in, make sure you give this episode a listen and be sure you’ve got the leg up on what the future looks like for your and your children’s jobs. Link: http://www.growbigalways.com/episodes/kevin-kelly

Everyday in the media is an article about jobs— how they’re disappearing for the middle class, how robots and artificial intelligence are stealing them, how the Gig-Economy is forcing people to do mundane tasks for less money. How true is it that our jobs are disappearing and how much is technology to blame?

Just in my lifetime how I do my tasks has changed quite a bit—- the tools I use to do them, where I do my job, how I find work, and the skills I need to do it. Even how movies depict technology has radically changed— from the slapstick robots in 1986’s “Short Circuit” to scary-as-shit “Ex Machina” artificial intelligence. It seems that our fear that the singularity or technology is going to somehow make us extinct is at a fevered pitch. 

What is the inevitability of the future of jobs and why can’t we imagine what that looks like? It’s hard to imagine talking to anyone better about this, than Kevin Kelly. He’s the co-founder of Wired Magazine (as he calls it the “Senior Maverick”) and he has a recent book called, “The Inevitable” (which has recently been released in paperback). It’s a New York Times and Wall Street Journal Best Seller. What Kevin has done is mapped the 12 major trends that have already made themselves apparent and will definitely shape our future. Kevin is amazing at packaging all those ideas that live within those trends and making those things digestible. As you’ll hear, us humans are pretty horrible at figuring out what’s coming next. 

In this conversation, we zeroed-in on one of the major changes that’s happening all around us— it really is a megatrend— and that’s the future of jobs, how work is going to change and why. So, if you’re entering the workforce, you’re in a job that feels like it may be made redundant, or you’re just wondering where you should lean in, make sure you give this episode a listen and be sure you’ve got the leg up on what the future looks like for your and your children’s jobs. 

Music credit: Automatic, by John Murphy

Image credit: Danomyte, Shutterstock