Why Does Work Feel Pointless? The Real Future of Work Crisis

Even before AI entered the picture, we'd already lost the plot on work. This episode uses a viral Substack article about "the death of the corporate job" as a launching pad to ask deeper questions: What is work for? Why do we tie our entire identities to our jobs? And how do we create a future where work actually serves human flourishing? Drawing on Hannah Arendt's philosophy, we explore the difference between labor (survival), work (creation), and action (meaningful engagement)—and why collapsing all three into "having a job" leaves us feeling hollow. We also examine why the fantasy of UBI + infinite leisure misunderstands human nature, and why the future of work isn't only about AI, but about confronting questions we've been avoiding for decades.

Read the Alex McCann's substack article here: https://thestillwandering.substack.com/p/the-death-of-the-corporate-job **I was referring to the 2023 NEA reading study, not 2003. Read it here: https://www.arts.gov/stories/blog/2024/federal-data-reading-pleasure-all-signs-show-slump

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