The rise of AI is forcing us to confront our complicated relationship with effort and worth. But this reckoning was long overdue. Our attachment to suffering as a proxy for value has been undermining our work, well-being, and creativity for centuries.

AI forces us to confront our dysfunctional relationship with work. It holds up a mirror to our culture’s deeply rooted belief that struggle equals value—and in that reflection lies a rare opportunity: to reimagine work in terms of outcomes, not optics; human flourishing, not performance theater.