The Workforce Is About to Change Dramatically

Option 1: The optimistic scenario

Technology continues to do what it has done for more than a century: create new jobs. Meanwhile, AI lowers the barrier to entry, more people can become knowledge workers, and knowledge work itself becomes democratized. The economic pie grows and everyone gets a bigger slice. As more people join the ranks, the exclus

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Since only 3% of American workers in 2017 worked from home, there’s a huge, aspirational gap between today and the future of work.

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.

A home used to be a place for people to just live. But if it’s a place to live, or work, or be on vacation, then people can work from many homes if they want. Our relationship to our homes is changing.

What we have learned — what we were forced to learn — during the COVID lockdowns has permanently shattered these assumptions. It turns out many of the best jobs really can be performed from anywhere, through screens and the internet. It turns out people really can live in a smaller city or a small town or in rural nowhere and still be just as produ... See more