Busywork

This morning, 404 Media reported on a scientific study which evaluated the psychological impact of generative AI in the workplace. The abstract paints a sobering conclusion, GenAI “shifts the nature of critical thinking toward information verification, response integration, and task stewardship.” A factory style work plan has come for the office — instead of learning a craft, workers are tasked with ensuring that the machines don’t break. Just as few machinists alive today know how to manufacture a car from start to finish, we may soon live in a world in which nobody knows how to query a database, how to interpret a budget, or how to read a paper (in its entirety) to draw novel conclusions.

I’m reminded of an opinion piece in which Jonathan Malesic argues that students may be rational to forego reading in a world which doesn’t value the time and effort that it takes to struggle through a text. As noted in the piece, Apple ran an entire ad series which featured workers skipping tasks which they should have done, only to have Apple Intelligence save the day. In one, a worker doesn’t read an email and has it summarized literally in the middle of speaking to her coworker. In another, a woman forgets her partner’s birthday, and makes a photo collage within seconds as a last minute gift. The ad misses because the gift, the thing being produced, is not the point. It really is the thought that counts. This idea that technology can save us from all pitfalls, even moments in which real human connection is required reinforces the idea that we don’t need to put in any effort ourselves. As the technology improves, we just subscribe for the ride.

Nowhere is this most apparent than in the personal knowledge management space. Last week, I received an invite to try out Tana, after signing up for the waiting list many years ago. I don’t wish to criticize the product too heavily, they built something quite marvelous which is not malicious and many will find useful. It was apparent that their design choices were a product of the times. The AI integration is meant to do almost everything for you, from the actual typing, to summarizing meeting minutes, to booking things in your calendar. As the user, you just have to watch it unfold and make sure that all the bells and whistles are tuned.

This sense of watching, but not acting, is emblematic of a world in which we are drowning in information but not necessarily knowledge. This morning I knew exactly how many passes Travis Kelce had caught in the super bowl, yet I don’t truly understand how a kitchen sink works. I know how seven columnists all feel about what happened in the last 24 hours, and yet I don’t know how I feel about the last book I read. In an effort to keep up, the system has become overloaded to the point where little is getting through.

Our greatest gift, especially compared to machines, is the ability to process information and produce novel insights. I view this as composed of three stages: consumption, contemplation, and creation. In contrast to computers, we can only do one task at a time. As long as we are consuming we can never move down the pipeline. Things have gotten so bad that even consuming a single source isn’t enough. We scroll on our phones while watching a show. We read emails during meetings. When was the last time you listened to a podcast, devoid of doing anything else?

This affects not just our own ability to find pleasure in the slow mastery of skill, but how we function as a society. It is as if we are on a hamster wheel turned up to eleven. Instead of recognizing the chaos for what it is, we are told to embrace it, that we can conquer the mountain. “Kill your busywork”, as if busywork was an enemy coming at our throats. After “busywork” what is left? Meaningful work? Why does that never seem to arrive? The demand is endless and will always meet the moment. You cannot summarize every news article, every newsletter, every blog post. You cannot send 5 zoom avatars to have simultaneous meetings on your behalf. We are using AI to write job applications to be summarized by AI. We want summaries of everything because we don’t have the time, but what will we do with that time except read more summaries?

Those that are in a place to review the output of AI today have years of experience under their belt from experimentation, trial and error. Having a dumb idea, then a really good idea, and the euphoria that comes along with a job well-done. We cannot lose that, that is the meaningful work.