Jobs of the near-term future will have three components: dream, create, perform. Each part is interwoven and material to the whole.
Dreaming is the precursor to doing great things. What differentiates humans from bots and algorithms is our ability to imagine. While robots can be programmed for artistic talent, they can’t aspire beyond their designed consciousness. Not yet, anyway.
And while machines can create just about anything they’re told to make, they can’t forecast the emotional landscape of the human heart and build on impulse. I’ve been listening to How I Built This, which is a podcast on entrepreneurialism, and it’s fascinating to hear how people create successful companies. Our biases and weaknesses impede societal evolution, but they also cause artists and entrepreneurs to act and solve problems in creative and innovative ways.
No robot can create Stitch Fix, and no algorithm could create FUBU.
Finally, all near-term jobs will require some level of performance. It’s not enough to make a burger; it’s how you serve the meal. No longer enough to cut hair, but, instead, you need to impact your customer’s life. As I write this blog post, I know that hitting the publish button is the first step in my audience’s journey. Relationships differentiate me from a content bot on AOL.
So, the three components of future jobs look like this: dream, create, perform. Beyond authenticity, it’s vulnerability. And that’s easier said than done.
It used to be that only artists thought about the creative process. Now, everybody is an artist, and, ultimately, a student of how their work gets done. If you don’t hone and guard your creative process, you’ll lose out to the commoditized products created by robots.
Welcome to the future of work, my friends. You can beat the robots, but you must allow yourself to be human and vulnerable. I think it’s worth a try.