The simplest things are often the ones that ultimately have the most value.
The most interesting and enduring professions are undoubtedly those that could already be practiced 2,500 years ago
Lawyer, doctor, architect… These are prestigious professions that have existed since society itself began. Newness is not necessarily synonymous with progress. An interesting paradox emerges with the specialization of work: the harder a role is to explain, the more likely it is to be devoid of meaning, even useless. If you can’t describe your job in a few words to your grandmother or a child, maybe it’s not as interesting as you think.
Are you the useful link in a useless chain?
On your scale, your work may seem meaningful. You likely contribute to tasks that benefit members of your department or company. But what happens if you take a step back? Observing your role in a broader context, what impact do you really have? Perhaps you’re making people’s lives more difficult, or you’ve joined the “dark side of the force,” using your intelligence to serve dubious interests: polluting companies, social exploitation, industries that seek to enrich themselves at all costs, even if it means sacrificing nature, people, and their dignity.
Working for the “bad guys” doesn’t bring lasting satisfaction. Sooner or later, you’ll feel the need to backtrack and work for something greater, even if it doesn’t make you rich.
Timeless Professions
In the coming years, bullshit jobs will proliferate, largely due to AI. AI will need humans to perform tasks it cannot yet do alone. But these precarious jobs will explode… before disappearing entirely once AI no longer needs them.
Facing this prospect, it’s worth considering whether it’s better to pursue a timeless profession, one that withstands the test of time. Bullshit jobs appear and disappear at breakneck speed, like Chief Happiness Officers, who once served as useful idiots to mask toxic work environments.
Training for a timeless profession takes time, but it might be a better investment than having to change careers every five years due to low entry barriers.
Finding a truly timeless job is, however, an illusion: AI and other developments influence all professions. The question is not whether a job will change, but how much and how quickly.
We must think in centuries, not years.
If human work loses all value, what would you do?
In other words: what hobby would you choose as a career, to the point of being willing to practice it for the rest of your life?
The Work of the Future is Today’s Hobby
In a world where human work risks disappearing, it becomes crucial to do what you love most. If you become excellent in a field that seems to have no economic value today, there’s a good chance you can benefit from it—first in terms of influence, then financially.
This is what’s called the economy of the individual.
In the future, there may be as many products and services as there are people on Earth. So, you have every interest in cultivating what makes you unique: there’s no one else like you. You’re the only one who can become the best at being… yourself.
You Are Your Own Work
In a hyper-specialized economy, the ultimate specialization is the monetization of one’s own skills, expressed through our being. This is personal branding taken to the extreme.
This approach is somewhat reassuring: it consists of doing what we’re meant to do. It’s the best service we can render to the cosmic order: striving to become the best version of ourselves.
The Path to Fulfillment
We don’t find who we are. We build what we already are.
There’s a difference between passively waiting for our destiny to unfold and actively experimenting with different things to understand what truly drives us.
Our natural inclinations are there to guide us toward our ideal work. It takes decades to become ourselves. This happens in three stages:
- Copying others (assimilating existing knowledge).
- Practicing diligently.
- Surpassing this knowledge by expressing it through the filter of our personality.
Work Should Become a Game
What often distinguishes champions from good practitioners is that champions enjoy themselves throughout their learning. For them, it’s a game.
This ability to approach a discipline playfully is a major asset. How could someone compete with an opponent who’s having fun, while they themselves are struggling and finding no pleasure in their work?
If you haven’t yet identified an activity that amuses you more than others (other than obviously entertaining ones, like football or video games), keep looking. It’s a trump card not to have, especially if you consider the world of work a competition.
The ideal is to find an activity that amuses you while it bores most people. It’s in this uniqueness that you can stand out.
Avoid Competition or Add Strings to Your Bow
In a constantly changing work world, it’s essential to acquire durable skills.
Reading, writing, speaking, listening, analyzing, reasoning critically… These skills don’t go out of style. No matter how the job market evolves, they’ll remain essential.
Make Frugality Your Valuable Ally
What chains us to a system we want to escape is often our own participation in it.
Consumption ties us to productivist demands and the overwork they imply. Yet, there’s a simple key to regaining freedom: frugality.
It means being content with little and rejecting the hedonistic escalation in which we’re immersed.
Most of our purchases can be replaced by behaviors that involve no commercial transaction. For example:
• Do you buy an ultra-sweet ice cream to enjoy alone while watching a movie… or are you trying to fill an emotional void? • Do you shop out of need… or to satisfy a need for esteem?
The Less You Need, the More Career Choices You Have
Imagine being trapped by consumption and the race for status. You need more and more money and honors to maintain your lifestyle.
This situation, often perceived as enviable, can actually be a dead end.
How many people have followed conformist paths, not by choice, but because they couldn’t resist the sirens of consumption and social recognition?
Locked in a gilded cage, some realize too late that their career choices weren’t motivated by their deepest aspirations.
If we’re not blinded by society’s imposed desires (triangle of desire), we can make more authentic choices… and flourish much faster.
