Don’t Rage Against the Machine — Use It to Be Even More in Demand

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This article is about embracing technology, but just to keep you on your toes, I’m starting it with one of my favorite pieces of content: the first verse of a poem called “Ode” by the 19th-century poet Arthur O’Shaughnessy:

We are the music makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams; —
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems.

A zoologist and expert in herpetology (the study of amphibians and reptiles), O’Shaughnessy was also a poet and co-author of a children’s book with his wife. Nowadays, he would’ve had a top-rated podcast, a slew of bestsellers, and probably his own reality show called The Lizard King.

I believe O’Shaughnessy would be a popular figure because he insisted on pushing beyond the mundane into fantastical worlds. In “Ode,” he extols the virtue of leading with curiosity and imagination and shrugs off things like fear and loneliness to be an innovator.

This takes courage and fortitude. Cut to nearly a century and a half later, and the work of future-forward creators is at heart the same. You’ve got to be willing to shed your skin, just like a lizard, if you want to grow.

Do it before the robots rip it off of you.

The Luddites’ Swan Song

OK, I’m kidding about that. However, it’s no secret that machine learning and AI are effectively replacing humans in many roles across multiple industries, from warehouse and manufacturing jobs to financial services, insurance underwriting, recruitment, customer service, research and data entry, content creation, and much more.

Again, there’s another 19th-century lesson to be learned — this time from the Luddites, a British labor movement that pitted skilled artisans like weavers and textile merchants who spent years honing their craft against mechanized equipment (i.e., looms, knitting frames) and the unskilled laborers who ran them.

With a dramatic insistence on clinging to the status quo, they fought hard… and went down equally as hard. As we know, the machines won. And today, Luddites are the…