Wow. I'm the same age as you. I live in on different continent, different gender, different field, different trajectory, wrote my experience in a slightly different tone and definitely in a different length. But we share exactly the same anger. I feel you, with every fiber of my being.
This captures the absurdity of our economic system with brutal honesty. The fact that you had to bury your cat on company time becuase you couldn't afford vet care despite working full time says everything about where we are. The AI layoff after being told to use AI yourself is particlarly cruel. The system promises mobility but delivers precarity.
AI is seen as a threat by many writers, I believe. I have mixed responses, quite frankly. On one hand it seems to me that no machine of any kind will ever rise to the psycho emotional level of outstanding humans. But what if I am wrong about this? The time to get worried would be when humans and AIs begin to crossbreed into cyborgs who are hybridized creatures. Who knows what the future could hold? I’m taking it one day at a time. Maybe at some point each human remaining could make a personal choice to enter a cyborgian society segment. Look at all the wondrous and barely predictable entities that have so far been created humanly. We can open both our minds and hearts to whatever cones true and make the best of it.
What if we made the transition to cyborg at the moment of death and our full consciousness as a human joined with the machine’s body and infinitely repairable mechanisms… . Maybe this, in the end, is the answer to humanity’s greatest fear, death itself?
Per Google a cyborg is a fictional or hypothetical person whose physical abilities are extended beyond normal human limitations by mechanical (and other elements) built into the body. Imagine that! Which superpowers would you want to choose?
The parenthetical phrase above is my extension of the concept.
I’m 29 too and this experience is spot on, college degree, dead end job, tech boot camp during pandemic years to get into new career, a promising 6 figure salary then laid off right when I finally felt safe. Now my job can be done with AI and I quit applying on linked in because I just cant pretend I care. It’s like the system is rigged to always put you one or two steps behind.
I am so sorry your cat died. 🤎 I also once had a cat named baby.
I never really trusted the job market and I never fit into it well-so I carved out ways to earn income from my art years ago.
In fact, it was at the moment when I couldn't find a job when I urgently leaned into my art and that is when I learned it could keep me afloat if I put just as many hours into it as I would, any other job.
I don't make a lot of money at the moment, but cutting my living expenses allows me to stretch my dollar much further and live well with what I have. It's good to know that I always have a "job". Even if I have a modest income, I will never be left with nothing.
In the U.S., relying on the "system" is a coin toss on your life. We have to create sovereignty.
I don't comment on posts often, but your essay was very beautifully written. 🌺
Thank you ao much—comments like this are why I write. Already making the move to cut living expenses & focus on the newsletter even if there isn’t much money in it.
This is exactly how many of us evolve and cope with fate. I allowed myself to become many different people as life evolved. At age 80 years I am filled with curious thoughts and emotions about what, if anything, comes next.
I also got laid off (just over a month ago) as the company embraced more AI with open arms. I have a lot of concerns with AI ethically, but as far as work using these measures to save money…I imagine that after the AI has decimated certain job fields and they are more dependent on AI to do it…the price of using it will go up. It feels like saving a few bucks up front for a higher cost later on—even if the cost is our humanity.
Currently in college and I'm pretty worried that my experience will be hauntingly similar. I loved this post, very raw, real, poignant and......funny —I hate to say it but as a Jamaican we really live the phrase 'yuh affi take bad tings make joke'. So sorry about Baby and wish I could offer sugarcoated words of optimism but truly, does it get any better?
“The salt in the wound was seeing another executive from that company joke about replacing workers with AI on their public LinkedIn profile.” — that stung me
Wow. I'm the same age as you. I live in on different continent, different gender, different field, different trajectory, wrote my experience in a slightly different tone and definitely in a different length. But we share exactly the same anger. I feel you, with every fiber of my being.
I loved reading every second of this because it’s so well written but also hated it because of how bleak and true it is.
(I’m so sorry about Baby and the lay off)
I really wish it weren’t so true but I know way too many people with similar experiences. Thank you Anna ❤️🩹
This captures the absurdity of our economic system with brutal honesty. The fact that you had to bury your cat on company time becuase you couldn't afford vet care despite working full time says everything about where we are. The AI layoff after being told to use AI yourself is particlarly cruel. The system promises mobility but delivers precarity.
AI is seen as a threat by many writers, I believe. I have mixed responses, quite frankly. On one hand it seems to me that no machine of any kind will ever rise to the psycho emotional level of outstanding humans. But what if I am wrong about this? The time to get worried would be when humans and AIs begin to crossbreed into cyborgs who are hybridized creatures. Who knows what the future could hold? I’m taking it one day at a time. Maybe at some point each human remaining could make a personal choice to enter a cyborgian society segment. Look at all the wondrous and barely predictable entities that have so far been created humanly. We can open both our minds and hearts to whatever cones true and make the best of it.
What if we made the transition to cyborg at the moment of death and our full consciousness as a human joined with the machine’s body and infinitely repairable mechanisms… . Maybe this, in the end, is the answer to humanity’s greatest fear, death itself?
Per Google a cyborg is a fictional or hypothetical person whose physical abilities are extended beyond normal human limitations by mechanical (and other elements) built into the body. Imagine that! Which superpowers would you want to choose?
The parenthetical phrase above is my extension of the concept.
I’m 29 too and this experience is spot on, college degree, dead end job, tech boot camp during pandemic years to get into new career, a promising 6 figure salary then laid off right when I finally felt safe. Now my job can be done with AI and I quit applying on linked in because I just cant pretend I care. It’s like the system is rigged to always put you one or two steps behind.
I am so sorry your cat died. 🤎 I also once had a cat named baby.
I never really trusted the job market and I never fit into it well-so I carved out ways to earn income from my art years ago.
In fact, it was at the moment when I couldn't find a job when I urgently leaned into my art and that is when I learned it could keep me afloat if I put just as many hours into it as I would, any other job.
I don't make a lot of money at the moment, but cutting my living expenses allows me to stretch my dollar much further and live well with what I have. It's good to know that I always have a "job". Even if I have a modest income, I will never be left with nothing.
In the U.S., relying on the "system" is a coin toss on your life. We have to create sovereignty.
I don't comment on posts often, but your essay was very beautifully written. 🌺
Thank you ao much—comments like this are why I write. Already making the move to cut living expenses & focus on the newsletter even if there isn’t much money in it.
This is exactly how many of us evolve and cope with fate. I allowed myself to become many different people as life evolved. At age 80 years I am filled with curious thoughts and emotions about what, if anything, comes next.
I also got laid off (just over a month ago) as the company embraced more AI with open arms. I have a lot of concerns with AI ethically, but as far as work using these measures to save money…I imagine that after the AI has decimated certain job fields and they are more dependent on AI to do it…the price of using it will go up. It feels like saving a few bucks up front for a higher cost later on—even if the cost is our humanity.
A sacrifice our bosses are willing to make.
I’m so sorry, stay strong Amelia ❤️
Love this!
I feel the disillusionment in your writing. So relatable.
Currently in college and I'm pretty worried that my experience will be hauntingly similar. I loved this post, very raw, real, poignant and......funny —I hate to say it but as a Jamaican we really live the phrase 'yuh affi take bad tings make joke'. So sorry about Baby and wish I could offer sugarcoated words of optimism but truly, does it get any better?
“The salt in the wound was seeing another executive from that company joke about replacing workers with AI on their public LinkedIn profile.” — that stung me