The “future of work” becomes “work”

There’s a genuine reorientation in the nation’s labor philosophy, and it seems to grow more fervent with each passing day. “As a result of the pandemic, most people realized that a seemingly safe job or industry can change overnight, and we really can’t predict those circumstances,” says Dorie Clark, a professor at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business a... See more

It leads to major cost savings for companies. Tech is evolving rapidly, and the truth is that some jobs might become obsolete, making specialized, temporary skills more valuable.

This shift aligns with a cultural change where people are less loyal to long-term employers and more interested in using their skills independently to earn more.

This chan... See more

I think it’s particularly important for us to figure out this third-way because I believe many more jobs will fit its mold in the future. The ability for algorithmically managed work to lower transaction costs and enable networks of loosely connected gig workers to coordinate on complex tasks is too powerful to be a passing fad.

This new reality is less about everyone transforming into their own brand or even becoming an independent contractor at the whims of a mercurial gig economy—it will be the very basis for life, or at least livelihood. It's the creation of a future in which we can never afford to stop working, or better yet, where work doesn’t actually feel like work... See more

The broader trend here is the disaggregation of work. Younger people are more distrustful of institutions and “traditional” careers—having been burned by both the Great Recession and the Covid-19 economic crisis—and are turning to freelance work.