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AI and the Devaluation of Effort | t23o

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The value of a thing sometimes lies not in what one attains with it, but in what one pays for it - what it costs us. In Part I of this series, I explored the hidden paradox of modern, AI-fuelled work. That is, these tools that were supposed to free us are instead making us work more. The promised efficiency gains from automation have been subsumed by a never-ending need to just do more - not because we must, but because we can. In this second part, I will examine a subtler and more insidious shift, not in how much we work, but in how we value what we do. One of the quiet dignities of human labour lies in its cost. I have always found that I value things that demand something of me. Whether it’s a blog post I spent countless nights on, code that’s refactored over and over again, or projects that consume countless months of weekends and late nights. I believe that’s the stubborn human tendency to honour the investments we have already made. Economists and psychologists have a name for th

Series: The machine that never sleeps AI is making us work more AI and the Devaluation of Effort (Current) The myth of AI-powered Sisyphus The value of a thing sometimes lies not in what one attains with it, but in what one pays for it - what it costs us. Friedrich Nietzsche intro In Part I of this series, I explored the hidden paradox of modern, AI-fuelled work. That is, these tools that were supposed to free us are instead making us work more . The promised efficiency gains from automation have been subsumed by a never-ending need to just do more - not because we must , but because we can .

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