What if Work Isn't the Point?

AI may change how we work, but not what makes life meaningful. Our deepest fulfillment comes from our relationships, not our jobs.

So many conversations about AI are focused on the loss of meaning we'll experience if/when AI takes our jobs.

After all, multiple studies show a job is more than a source of income. It's a "fundamental social role providing a source of identity, self-concept, and social relations."

We experience this when we meet someone new. The first thing they ask is “What do you do?”

Or as Steve Jobs once said, “The only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work.”

Work is undeniably important for human fulfillment. We take pride in solving problems, building things, and contributing to something larger than ourselves.

But it's a misdirection to focus so much on the meaning we get from work, rather than the meaning we get from other people.

Decades of research find that social connections are the single most powerful driver of human happiness, health, and a meaningful life.

Social thinking is the brain's default mode, according to Dr. Matthew Lieberman, author of Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect. When we're not focused on a task, our brains naturally turn to thinking about social relationships.

"Our need to connect with other people is even more fundamental, more basic, than our need for food or shelter." – Dr Matthew Lieberman, "Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect"

Also, much of the meaning we get from work actually derives from other people. A teacher's joy comes through student growth. A doctor's purpose flows from easing suffering. Even art created in solitude finds meaning when experienced by others.

All to say, we need each other.

To put this in perspective, here’s an email Steve Jobs sent himself a few years after the quote above:

I grow little of the food I eat, and of the little I do grow.
I did not breed or perfect the seeds.
I do not make any of my own clothing.
I speak a language I did not invent or refine.
I did not discover the mathematics I use.
I am protected by freedoms and laws I did not conceive of or legislate, and do not enforce or adjudicate.
I am moved by music I did not create myself.
When I needed medical attention, I was helpless to help myself survive.
I did not invent the transistor, the microprocessor, object oriented programming, or most of the technology I work with.
I love and admire my species, living and dead, and am totally dependent on them for my life and well being.

Again, we need each other.

So when the conversation turns to how AI will displace our source of meaning, just remember that relationships, experiences, and togetherness matters most.