Will today's Engineer ever find peace and solace in the work?

In today's AI-led tech world, has the progress come at the cost of the peace of mind of those who made it possible or who use it to make the world more efficient?

A tragedy has been unfolding in secret—so discreetly that its effects have been celebrated.

Life has always been a struggle. BUT, it used to be slow. It used to be manageable. The delta of change was manageable. And reasonable effort used to yield reasonable results. Progress was achievable and sustainable, and it did not demand the sacrifice of peace of mind.

But today - the pace of life, the frequency of change, the scale of disruption - all have exploded. Speed of life has surpassed the speed at which man processes life. Years are passing by like weeks. And every day, there seems to be a disruption. A new tool, a new LLM, a new framework, a new next-big-thing, a new job function, a new need for deprecating a dozen job roles, and a new catalyst to killing jobs and pushing millions of employees in the forgotten past.

Work is a thing mankind has always known. It’s what we do and it’s what anchors meaning in our lives. It’s supposed to grow old with you, and live your life with you. But in the modern world, employment has become a constant struggle to outrun unemployment.

The AI-led disruption seems to be becoming a source of depression. Everyone is in an effort to remain relevant. People are enrolling into and dropping from courses all the time - some are even launching their own ones too.

What happened to the days when there was ample time to learn a new concept slowly and thoroughly, to find a teacher or mentor to explain it, read books on it, practice it, build with it, teach it, and then write a book on it?

Today, there is no time for such things. While sipping your morning coffee, you must speed through a crash course at 2x on the next big thing, build a simple yet seemingly complex project by lunch, and post about it on LinkedIn to announce your arrival in the modern world—only to discover by dinner that the world has already moved on. Your newfound relevance is not found on the record. And so, you lie tossing in bed through a sleepless night, wondering what you must do next to secure your place in the world first thing tomorrow.

The modern reality of work no longer reconciles with the fundamental needs of mankind. There is no time to learn and master—only the pressure to appear as an expert immediately. The clock is running at twice the speed, there are 12 hours in the day, the year has 8 to 10 weeks, tomorrow is yesterday, and there is no place to call home.

What is prosperity if the people who build it lie tossing in their beds through a sleepless night, wondering whether the world will have a place for them tomorrow?