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AI and the Art of Being Human: A practical guide to thriving with AI while rediscovering yourself in the process

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Jeffrey Abbott

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“Handle with care. Me. You. All we do. It doesn't mean do everything for anyone or something for everyone but it does mean to do it the most care-fully you are able. I strive for that each moment-- fail miserably much of the time, but still try-- whether work, play loving, writing-- to do it as care-fully as I might-- for myself and those I love, yes, but also for the ripple effects-- the butterfly-wing-flapping effects-- in places unknowable and unknown.”

LovePlayCareWorkAwarenessSelf LoveMindfulnessWriteInterconnectednessCarefully
Author:Shellen Lubin
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“Today, white-collar job insecurity is no longer a function of the business cycle--rising as the stock market falls and declining again when the numbers improve. Nor is it confined to a few volatile sectors like telecommunications or technology, or a few regions like the rust belt or Silicon Valley. The economy may be looking up, the company may be raking in cash, and still the layoffs continue, like a perverse form of natural selection, weeding out the talented and successful as well as the mediocre. Since the midnineties, this perpetual winnowing process has been institutionalized under various euphemisms such as "downsizing," "right-sizing," "smart-sizing," "restructuring," and "de-layering"—to which we can now add the outsourcing of white-collar functions to cheaper labor markets overseas.”

WorkBusinessWorkersOutsourcingDownsizingRestructuringLayoffsFiringsJob Insecurity
Book:Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream
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“But the white collar workforce seems to consist of two groups: those who can’t find work at all and those who are employed in jobs where they work much more than they want to. In between lies a scary place where you dedicate long hours to a job that you sense is about to eject you, if only because so many colleagues have been laid off already.”

JobsWorkBusinessWorkersWorkforceOverworkDownsizingPsychological SafetyLayoffsWhite Collar Workers
Book:Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream
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“Robert Jackall’s book [Moral Mazes] impressed on me that corporate dress serves a far more important function than mere body covering. “Proper management of one’s external appearances,” he writes, “simply signals to one’s superiors that one is prepared to undertake other kinds of self-adaptation.” By dressing correctly, right down to the accessories, you let it be known that you are willing to conform in other ways too—that you can follow orders, for example, and blend in with the prevailing “culture.”

WorkDressClothingAttireCorporate LifeConformingWork AttireMoral MazesRobert JackallSelf Adaptation
Book:Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream
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“The career coaching industry can only expand. Whether or not the economy improves. And this is because the corporate world has changed. Today, in the wake of the last recession, companies are intent on being permanently lean; they churn people in and out as needed, so that the average executive or professional can expect to hold—what?—about ten or eleven jobs in a lifetime whether he or she wants to or not. And it’s interesting, isn’t it, that our society is so unprepared for this change. College, for example, prepares people for jobs, but not for the trauma of job change.”

ChangeWorkBusinessExecutivesDownsizingCorporate WorldProfessionalsLayoffsCareer CoachingJob Changes
Book:Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream
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“I had pictured the corporate world that I seek to enter as a castle on a hill, outside of which the starving vagrants wander, beset upon by wolves and barbarian hordes, begging for entry into the safety of the fortified towers. But now I see there is another zone out here: a somewhat settled encampment, where people toil for uncertain rewards at minor tasks invented by the castle dwellers. There is an advantage to occupying this zone: you are free of the rigid conformity required of those who dwell inside; you can actually “Be Your Own Boss!” A few do very well, acquiring pink Cadillacs or fortunes from real estate deals. Many more are ruined or pour themselves into efforts that generate near-poverty-level earnings year after year. There is no safety out here; the wolves keep circling.”

JobsWorkBusinessCareersConsultantsJob SeekingCorporate WorldProfessionsJob HuntingMulti Level Marketing
Book:Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream
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