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November 25, 2003

Which jobs to be automated?

The Metro Milwaukee Association of Commerce had this in their latest newsletter: "Motivation: If a pretty poster & a cute saying are all it takes to motivate you, you probably have a very easy job, the kind that robots will be doing soon." (Apparently this is from Despair, Inc.)

It's an odd thing that way too many people think that robots (and their little friend the computer chip) can't automate what they do. For most jobs - and careers - about 80% of what you do is probably better done by a machine. If not now, then 10 years from now.

If you want to stay employed and vitally involved, without the use of motivational posters, you have to figure out your unique 20%.

So ask yourself four questions (But don't answer them w/o doing a lot of reading about the not too distant computer capabilities and their implications.):

1. What is it that you can do that cannot be automated?
2. Is anyone going to pay you to do that?
3. Is it legal for them to pay you to do that?
4. What can you do that you want to do?

The last question is the most important because it has to do with that distinction between a job and a career. Jobs are what you either have to have or what you take because it's what's available. Careers are what you choose (unless you had high pressure parents who told you to become a lawyer) to do because you want to do it. A great career is the sort of thing where after you do it and then you get paid, you almost feel guilty for taking the money because you enjoyed it so much you would have done it for free. (There's a lot of professional speakers who secretly feel this way!)

There are two words, Vocation and Education, that you need to consider their Latin roots. Vocare means "a calling." Educare means "to draw out what is already there." The best sort of educational system is one that knows how to draw out and help develop in a person what is already there so that they are then able to hear their calling to do what they are supposed to do. My suspicion is that people with callings may get knocked down by automation from time to time, but they don't stay that way. Their calling won't let them stay down.

Posted by dmzach

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