AI is on the rise and swallows creative workers like a leviathan. Of course you might try and “manifest” a job out of nothing like a magician pulls a rabbit out of his ass. Unfortunately, I don’t believe in that shit. So there’s two things I can do. Dive into the LinkedIn Scroll of Doom and bemoan my fate. Or realize a ‘job’ is just a label that’s as useful as a typewriter in the early nineties and step into the future of work. Where we don’t ‘do’ jobs, but see our professional selves as a system that can adjust according to our capabilities and motivations.
You’re Not Your Job, You’re the Infrastructure
We often treat work like a noun. I am a copywriter, a programmer, a lawyer. But that’s branding, not the reality of who you are. The job is just output. It should be about you, because you are the infrastructure. That’s a combination of skills, motivations, obsessions (weird ones, I hope), the connections you make, how you function under pressure, and so on. Together that forms a system that can adapt by rerouting, recombining, and rebalancing. So your job is gone? Bad luck. But in the end it’s just one way of using some of your skills. Of course, there’s a reason you ended up in that specific job. Let me give you an example from my own system: I first became a copywriter because my Goldfish Brain™©® makes me say out loud all the weird ideas it comes up with. Luckily, those happened to be creative. Later I found out I’m very good at explaining complex stuff. That’s why I now tell people I’m a Complexity Translator. AI ate your writing gigs? Well, you’re not a writer, but a Bringer of Hope. Or the Prophet of Un-Doom. That’s the system. Writing it down is just one way of getting it out.
You Need a Backup Plan
So why should you care about not thinking in jobs, but in systems? In my last post I wrote about the shrinking job-pond I’m swimming in and the many sharks who nibble at my work. Your job might still be here, but for how long? Discovering your system is the first step in a backup plan. Call it an insurance with backup capabilities, flexible skill nodes, and other things that make you harder to replace. Also, doing other things doesn’t just make you feel great, it actually makes you better. Studies show even Nobel Prize winners take their outside interest seriously, they say it feeds their work.
Map Your System and Act
So, how to start? First step: Map Your System. Answer questions like:
- What tasks energize you?
- What qualities do your friends or colleagues see in you?
- What environments drain you?
- What is it that you can offer people, outside your professional role?
- If you win the lottery, what would you do purpose-wise?
The answers define your operating system and mapping it out reveals how much of it you actually use in your current job. So what if that’s only, say 40%? Great news, you got spare parts! An example: I’m good at advertising, but I think it’s the dumbest job out there because I use less than half of my system. Once that map’s done, step two: find the places to stretch those motivations into new skills.
Expand Your System
Don’t just pick a hobby, spend time on something that feeds your system. Start with thinking about the things that motivate you intrinsically. Is it connecting people? Are you into analyzing complex topics? Are you a sucker for getting better at the things you do and the environment you work in? Think about where you can use and hone those motivations. For instance, I don’t have the urge to fight for a better world or save the planet. But I do, very strongly, care about making a difference for the people close to me. So I volunteer once a week at the local care farm. Turns out they made more of a difference towards me by offering their unfiltered view on life and how to live it. Very inspirational. So pick up whatever you like. Cooking in a restaurant (or for lonely elders), grabbing the mic at your local comedy night, do shifts at the cat café, or help people in your block build their own apps. Just don’t see them as hobbies or side quests. They are parallel modules of the system you are developing.
Let Go of the Ego
So there are two important pitfalls here. First: we often identify with our jobs, and that’s addictive. ‘I’m a creative’, that makes me special. ‘I’m a lawyer’ makes me important. When that title goes… ooph. That’s a knee right into the ego. Especially since it’s also about how people treat you. Years ago I had a client who questioned me about how I spend my professional time. ‘Are you involved enough in advertising? Because you cook, you do this and that... Can I still count on you giving us your all?’ Funny thing is that years later he understood and got to chase other passions as well. So job titles? That’s all empty calories.
Focus, Don’t Dabble
The second pitfall is the risk of dabbling. Although discovering and building your system can take all kinds of forms, it needs discipline. Yes, you’ll waste time. Hit dead ends. That’s part of the plan. But not all motion is growth. It must be built on, or at least linked to, your intrinsic curiosity zone. So, note to self: no, this doesn’t mean 40 hours of Call of Duty. For you it might be, if sharpshooting is genuinely part of your system. In short: explore, yes. But don’t confuse chaos with progress.
Future You Won’t Break
There’s actually a model for this – Patton & McMahon’s Systems Theory Framework of Career Development – which sees your career as ‘a system of interconnected influences: personal, social, environmental, historical, and chance’. I take that a step further. I think your career and your self can’t (and shouldn’t) be seen apart. Especially not now when jobs are dissolving, and we need to think in tasks, not titles. What used to be a “useful framework” is now essential. Jobs vanish. The market flips. There’s more sharks in your professional pond. But if you know your system, you can swim the other way. Or climb out of the pool. Because your professional self, that’s a system. And that means a whole network of possible outcomes. That’s why future-proofing your job (or hanging on to it) is a waste of time. Future-proof you instead. You’re the system. Build it to bend and expand, not break.