How we make money has become shorthand for who we are. But what happens after automation, when jobs look very different than they do today?
In the past few decades, work has eclipsed faith and friends as a source of meaning in people's lives. Americans, in particular, look to their jobs for meaning, community, and a sense of purpose.
While human work will continue to be necessary, the job title itself will no longer serve as a placeholder for identity. We're already seeing signs of this as engineers at frontier labs forgo hierarchical titles in favor of being "members of the technical staff." In the future, we will have to find new ways to signal to others who we are and what we care about.
One way to think about this is what I call the Twitter Bio Test. In the 2010s, the most important aspect of your Twitter bio was where you worked. Being able to tag a company like @Google or @Stripe gave you digital clout.
After automation, I believe personal mission statements, hobbies, and fandom—the things we do because we want to, not because we're paid to—will become the new anchors of identity. In an age when attention is more scarce than labor, being known for what you believe and what you love will matter more than your title.
