.the career maze: why we need to suck at things (even in an AI world)

When I was a little kid, if you asked me whom I wanted to become when I grow up, I would tell you - a world famous singer.

One day, when I was in the first grade, I got qualified in a contest to sing with my classmate in front of the whole school. The prize was no small matter - markers and a discman! On the day of the contest, just half an hour before our performance slot, my classmate's mom came to me saying that Ania is feeling sick and stayed home. I was left with a choice of going ahead solo or chickening out. I chose the latter. From then on, I never sang in public.

I could work on overcoming this quasi-trauma (when I think about it, I know it sounds silly). Yet, I never really got into artistic environment, rejected idea of going to a musical school (their examiner even asked my mom if it was only her who wanted me badly to play the piano, as I didn't show much interest when asked to copy teacher's moves).

It wasn't my calling nor I made it to be my career. It was more of a whim, a fleeting idea I had seeing Spice Girls and my other idols living la vida loca and enjoying themselves.

I just knew I don't want the kind of career my mom had. Throughout her whole career she taught literature in the same marine school in our hometown. It was her vocation, she enjoyed it plus it was safe, even though the less-than-satisfying pay wasn't worth all the stress and overtime she was doing at home, marking her students' exams.

I was interested in too many things, so I bounced around for a bit, before I crystallised what my service to others would be, and what I could get paid for.

I sometimes wonder if kids who got predestined by their parents to a selected future would be better off (mentally and financially) rather than those of us, who were sold on the idea of American dream and the cult of individualism. We're lonelier and more confused than ever. Many never reach their potential because they are not disciplined enough and don't work on one thing long enough to surpass the "I suck" level and actually start enjoying the learnings. All those who were raised to be the doctors, pianists etc… I'm sure first they hated it, yet they tolerated the pain until they became great at it and started feeling satisfaction and maybe even joy. (of course, not always, but even by the time they decided to change, they had funds to experiment with other stuff). They didn't dwell on what they should dedicate their life to. They just remained focused and got fruits of their dedication (often tempered with a parental rigour).

I think it's little bit like arranged marriages. In many ways, it makes sense, and when you're confronted with too many choices (Tinder etc.), you develop FOMO and you never focus to appreciate and develop relationship with this one thing.

"The enemy of art is the absence of limitations" Orson Welles?

I've always been drawn to computers. They fascinated me. When I was 13, I flirted with Java and PHP, setting up Apache servers locally for a bit, but I never really got into programming. So I got confused a little of what my tech job should be, as I thought coding is the main 'job' you can get in 'computers'. So, when I graduated from uni, I thought I wanted to be a management consultant in tech. I thought it will be what I saw in movies - travelling the world, eating in fancy restaurants and working on exciting projects for big brands.

And in a way it was this; I did work for large brands, but I was one zombie out of thousands glued to their desk and attending meetings that should have been an email. I couldn't afford fancy restaurants as a graduate consultant, and the furthest I got to travel for a banking project was Milton Keynes (I sometimes felt like those concrete cows myself, cramped in Euston on Virgin trains), so you can imagine I was a bit disappointed. I knew it could get better, I would eventually progress on a corporate ladder and live a fairly comfortable middle-class life but I felt life can be bigger than that.

But what is, really, a job, nowadays?

Brett & Kate McKay write that for people who see their work as a job are those who belt out “Everybody’s Working for the Weekend” with great gusto. They live for breaks, for vacation. The job is simply a means to the end: a paycheque. And perfectly engineered corporate system prevent them from quitting “Just 6 more months until I get my bonus” and the cycle starts again. They need to support their family/pay their rent, and this is the ticket they punch to do it. The job may not be terrible, but it offers the worker very little real satisfaction.

It's much different from a having a career. The careerist derives meaning not from the nature of the work itself but the gratification that comes from advancing through the ranks and earning promotions and raises. This motivates the careerist to put in extra time; work doesn’t necessarily stop when they punch out. However, once this forward progress stops, the careerist becomes unsatisfied and frustrated.

And finally, the professional nirvana we'd all love to achieve - a vocation. This is when you work for its own sake; you almost feel like you’d do it even if you didn’t get paid. The rewards of wages and prestige are peripheral to getting to use one’s passion in a satisfying way. Those in a vocation feel that their work has an effect on the greater good and an impact beyond themselves. They believe that their work truly utilises their unique gifts and talents. This is what they were?meant to do.

It's much different from having a career. The careerist derives meaning not from the nature of the work itself but the gratification that comes from advancing through the ranks and earning promotions and raises. This motivates the careerist to put in extra time; work doesn't necessarily stop when they punch out. However, once this forward progress stops, the careerist becomes unsatisfied and frustrated.

And finally, the professional nirvana we'd all love to achieve - a vocation. This is when you work for its own sake; you almost feel like you'd do it even if you didn't get paid. The rewards of wages and prestige are peripheral to getting to use one's passion in a satisfying way. Those in a vocation feel that their work has an effect on the greater good and an impact beyond themselves. They believe that their work truly utilises their unique gifts and talents. This is what they were meant to do.

People say that when it comes to life satisfaction and happiness, those with a job are the least satisfied, then those with a career, and those who feel their calling are the most satisfied. No surprises there.

A vocation encompasses more than the work you are paid for; it taps into your whole life purpose. When you've found your calling, you know it- your life is full of joy, creativity, satisfaction, and true fulfilment. Conversely, if you're living a life at odds with your vocation, there's no doubt about that either. You're indescribably restless; time at work drags along, you wake up in the middle of the night feeling like you can't breathe, like there's a great weight on your chest; life seems to be passing you by and you have no idea what to do about it.

Don't listen to your drunk uncle

It's important to realise that if you stick in something for longer than you wish. The longer you do something, the scarier it becomes to let go of it. I love how Tim Urban from Wait but Way describes the problem with choosing career and how strong influence the society tends to have on us :?

Society tells us a lot of things about what we should want in a career and what the possibilities are—which is weird because I’m pretty sure society knows very little about any of this. When it comes to careers, society is like your great uncle who traps you at holidays and goes on a 15-minute mostly incoherent unsolicited advice monologue, and you tune out almost the whole time because it’s super clear he has very little idea what he’s talking about and that everything he says is like 45 years outdated. Society is like that great uncle, and conventional wisdom is like his rant. Except in this case, instead of tuning it out, we pay rapt attention to every word, and then we make major career decisions based on what he says. Kind of a weird thing for us to do.

AI doesn’t want you to suck.

Each of us needs to go through the hurdles of discovering what they're good at by doing lots of things they suck at. Which brings me to the biggest problem of today - AI and automation.

I think today it's easier than ever to sell on your personality and create a type of role for yourself that amplifies your strengths. You can share your efforts with the world in a few clicks, and if it's original enough, the world may like it. Sure the competition is bigger, but if you're persistent and determined enough, you'll find a way to make your thing a fully fledged career. There is a fine line between doing what everyone is doing (becoming a slave to an algorithm) and going against the grain, but when you're creating something that you're truly passionate and proud of - it will show.

The challenge is that AI doesn't let you suck. You can cover up your inefficiency and intellectual shortcomings so you can get away with a lot of things. But you need to suck. You need to feel frustrated and stuck. Only then you'll push your creativity off the limits of common sense.

Some may think there is no need to reinvent the wheel if all information is a few clicks away. But on a foundational level, you need to force yourself to think outside the box (even if someone else has already thought of it and solved it previously) - it's your journey. Elon Musk did an effort to learn about things he knew nothing about. He could have had other people summarise the concepts he was interested in, but because he understood the foundations of each area he wanted to innovate in, he was able to spot opportunities. You need to experiment yourself. Sometimes you don't want to know the answer; you want to start afresh, naive, without any bias or ingrained perspective on why something should or shouldn't work.

Even I notice when I use too much AI assistance in my day work, I lose ability to formulate my thoughts in a creative, sometimes quirky way. I become mentally lazy so I lose my biggest weapon.

Reshaping what creativity means

These jobs we're losing to AI often serve as crucial stepping stones where people discover their interests and develop skills. Without these experiences, many will struggle to identify their strengths and passions. Less diverse work experiences can limit exposure to different aspects of a field, making it harder to find what truly resonates.

When we can't think critically, we don't develop our opinions and we're more susceptive to follow the crowd without understanding who is driving the decisions (ps, always follow the money).

AI will put dibs on whatever is left in inventing, so what will be left to scientists?

If we arrive at powerful AI, as Dario Amodei, the founder of Anthropic (Claude) describes it in his brilliant manifesto on AI and superintelligence :

“In terms of pure intelligence, it is smarter than a Nobel Prize winner across most relevant fields – biology, programming, math, engineering, writing, etc. This means it can prove unsolved mathematical theorems, write extremely good novels, write difficult codebases from scratch, etc.

If AI puts dibs on whatever is left in inventing, what will be left to scientists and artists? And because of this risk of people being afraid of 'what's left' - if so many jobs will be automated, many will lean towards something that may not necessarily be exciting to work on. They will choose to do something that 'works'.

Look at what's happening in music already. As Rick Beato points out (watch his lecture!), music is too easy to make and too easy to consume now. We're seeing a homogenisation of music and lack of innovation. Gone are the days when buying an album meant something - now we pay less, appreciate it less, and the cost of switching is practically zero. The emotional connection is fading. And with AI joining the party - major labels suing AI startups for copyright infringement one day, then partnering them to create AI versions of their artists the next - we're entering weird territory. We don't even engage deeply with music anymore, actually listening without distractions, like we used to.

As Rick Beato notes in his brilliant short lecture (watch it!!),

AI and automation may also devalue traditional crafts and skills. People with aptitudes in these areas might struggle to find vocational fulfilment in an economy where scalability and automation rules. But maybe that's exactly what will make them more precious - their human touch, their imperfections, their soul (and since so many people are practically becoming incapable of manual work, supply of craftsmen will shrink even more making them even more precious...)

I don't know yet what to think of it. I am really excited about any technology, but this one will reshape how we think about 'work' - and it will leave some people confused about their purpose.

I think the challenge isn't about fighting AI - whether you like it or not - it's here to stay. It's about finding our place alongside it while keeping our humanity intact. We need to embrace the suck, welcome the struggle, and remember that it's through these messy, imperfect experiences that we discover who we are and what we're meant to do. Because at the end of the day, your calling isn't just about what you do - it's about how you leave your unique mark on the world, AI or no AI.