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Surviving & Thriving In The Age Of Alt-CarbonHeard the term Engineering Shelf Life? Perhaps I’m the first to coin the term. Essentially, it means that every software undergoes a constant upgrade faster than we can wipe our asses with hot selling Donald Trump Toilet papers.The objective of this article is to convince you of the squeezing of the Middle Class in terms of wealth and what we should do about it. The end is more relieving than the beginning.To understand the impact of Automation and how we can truly create meaning in our lives as well as contribute significantly to society and our personal wealth, we must first understand the economics of Technology and Labor Cost arbitrage.Increased Productivity Is Not Equal To Increase In WagesDecoupling of Wages and ProductivityAll the way back in 1950, Alan Turing proposed an interesting question after breaking the famous Enigma Code — can machines think? Fast forward to 2017 when Japanese employees of Fokoku Mutual Life Insurance Company were the first people on Earth who lost their jobs to artificial intelligence software.And we’re only going to see more of that.As you all probably know, 5% of the richest people in the world hold more than a half of the world’s wealth. But although people in that top 5% have a very large income, most of them are still very dependent on their jobs and income.Even those high-income households are in danger due to automation.Image from the Book “The Rise Of The Robots” by Martin FordSo what do you think happens with the remaining 95% of people? They will face even more challenges in the coming years, primarily driven due to increased adoption of automation technologies by enterprises, for enterprises.Another thing that’s highly concerning is the decoupling of wages and productivity. Since labor productivity has been increasing during the last couple of decades and continues to do so due to technological innovations, you would think that the worker’s wages would go up accordingly.But that’s not the case anymore and there’s a big gap between labor productivity and worker’s wages. The image below illustrates the extent to which wealth is accruing almost entirely to business owners and investors rather than to workers.Image from the Book “The Rise Of The Robots” by Martin FordHence, the belief (in capitalistic economies) that anyone can succeed and create generational wealth through ONLY hard work and perseverance — really has little basis in statistical reality.Simply put — your frustration about your inability to keep up with the Joneses is justified.Why is that?Well, it’s business owners and investors who are benefiting from innovations the most, instead of the workers whose wages have actually gone down since the 70s in the US.You can’ have the best of both worlds — Significant wage growth with the security of employment. Either you settle for slow growth in your salary (especially if you are a regular employee) or become a net producer (that is start creating value rather than consuming). More on that in a bit.The World Is An HourglassWhen it comes to wealth, the inequality between the richest people in the world and the poorest people is astronomical. It is well known that only a couple of those richest people like Jeff Bezos or Amancio Ortega hold 50% of the world’s wealth. The actual number is 8. Eight of the worlds richest people hold 50% of the planet’s wealth.So imagine that the world is an hourglass. One half (Ahem! Not half exactly) of the hourglass represents 8 richest people on the planet, and the rest of the world, including you and me, sorry, is the other half of the hourglass.Image from the Book “The Rise Of The Robots” by Martin FordThe divide between the rich and the poor has been growing since the 1970s. Things have only gotten worse — An Analysis published in Sep’13 economist Enammuel Saez found that an astonishing 95% of total income gains between 2009–2012 were hoovered up by the wealthiest 1%.Hello World…Where does the wealth of those 8 richest people come from?They have extracted it from the poor, making wealth inequality even more pronounced. That’s true across the world which makes us all equally unequal.Don’t agree?Well, try explaining your POV to French economist Thomas Piketty who believes that selling to the rich and poor spheres of the hourglass is merely a by-product of inequality: the underlying process that drives its perpetuation is wealth extraction from the poorest to the wealthiest.What Can Be Automated Will Be AutomatedImagine this scenario:You are driving in your car at 5 mph. After you drive for one minute, you accelerate to 10 mph, then after another minute, you accelerate to 15 mph and so on. So every minute you accelerate by double.What’s astonishing is how much you would travel after a while. In the first minute, you would cover about 440 feet. In the fifth minute, you would accelerate to 80 mph and would travel more than a mile. In the sixth minute, you would go so fast that you would need a really fast car and a racetrack.How fast do you think you would travel in the 28th minute if the speed of your car was increasing exponentially each minute?You would be going 671 million mph! Just to put it in perspective, that would get you to Mars in 5 minutes.This is the perfect analogy for the pace of innovation and IT — it is growing exponentially.Here is a graph that shows that with Aircraft Technology as an example (because I couldn't find a better one)Image from the Book “The Rise Of The Robots” by Martin FordThe takeaway is that the pace of technology and jumping S Curves is far ahead of its adoption and economic viability (until it becomes at scale) and is faster than you can imagine.When you think about technological innovations, you would hope that its main role is to increase productivity (and questionably wages) of the employees and workers. Enterprises and scientists invent powerful machines and that enable people to get more work done efficiently.But unfortunately, that’s not really the case.What actually happens is that the machines are starting to replace human workers.Let me explain through a simple chart below:Let me first explain 4X4 Matrix of Human-Automation and Power Laws of Technology.Think of a matrix that has two axes — manual/cognitive and routine/non-routine. Then we could arrange all jobs in four different categories: manual routine, manual non-routine, cognitive routine, and cognitive non-routine. So for example, menial jobs like working at an assembly line would be manual routine jobs while creative jobs would fall into the cognitive non-routine jobs.During the first Industrial Revolution, machines replaced a lot of manual routine jobs so we adapted by becoming engineers or managers. But now, machines are slowly starting to take away those jobs as well and soon a robot may become your boss.What’s even scarier is that this time, we might not simply end up jobless because we’ve been replaced by automation, but stuck with routine and non-routine manual jobs that are low-paid because you’ll be happy to work for anything.When intelligence can be replicated, the concept of opportunity cost is upended. Economists who reject the idea that machines could someday make a large fraction of our workforce essentially unemployable often base their argument on one of the biggest ideas of economics — the theory of comparative advantage.Simply put, if I clone you, and your job can be, to a high degree - predictably and accurately replicated by an Altered Carbon - then the probability that you might be replaced by an algorithm is very high and can be really soon. With the increase in collection of all kinds of data, a very advanced algorithm (Thanks to processing power and ML and Deep Learning) might essentially “learn” how to do your job with human-level accuracy.Progress in the human economy has resulted largely from occupational specialization. Adam Smith would say “the division of labor”. One of the paradoxes of progress in the IT age is that as work becomes even more specialized, it may become more susceptible to Automation.So how do we, as a collectively intelligent species, ensure our existence as meaningful? We’ll get to that in a bit.The real question is — will robots steal our jobs?Being reasonably unreasonable, Definitely. Why would companies have workers if they can have robots that can work continuously, never get sick or injured, and don’t require any rights, wages, or vacation days? Not to mention — No Unions. Phew!Should you worry?Yes, as of yesterday.The thing is that robots had been mostly replacing mechanical jobs, but what will happen when they start stealing cognitive jobs? Will us humans become completely replaceable as robots become smarter or even conscious?That seems so far out in the future, but if you are convinced of the power of “Power Law”, it might come sooner than we think.To SummarizeAlthough productivity will increase, wage growth and income will be finite with the growth rate stagnant or declining even further.Tech lords know that there is money to be made BOP (Bottom Of The Pyramid) — People at BOP are the product for Top 5%From Augmenting humans to Substituting Humans is the game now.The Feudal Lords: Tech-FeudalismWar is a continuation of politics by other means — Von ClausewitzPolitics is a continuation of economics by other means — Michael RuppertExcerpt of Michael Ruppert from Collapse — DocumentaryWe live in an infinite growth paradigm which requires growth forever. The whole economy is a pyramid scheme… Infinite growth collides with finite energy. The financial paradigm demands infinite growth — We are at a point in history where infinite growth collides with something that is more powerful than money is.So if businesses cannot win against finite energy and you are convinced that one cannot mine 100% of aggregate efficiency (Please understand and embrace the Laws of Thermodynamics), how do businesses squeeze economic value for their shareholders?Understanding this is very important — How decision makers really make decisions.Businesses look to maintain their bottom line not only by increasing market share (which is a very hard thing to do, infinitely) but by adopting tech which in the mid to long term generates significant savings. That’s the squeezing of the OPEX in Financial Statements.Tech companies want to create game-changing homo-sapiens displacing technology and generate billions in revenue through long term contracts, maintenance services and upgrade of software every year.Heard the term “Engineering Shelf Life”? Perhaps I’m the first to coin the term. Essentially, it means that every software undergoes a constant upgrade (usually faster than what organizations can adopt internally) and thereby version 1.0, which was not vastly different from version 2.0, is killed. Version 2.1 becomes the new expectation faster than we can wipe our asses with hot-selling Donald Trump Toilet papers.Why do you think smartphones are launched at the same time every year? Do you feel the itch to get a new one every year?That happens with software as well, just not every year, but rather every 4–6 months.I personally have been in many C-Suite meetings where the bulk of the conversations on 5 Year Growth Roadmap & Business strategy was not digital transformation but cost reduction and optimization, preferably through the adoption of technology.Make no mistake, consulting firms leverage on technology as the tool when advising major corporations (guilty as charged, I personally have led these meetings on many occasions). Consultants find it sexy to drop hot names like RPA, Drone Led Imaging, and WFA (Google Fuck It). It’s just a fancy way of telling corporations — Your workforce can’t compete at scale with these technologies. Either you come on board or you will be left behind.Fear tactics and fear selling always works.Let me give you a real-life example of conversations, without naming any clients I have advised and how it drives decision-making to the cliff of human sacrifice.Business (C-Suite): Let’s forecast our 5-year growth strategy (because growth is infinite, I guess) and tell me where should I efficiently allocate my budget.CTO / Consultant: While we keep exploring opportunities for inorganic growth (read — acquisitions), we have some quick wins we can share with you which will help drive down operational cost between 8%-25% over the next 24 months (Consultants love to give a wide range estimate).Business: Hmm — We love Quick wins. The board will be happy if we either re-invest dividends from cost savings or pass on the buck to shareholder’s pockets. What can u tell me about Low Hanging Fruits (Since we humans are all lemons, to begin with)?CTO: I came across this technology by <Drop Huge TECH company name> that can automate inbound calling to our contact center up to 30% of that of our workforce. We can achieve cost savings between X Million and Y Million within the next 12–18 months. (It has to be in millions or billions).Consultant: I concur with the CTO (That’s 60% of $3000 they are paid every day to agree with Management and provide numbers that are in agreement with the C-Suite).C-Suite (CEO): Alright. Let’s evaluate the potential savings on a quarterly basis. But when we present it to the media and analyst calls, we will drive home the point that we are investing in technology to adapt to emerging trends.There goes 3000 jobs — Almost 70% of contact center jobs. 30% is re-skilled and moved to other departments with almost zero growth income but 3X increase in productivity. Also, note that those 3000 jobs contribute to only 2–3% of Operational cost (known as support functions OPEX) yet income of top management (not to mention bonuses) keep increasing every financial year (as reported in unaudited financial statements).The point I’m making is not to attack the income growth of Senior Management but the investment in reskilling the workforce. At least a surety of employment rather than the net absolute increase in wages (which I hope I have convincingly presented my case above).In ShortTechnology is the preferred tool to bottom-line economics. And sure — jobs for the STEM’s will keep growing — but upskilling a farmer and explaining the benefits in the adoption of RPA is not going to happen. Heck — try getting that labor force into STEM. Do you think AI and RPA is for everybody? Fuck no.“Artificial Intelligence is not a revolution, it’s a global risk” — Michael SpencerThe Middle Class is nothing but just a conjured up social class to keep the low-income class out to Top 5% reach (Ask me — I’m a statistician and I know how to segment and stratify economic classes based on numbers.)But not for long.The Middle class will become the other 95% as well and they will struggle to make ends meet. While the top 5% will be enjoying their yachts and private jets, the other 95% will be getting loans and credits to try to still live as a middle class while they’re barely paying their rent.Why do you think there is enormous funding for startups by financial companies on short-term pay-day loans, apps for usage-based credit card points, EMI’s, loans at astronomical interest rates for starting businesses etc.? There is money to be made lending to the bottom of the hourglass. I call it “Borrower-led Consumerism”.Do you think that corporations care?Well, not really. They actually hate you.You might think that being excelling at your job (and by that I mean exceeding your bosses’ expectations on a questionable performance scale) is a good thing and that the company you work for will appreciate that, but that’s not the case.They (not all) don’t want to invest in re-skilling you (hence the growth of self-invested digital online courses) to be better and really excel at what you do. Corporations want you to do a mediocre job (meet expectations) so that they can have you on a tight leash and remind you that your lifestyle revolves around a single paycheck.Viola — The burgeoning middle class.That’s why you shouldn’t be at the mercy of your boss or some corporation who really has no vested interests in you and let them control your destiny and wealth creation. Try to become skilled at other things as well and diversify what you do. You need to create many opportunities for yourself so that you’re not dependent on your current job or career. Become a social brand. More on that later.By the way, let me remind you that wealth accumulation is left-skewed. Hence 95% of the working poor- middle-class fall along the long tails. Hence the popularism behind populist governments — I’ll probably write a separate post on “Feeding the Base” politics and “Finger In The Air” economics later.Not so short after all...Stay Relevant or Be Divergent? Both“Please try to convince you partner that their job is automatable” — Michael OsborneLet’s get back to the Cognitive-Routine Matrix. Here are the industries (and thousands of jobs) getting automated as we speak.This may not come as a surprise, but Google has started developing a completely automated call center called Contact Center AI. Thousands of people who work at call centers will lose their jobs. I have been the very person evangelizing cognitive BLP AIML technologies ( of a company that ends with SOFT) to corporates with a ruthless focus on reducing headcount.Retail, Sales, and Service JobsA study has shown that people don’t really trust people who work in sales and retail and think they or their friends know much more about the products they’re buying. Not only that, more and more people buy everything online without even going to the store, so it’s not hard to imagine that retail, sales, and customer service will become automated.Clerical WorkThis type of work has been done by secretaries and office assistants. It consists mostly of word processing, typing, bookkeeping, and sorting and filing. That’s something that can easily be automated so clerical work may also be overtaken by robots who are more productive.AccountingDo you think that your job is safe if you’re an accountant? Think again. A smart software will be replacing you really soon.LogisticsThis industry is already highly automated by smart robotics and it’s only going to increase.And so many more … I would have to write a lengthy report every quarter to mention every single industry getting a middle finger from Automation Technologies.TBH, I don’t give a shit about UBI (Universal Basic Income) or UBJ’s. There is a cheap joke to be made here but I’ll move on.If you think the issue of people losing their jobs due to automation will be solved by a universal basic income or basic jobs, don’t be so certain. I strongly advocate reskilling yourself (thanks to internet, marginal cost of reskilling is tending to zero — hence it’s easier than ever) in the cognitive-non routine areas like creative endeavors, complex decision making, leadership idea generation and originality or focusing on jumping on the entrepreneurship bandwagon to become a net producer rather than a net consumer laden with debt.6 Value Compounding Approaches You Should Embrace, Yesterday“No great man ever complains of want of opportunity.” — Ralph Waldo EmersonSo here is what I strongly feel we should do — as fast as possible. Time is of the essence.1. Develop a Creative Led Deep Expertise (And Preferably Some Tech Specialized Knowledge)Get your FREE Copy Here — No Email RequiredNot all of us cannot be music artists or scriptwriters. But we get creative with ideas, remarkable design and complex reasoning backed with sound leadership principles and ethics.The only area where us humans still have the advantage over machines is creativity and advanced cognitive skills. These are the skills that cannot be automated: judgment and decision making, fluency of ideas, active learning, systems evaluation, originality, learning strategies, deductive reasoning, complex problem solving, and system analysis. So I suggest that you focus on developing these type of skills and deep expertise in these areas.My expertise lies in evaluating potential business investments (will touch on that later in the post) and Sales & Marketing. Almost 90% of my time is focused on consuming and ideating ways to delight customers and strengthen my brand’s position in their mind.Good luck ‘PETE’ - The Algo doing that. We are good friends, Pete.Side Note:Get your FREE materials on being productive, thought leadership and strategic business principles HERE! (No Email Required)2. Thinking Slow And Thinking DeepYou need to learn how to think good and slow and avoid fast and rushed decisions. Do you know what separates truly smart people from the average? They perceive reality in a different way from average people and use effective mental models for thinking, making decisions, and coming up with the solutions. A definition of mental models is “Psychological representations of real, hypothetical, or imaginary situations.” You can imagine mental models like apps for your smartphone, the more effective, conscious and proactive they are, the greater the results are.Here are the 7 Mental Models you need master ASAP:Get Your FREE Copy Here (No Email Required)1. Pareto Principle — Pareto Principle states that a small amount of some phenomenon causes a disproportionately large effect.2. First Principles Thinking — Basically, the practice of actively questioning every assumption you think you ‘know’ about a given problem or scenario3. Confirmation Bias — “The normal mind is moved, among others, by 2 basic drives — Self-regard & Least Effort” H.A. Overstreet, “Influencing Human Behavior, 19254. Opportunity Cost — The ‘cost’ incurred by not enjoying the benefit that would have been had by taking the second best available choice5. Reciprocity — “If one individual acts on another, the action will tend to be reciprocated in kind. And of course, human beings act with intense reciprocity demonstrated as well.” — Shane Parrish6. Illusion of Control — “The illusion of control is the tendency for people to overestimate their ability to control events; for example, it occurs when someone feels a sense of control over outcomes that they demonstrably do not influence.” Wikipedia7. Inversion Technique — “Often by considering what we want to avoid rather than what we want to get, we come up with better solutions.” — Shane ParrishI spend time to think through the consequences of my decisions and the risk. There is no glory in making fast decisions. The company’s future rides on making Sound Decisions. And good decisions require Integrative Thinking — Evaluating both the Pro’s and Con’s, Potential risk and Expected reward. I allocate 80% of my time thinking about the problems rather than the solutions. And that’s what companies will really value in you — The ability to make good high-value decisions.3. Be Bold and Nurture Courage“There is more opportunity than ability” — Einstein.Well, There is more ability than there is courage.Remember that nothing lasts forever, both good and the bad times. So be bold and courageous and take every opportunity that you can. Work hard, stop being lazy, and focus on the journey ahead of you. Remember — Mediocrity, Laziness and Ego will kill you sooner than a Robot.It’s the main goal that matters, but the process of achieving that goal. Don’t crumble when faced with fear, harness that power and use it to your benefit!“…and finally how to build communities — armies of exponentially enabled individuals willing and able to help today’s entrepreneurs make their boldest dreams come true.” — Bold by Steven KotlerIn my earlier post A Year Older, A Year Closer, Wisdom From My Older Self, I expanded on the truth that we are living on borrowed time. Without the realization that time is a perishable liability, one cannot truly achieve their objectives. I remind myself of that every single day and that is the kernel of fire that pushes my limits beyond boundaries.4. Learn Integrative Thinking: Connecting The Dots“Random connections drive serendipitous discoveries. Dreams, for example, are the primordial soup of innovation, where ideas connect seemingly at random.” — Steven JohnsonKnowledge is becoming less and less important as everybody has access to it, freely and cheaply. So you won’t win by simply knowing more than other people. Innovations and good ideas are what’s going to save you because you should know what to do with knowledge and how to use to come up with new things. But where do great ideas and innovations come from?Ideas don’t come as sudden breakthroughs, but more as subtle hunches that need to be cultivated and they evolve over time. Collaboration and competition are also important components of innovation which happens when ideas connect.How do I learn and apply Integrative Thinking? Simple. I moved on from being a new corporate-driven slave consumer to being a meaningful net producer. I adopted the long-tail hedge against security and comfort. I am creating more wealth for myself in the last 7 months compared to a decade in corporate. I’m in control of the rate of growth of my personal wealth and satisfaction.5. (H)elp (O)thers (W)in To Lead And Succeed“You can have everything in life you want if you will just help other people get what they want.” Zig ZiglarAccenture ReportWe have established earlier in the article that lower-skilled workers are in most danger of losing their jobs due to automation. That’s why we need to identify those vulnerable groups and focus on skill learning. Education and lifelong learning are the only ways to close the skills gap.Another important point to make here is that we MUST improve the lives of others. The ability to empower and help others succeed is perhaps the most underrated qualities. It's not only Self-Improvement. Its influencing others to grow — together.Do I have to remind you of an African proverb? If you wish to go fast, go alone. If you wish to go far, go together.6. Jump curves — Idea Sex“A great book begins with an idea; a great life, with a determination.” — Louis L’AmourComing up with great ideas is not only about making a lot of money but making yourself a better person. And don’t expect that all of your ideas will be awesome and revolutionary. There will be a lot of mediocre ideas, weird ideas, impossible idea, and simply stupid ideas.But, all of that is useful because you’re training your idea muscle, and yes, it’s just like any other muscle in your body. When you have a lot of ideas, it’s almost like they have sex with each other and what do you get? More ideas. You have to constantly challenge yourself to come up with new and exciting ideas because that leads to innovation. And remember, innovation is not about improving something slightly, it’s about making it ten times better!So write all your ideas down constantly (no matter how stupid you think they are) work on them, read about them, research them, and great things will happen!SummaryFocus on building Deep Expertise with Specialized Knowledge to be a Thought LeaderThere is a lot one can achieve in 24 hours. There is no need to rush into things. Step back and think with clarity. Don’t sacrifice clarity for cleverness.Remind yourself that time and tide wait for no one. Have a strong desire to succeed with the motivation to put it into action. You are just 3 feet away from gold.Have a broad view of what’s happening in the world. Allocate some time every week to update yourself on emerging technologies and creative pursuits. There is no saying how the neurons in your brain will fire to find novel ideas and solutions.“You can have everything in life you want if you will just help other people get what they want.” Zig Ziglar — End of story. (“I don’t give a damn if you believe it or not” Arnold Schwarzenegger)Creativity is not magic. It’s a muscle. Own a diary and write down all the stupid ideas you might have or come up with. It’s exercising the muscle that matters, not the idea itself. Make it a habit. After all, we are nothing but an aggregate system of our habits.Sources:2022 Skills Outlook — World Economic ForumIf Companies Had No Employees — The EconomistReskilling Future Workers — Who’s Responsible — Nick EasenThe key lessons from “Where Good Ideas Come From” by Steven JohnsonAlmost all the US jobs created since 2005 are temporary — Dan KopfCapitalism is When the World’s Richest Man Gives People a Raise But They Still Barely Earn Enough to Live On — Umair HaqueRobots will steal our jobs. Hooray? — Calum ChaceArtificial Intelligence is not a revolution, it’s a global risk — Michael K. SpencerUniversal Basic Income Is Silicon Valley’s Latest Scam — Douglas RushkoffBooks:BullShit Jobs — David GraeberDeals That Made The World — Jacques PerettiRise Of The Robots — Martin FordDeep Work — Cal NewportHow To Get Ideas — Jack FosterWhere Good Ideas Come From — Steven JohnsonAny thoughts and opinions?I don’t write well. But I care enough to write. I care enough to share. To empower. Would you like to join me? If yes, a quick cheer perhaps? Clap to show how much you resonated with this.Follow Abi Bhalla | Growthyoda on :Instagram instagram.com/growthyoda/LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/senseiabi/

Surviving & Thriving In The Age Of Alt-CarbonHeard the term Engineering Shelf Life? Perhaps I’m the first to coin the term. Essentially, it means that every software undergoes a constant upgrade faster than we can wipe our asses with hot selling Donald Trump Toilet papers.The objective of this article is to convince you of the squeezing of the Middle Class in terms of wealth and what we should do about it. The end is more relieving than the beginning.To understand the impact of Automation and how we can truly create meaning in our lives as well as contribute significantly to society and our personal wealth, we must first understand the economics of Technology and Labor Cost arbitrage.Increased Productivity Is Not Equal To Increase In WagesDecoupling of Wages and ProductivityAll the way back in 1950, Alan Turing proposed an interesting question after breaking the famous Enigma Code — can machines think? Fast forward to 2017 when Japanese employees of Fokoku Mutual Life Insurance Company were the first people on Earth who lost their jobs to artificial intelligence software.And we’re only going to see more of that.As you all probably know, 5% of the richest people in the world hold more than a half of the world’s wealth. But although people in that top 5% have a very large income, most of them are still very dependent on their jobs and income.Even those high-income households are in danger due to automation.Image from the Book “The Rise Of The Robots” by Martin FordSo what do you think happens with the remaining 95% of people? They will face even more challenges in the coming years, primarily driven due to increased adoption of automation technologies by enterprises, for enterprises.Another thing that’s highly concerning is the decoupling of wages and productivity. Since labor productivity has been increasing during the last couple of decades and continues to do so due to technological innovations, you would think that the worker’s wages would go up accordingly.But that’s not the case anymore and there’s a big gap between labor productivity and worker’s wages. The image below illustrates the extent to which wealth is accruing almost entirely to business owners and investors rather than to workers.Image from the Book “The Rise Of The Robots” by Martin FordHence, the belief (in capitalistic economies) that anyone can succeed and create generational wealth through ONLY hard work and perseverance — really has little basis in statistical reality.Simply put — your frustration about your inability to keep up with the Joneses is justified.Why is that?Well, it’s business owners and investors who are benefiting from innovations the most, instead of the workers whose wages have actually gone down since the 70s in the US.You can’ have the best of both worlds — Significant wage growth with the security of employment. Either you settle for slow growth in your salary (especially if you are a regular employee) or become a net producer (that is start creating value rather than consuming). More on that in a bit.The World Is An HourglassWhen it comes to wealth, the inequality between the richest people in the world and the poorest people is astronomical. It is well known that only a couple of those richest people like Jeff Bezos or Amancio Ortega hold 50% of the world’s wealth. The actual number is 8. Eight of the worlds richest people hold 50% of the planet’s wealth.So imagine that the world is an hourglass. One half (Ahem! Not half exactly) of the hourglass represents 8 richest people on the planet, and the rest of the world, including you and me, sorry, is the other half of the hourglass.Image from the Book “The Rise Of The Robots” by Martin FordThe divide between the rich and the poor has been growing since the 1970s. Things have only gotten worse — An Analysis published in Sep’13 economist Enammuel Saez found that an astonishing 95% of total income gains between 2009–2012 were hoovered up by the wealthiest 1%.Hello World…Where does the wealth of those 8 richest people come from?They have extracted it from the poor, making wealth inequality even more pronounced. That’s true across the world which makes us all equally unequal.Don’t agree?Well, try explaining your POV to French economist Thomas Piketty who believes that selling to the rich and poor spheres of the hourglass is merely a by-product of inequality: the underlying process that drives its perpetuation is wealth extraction from the poorest to the wealthiest.What Can Be Automated Will Be AutomatedImagine this scenario:You are driving in your car at 5 mph. After you drive for one minute, you accelerate to 10 mph, then after another minute, you accelerate to 15 mph and so on. So every minute you accelerate by double.What’s astonishing is how much you would travel after a while. In the first minute, you would cover about 440 feet. In the fifth minute, you would accelerate to 80 mph and would travel more than a mile. In the sixth minute, you would go so fast that you would need a really fast car and a racetrack.How fast do you think you would travel in the 28th minute if the speed of your car was increasing exponentially each minute?You would be going 671 million mph! Just to put it in perspective, that would get you to Mars in 5 minutes.This is the perfect analogy for the pace of innovation and IT — it is growing exponentially.Here is a graph that shows that with Aircraft Technology as an example (because I couldn't find a better one)Image from the Book “The Rise Of The Robots” by Martin FordThe takeaway is that the pace of technology and jumping S Curves is far ahead of its adoption and economic viability (until it becomes at scale) and is faster than you can imagine.When you think about technological innovations, you would hope that its main role is to increase productivity (and questionably wages) of the employees and workers. Enterprises and scientists invent powerful machines and that enable people to get more work done efficiently.But unfortunately, that’s not really the case.What actually happens is that the machines are starting to replace human workers.Let me explain through a simple chart below:Let me first explain 4X4 Matrix of Human-Automation and Power Laws of Technology.Think of a matrix that has two axes — manual/cognitive and routine/non-routine. Then we could arrange all jobs in four different categories: manual routine, manual non-routine, cognitive routine, and cognitive non-routine. So for example, menial jobs like working at an assembly line would be manual routine jobs while creative jobs would fall into the cognitive non-routine jobs.During the first Industrial Revolution, machines replaced a lot of manual routine jobs so we adapted by becoming engineers or managers. But now, machines are slowly starting to take away those jobs as well and soon a robot may become your boss.What’s even scarier is that this time, we might not simply end up jobless because we’ve been replaced by automation, but stuck with routine and non-routine manual jobs that are low-paid because you’ll be happy to work for anything.When intelligence can be replicated, the concept of opportunity cost is upended. Economists who reject the idea that machines could someday make a large fraction of our workforce essentially unemployable often base their argument on one of the biggest ideas of economics — the theory of comparative advantage.Simply put, if I clone you, and your job can be, to a high degree - predictably and accurately replicated by an Altered Carbon - then the probability that you might be replaced by an algorithm is very high and can be really soon. With the increase in collection of all kinds of data, a very advanced algorithm (Thanks to processing power and ML and Deep Learning) might essentially “learn” how to do your job with human-level accuracy.Progress in the human economy has resulted largely from occupational specialization. Adam Smith would say “the division of labor”. One of the paradoxes of progress in the IT age is that as work becomes even more specialized, it may become more susceptible to Automation.So how do we, as a collectively intelligent species, ensure our existence as meaningful? We’ll get to that in a bit.The real question is — will robots steal our jobs?Being reasonably unreasonable, Definitely. Why would companies have workers if they can have robots that can work continuously, never get sick or injured, and don’t require any rights, wages, or vacation days? Not to mention — No Unions. Phew!Should you worry?Yes, as of yesterday.The thing is that robots had been mostly replacing mechanical jobs, but what will happen when they start stealing cognitive jobs? Will us humans become completely replaceable as robots become smarter or even conscious?That seems so far out in the future, but if you are convinced of the power of “Power Law”, it might come sooner than we think.To SummarizeAlthough productivity will increase, wage growth and income will be finite with the growth rate stagnant or declining even further.Tech lords know that there is money to be made BOP (Bottom Of The Pyramid) — People at BOP are the product for Top 5%From Augmenting humans to Substituting Humans is the game now.The Feudal Lords: Tech-FeudalismWar is a continuation of politics by other means — Von ClausewitzPolitics is a continuation of economics by other means — Michael RuppertExcerpt of Michael Ruppert from Collapse — DocumentaryWe live in an infinite growth paradigm which requires growth forever. The whole economy is a pyramid scheme… Infinite growth collides with finite energy. The financial paradigm demands infinite growth — We are at a point in history where infinite growth collides with something that is more powerful than money is.So if businesses cannot win against finite energy and you are convinced that one cannot mine 100% of aggregate efficiency (Please understand and embrace the Laws of Thermodynamics), how do businesses squeeze economic value for their shareholders?Understanding this is very important — How decision makers really make decisions.Businesses look to maintain their bottom line not only by increasing market share (which is a very hard thing to do, infinitely) but by adopting tech which in the mid to long term generates significant savings. That’s the squeezing of the OPEX in Financial Statements.Tech companies want to create game-changing homo-sapiens displacing technology and generate billions in revenue through long term contracts, maintenance services and upgrade of software every year.Heard the term “Engineering Shelf Life”? Perhaps I’m the first to coin the term. Essentially, it means that every software undergoes a constant upgrade (usually faster than what organizations can adopt internally) and thereby version 1.0, which was not vastly different from version 2.0, is killed. Version 2.1 becomes the new expectation faster than we can wipe our asses with hot-selling Donald Trump Toilet papers.Why do you think smartphones are launched at the same time every year? Do you feel the itch to get a new one every year?That happens with software as well, just not every year, but rather every 4–6 months.I personally have been in many C-Suite meetings where the bulk of the conversations on 5 Year Growth Roadmap & Business strategy was not digital transformation but cost reduction and optimization, preferably through the adoption of technology.Make no mistake, consulting firms leverage on technology as the tool when advising major corporations (guilty as charged, I personally have led these meetings on many occasions). Consultants find it sexy to drop hot names like RPA, Drone Led Imaging, and WFA (Google Fuck It). It’s just a fancy way of telling corporations — Your workforce can’t compete at scale with these technologies. Either you come on board or you will be left behind.Fear tactics and fear selling always works.Let me give you a real-life example of conversations, without naming any clients I have advised and how it drives decision-making to the cliff of human sacrifice.Business (C-Suite): Let’s forecast our 5-year growth strategy (because growth is infinite, I guess) and tell me where should I efficiently allocate my budget.CTO / Consultant: While we keep exploring opportunities for inorganic growth (read — acquisitions), we have some quick wins we can share with you which will help drive down operational cost between 8%-25% over the next 24 months (Consultants love to give a wide range estimate).Business: Hmm — We love Quick wins. The board will be happy if we either re-invest dividends from cost savings or pass on the buck to shareholder’s pockets. What can u tell me about Low Hanging Fruits (Since we humans are all lemons, to begin with)?CTO: I came across this technology by <Drop Huge TECH company name> that can automate inbound calling to our contact center up to 30% of that of our workforce. We can achieve cost savings between X Million and Y Million within the next 12–18 months. (It has to be in millions or billions).Consultant: I concur with the CTO (That’s 60% of $3000 they are paid every day to agree with Management and provide numbers that are in agreement with the C-Suite).C-Suite (CEO): Alright. Let’s evaluate the potential savings on a quarterly basis. But when we present it to the media and analyst calls, we will drive home the point that we are investing in technology to adapt to emerging trends.There goes 3000 jobs — Almost 70% of contact center jobs. 30% is re-skilled and moved to other departments with almost zero growth income but 3X increase in productivity. Also, note that those 3000 jobs contribute to only 2–3% of Operational cost (known as support functions OPEX) yet income of top management (not to mention bonuses) keep increasing every financial year (as reported in unaudited financial statements).The point I’m making is not to attack the income growth of Senior Management but the investment in reskilling the workforce. At least a surety of employment rather than the net absolute increase in wages (which I hope I have convincingly presented my case above).In ShortTechnology is the preferred tool to bottom-line economics. And sure — jobs for the STEM’s will keep growing — but upskilling a farmer and explaining the benefits in the adoption of RPA is not going to happen. Heck — try getting that labor force into STEM. Do you think AI and RPA is for everybody? Fuck no.“Artificial Intelligence is not a revolution, it’s a global risk” — Michael SpencerThe Middle Class is nothing but just a conjured up social class to keep the low-income class out to Top 5% reach (Ask me — I’m a statistician and I know how to segment and stratify economic classes based on numbers.)But not for long.The Middle class will become the other 95% as well and they will struggle to make ends meet. While the top 5% will be enjoying their yachts and private jets, the other 95% will be getting loans and credits to try to still live as a middle class while they’re barely paying their rent.Why do you think there is enormous funding for startups by financial companies on short-term pay-day loans, apps for usage-based credit card points, EMI’s, loans at astronomical interest rates for starting businesses etc.? There is money to be made lending to the bottom of the hourglass. I call it “Borrower-led Consumerism”.Do you think that corporations care?Well, not really. They actually hate you.You might think that being excelling at your job (and by that I mean exceeding your bosses’ expectations on a questionable performance scale) is a good thing and that the company you work for will appreciate that, but that’s not the case.They (not all) don’t want to invest in re-skilling you (hence the growth of self-invested digital online courses) to be better and really excel at what you do. Corporations want you to do a mediocre job (meet expectations) so that they can have you on a tight leash and remind you that your lifestyle revolves around a single paycheck.Viola — The burgeoning middle class.That’s why you shouldn’t be at the mercy of your boss or some corporation who really has no vested interests in you and let them control your destiny and wealth creation. Try to become skilled at other things as well and diversify what you do. You need to create many opportunities for yourself so that you’re not dependent on your current job or career. Become a social brand. More on that later.By the way, let me remind you that wealth accumulation is left-skewed. Hence 95% of the working poor- middle-class fall along the long tails. Hence the popularism behind populist governments — I’ll probably write a separate post on “Feeding the Base” politics and “Finger In The Air” economics later.Not so short after all...Stay Relevant or Be Divergent? Both“Please try to convince you partner that their job is automatable” — Michael OsborneLet’s get back to the Cognitive-Routine Matrix. Here are the industries (and thousands of jobs) getting automated as we speak.This may not come as a surprise, but Google has started developing a completely automated call center called Contact Center AI. Thousands of people who work at call centers will lose their jobs. I have been the very person evangelizing cognitive BLP AIML technologies ( of a company that ends with SOFT) to corporates with a ruthless focus on reducing headcount.Retail, Sales, and Service JobsA study has shown that people don’t really trust people who work in sales and retail and think they or their friends know much more about the products they’re buying. Not only that, more and more people buy everything online without even going to the store, so it’s not hard to imagine that retail, sales, and customer service will become automated.Clerical WorkThis type of work has been done by secretaries and office assistants. It consists mostly of word processing, typing, bookkeeping, and sorting and filing. That’s something that can easily be automated so clerical work may also be overtaken by robots who are more productive.AccountingDo you think that your job is safe if you’re an accountant? Think again. A smart software will be replacing you really soon.LogisticsThis industry is already highly automated by smart robotics and it’s only going to increase.And so many more … I would have to write a lengthy report every quarter to mention every single industry getting a middle finger from Automation Technologies.TBH, I don’t give a shit about UBI (Universal Basic Income) or UBJ’s. There is a cheap joke to be made here but I’ll move on.If you think the issue of people losing their jobs due to automation will be solved by a universal basic income or basic jobs, don’t be so certain. I strongly advocate reskilling yourself (thanks to internet, marginal cost of reskilling is tending to zero — hence it’s easier than ever) in the cognitive-non routine areas like creative endeavors, complex decision making, leadership idea generation and originality or focusing on jumping on the entrepreneurship bandwagon to become a net producer rather than a net consumer laden with debt.6 Value Compounding Approaches You Should Embrace, Yesterday“No great man ever complains of want of opportunity.” — Ralph Waldo EmersonSo here is what I strongly feel we should do — as fast as possible. Time is of the essence.1. Develop a Creative Led Deep Expertise (And Preferably Some Tech Specialized Knowledge)Get your FREE Copy Here — No Email RequiredNot all of us cannot be music artists or scriptwriters. But we get creative with ideas, remarkable design and complex reasoning backed with sound leadership principles and ethics.The only area where us humans still have the advantage over machines is creativity and advanced cognitive skills. These are the skills that cannot be automated: judgment and decision making, fluency of ideas, active learning, systems evaluation, originality, learning strategies, deductive reasoning, complex problem solving, and system analysis. So I suggest that you focus on developing these type of skills and deep expertise in these areas.My expertise lies in evaluating potential business investments (will touch on that later in the post) and Sales & Marketing. Almost 90% of my time is focused on consuming and ideating ways to delight customers and strengthen my brand’s position in their mind.Good luck ‘PETE’ - The Algo doing that. We are good friends, Pete.Side Note:Get your FREE materials on being productive, thought leadership and strategic business principles HERE! (No Email Required)2. Thinking Slow And Thinking DeepYou need to learn how to think good and slow and avoid fast and rushed decisions. Do you know what separates truly smart people from the average? They perceive reality in a different way from average people and use effective mental models for thinking, making decisions, and coming up with the solutions. A definition of mental models is “Psychological representations of real, hypothetical, or imaginary situations.” You can imagine mental models like apps for your smartphone, the more effective, conscious and proactive they are, the greater the results are.Here are the 7 Mental Models you need master ASAP:Get Your FREE Copy Here (No Email Required)1. Pareto Principle — Pareto Principle states that a small amount of some phenomenon causes a disproportionately large effect.2. First Principles Thinking — Basically, the practice of actively questioning every assumption you think you ‘know’ about a given problem or scenario3. Confirmation Bias — “The normal mind is moved, among others, by 2 basic drives — Self-regard & Least Effort” H.A. Overstreet, “Influencing Human Behavior, 19254. Opportunity Cost — The ‘cost’ incurred by not enjoying the benefit that would have been had by taking the second best available choice5. Reciprocity — “If one individual acts on another, the action will tend to be reciprocated in kind. And of course, human beings act with intense reciprocity demonstrated as well.” — Shane Parrish6. Illusion of Control — “The illusion of control is the tendency for people to overestimate their ability to control events; for example, it occurs when someone feels a sense of control over outcomes that they demonstrably do not influence.” Wikipedia7. Inversion Technique — “Often by considering what we want to avoid rather than what we want to get, we come up with better solutions.” — Shane ParrishI spend time to think through the consequences of my decisions and the risk. There is no glory in making fast decisions. The company’s future rides on making Sound Decisions. And good decisions require Integrative Thinking — Evaluating both the Pro’s and Con’s, Potential risk and Expected reward. I allocate 80% of my time thinking about the problems rather than the solutions. And that’s what companies will really value in you — The ability to make good high-value decisions.3. Be Bold and Nurture Courage“There is more opportunity than ability” — Einstein.Well, There is more ability than there is courage.Remember that nothing lasts forever, both good and the bad times. So be bold and courageous and take every opportunity that you can. Work hard, stop being lazy, and focus on the journey ahead of you. Remember — Mediocrity, Laziness and Ego will kill you sooner than a Robot.It’s the main goal that matters, but the process of achieving that goal. Don’t crumble when faced with fear, harness that power and use it to your benefit!“…and finally how to build communities — armies of exponentially enabled individuals willing and able to help today’s entrepreneurs make their boldest dreams come true.” — Bold by Steven KotlerIn my earlier post A Year Older, A Year Closer, Wisdom From My Older Self, I expanded on the truth that we are living on borrowed time. Without the realization that time is a perishable liability, one cannot truly achieve their objectives. I remind myself of that every single day and that is the kernel of fire that pushes my limits beyond boundaries.4. Learn Integrative Thinking: Connecting The Dots“Random connections drive serendipitous discoveries. Dreams, for example, are the primordial soup of innovation, where ideas connect seemingly at random.” — Steven JohnsonKnowledge is becoming less and less important as everybody has access to it, freely and cheaply. So you won’t win by simply knowing more than other people. Innovations and good ideas are what’s going to save you because you should know what to do with knowledge and how to use to come up with new things. But where do great ideas and innovations come from?Ideas don’t come as sudden breakthroughs, but more as subtle hunches that need to be cultivated and they evolve over time. Collaboration and competition are also important components of innovation which happens when ideas connect.How do I learn and apply Integrative Thinking? Simple. I moved on from being a new corporate-driven slave consumer to being a meaningful net producer. I adopted the long-tail hedge against security and comfort. I am creating more wealth for myself in the last 7 months compared to a decade in corporate. I’m in control of the rate of growth of my personal wealth and satisfaction.5. (H)elp (O)thers (W)in To Lead And Succeed“You can have everything in life you want if you will just help other people get what they want.” Zig ZiglarAccenture ReportWe have established earlier in the article that lower-skilled workers are in most danger of losing their jobs due to automation. That’s why we need to identify those vulnerable groups and focus on skill learning. Education and lifelong learning are the only ways to close the skills gap.Another important point to make here is that we MUST improve the lives of others. The ability to empower and help others succeed is perhaps the most underrated qualities. It's not only Self-Improvement. Its influencing others to grow — together.Do I have to remind you of an African proverb? If you wish to go fast, go alone. If you wish to go far, go together.6. Jump curves — Idea Sex“A great book begins with an idea; a great life, with a determination.” — Louis L’AmourComing up with great ideas is not only about making a lot of money but making yourself a better person. And don’t expect that all of your ideas will be awesome and revolutionary. There will be a lot of mediocre ideas, weird ideas, impossible idea, and simply stupid ideas.But, all of that is useful because you’re training your idea muscle, and yes, it’s just like any other muscle in your body. When you have a lot of ideas, it’s almost like they have sex with each other and what do you get? More ideas. You have to constantly challenge yourself to come up with new and exciting ideas because that leads to innovation. And remember, innovation is not about improving something slightly, it’s about making it ten times better!So write all your ideas down constantly (no matter how stupid you think they are) work on them, read about them, research them, and great things will happen!SummaryFocus on building Deep Expertise with Specialized Knowledge to be a Thought LeaderThere is a lot one can achieve in 24 hours. There is no need to rush into things. Step back and think with clarity. Don’t sacrifice clarity for cleverness.Remind yourself that time and tide wait for no one. Have a strong desire to succeed with the motivation to put it into action. You are just 3 feet away from gold.Have a broad view of what’s happening in the world. Allocate some time every week to update yourself on emerging technologies and creative pursuits. There is no saying how the neurons in your brain will fire to find novel ideas and solutions.“You can have everything in life you want if you will just help other people get what they want.” Zig Ziglar — End of story. (“I don’t give a damn if you believe it or not” Arnold Schwarzenegger)Creativity is not magic. It’s a muscle. Own a diary and write down all the stupid ideas you might have or come up with. It’s exercising the muscle that matters, not the idea itself. Make it a habit. After all, we are nothing but an aggregate system of our habits.Sources:2022 Skills Outlook — World Economic ForumIf Companies Had No Employees — The EconomistReskilling Future Workers — Who’s Responsible — Nick EasenThe key lessons from “Where Good Ideas Come From” by Steven JohnsonAlmost all the US jobs created since 2005 are temporary — Dan KopfCapitalism is When the World’s Richest Man Gives People a Raise But They Still Barely Earn Enough to Live On — Umair HaqueRobots will steal our jobs. Hooray? — Calum ChaceArtificial Intelligence is not a revolution, it’s a global risk — Michael K. SpencerUniversal Basic Income Is Silicon Valley’s Latest Scam — Douglas RushkoffBooks:BullShit Jobs — David GraeberDeals That Made The World — Jacques PerettiRise Of The Robots — Martin FordDeep Work — Cal NewportHow To Get Ideas — Jack FosterWhere Good Ideas Come From — Steven JohnsonAny thoughts and opinions?I don’t write well. But I care enough to write. I care enough to share. To empower. Would you like to join me? If yes, a quick cheer perhaps? Clap to show how much you resonated with this.Follow Abi Bhalla | Growthyoda on :Instagram instagram.com/growthyoda/LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/senseiabi/