In Robert Fulghum’s 1986 book, All I Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten Fulghum has a section where he remarks upon all of the time saving devices of the modern era that fail miserably at saving us time.

The microwave, the washing machine, the crock pot, and their ilk promised us oodles of free time that would have normally been taken up by lowly and distasteful tasks of survival. We lived in a golden age of time saving gadgets and yet few of us had any time to spare. How was this possible?

We’ve added lots of gadgets and programs since then— air fryers, computers, email, texting… SLACK, and we are not winning the work/life balance race. Many of us feel on call 24/7 and not just at our jobs but for our friends and family as well. We have grown to despise “work” so much that it (and all of its synonyms) should be avoided at all costs.

AI then steps in to save the day. The internet tells us that teenagers are passively getting rich with AI as if wealth and passivity are things we should unquestionably long for. But what is it that we give up when we give up work? And what does it mean for work to be meaningful?

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