What would you do all day if you didn't need to get paid?

Art and creation is how we feel less alone in the universe. It’s a message in a bottle we throw out into the surf to see if there’s anyone to pick it up. Soon that attention is all we'll have left...

Art and creation is how we feel less alone in the universe. It’s a message in a bottle we throw out into the surf to see if there’s anyone else out there willing to pick it up. If there is anyone else who struggles like we struggle, or loves the things we love, or thinks the way we think. Soon that might be all we have left.

What’s the point of getting up every day and doing the work you do? Of course money is one point. But once that point’s not quite so sharp, what motivates us? What motivates you?

I’ve been thinking about this lately within the context of AI. We really are approaching a moment where most jobs won’t be necessary. Where most of the things we do with our minds will be done by AI. Any rote predictable explainable task will be done by AI more quickly and cheaper than it can be done by a human. A very large percentage of the workforce will be displaced very soon.

Now, let’s assume the best case scenario. With all this enhanced productivity we come together as a nation and planet to create a utopia where the displaced are given universal basic income and are able to pay all their bills without working.

Now, what do they do all day? What would you do all day?

I was listening to this podcast last night and the guest was basically saying that the question itself implies a worldview fed to us, the idea that our jobs are our identity is a capitalist ruse. That in many parts of the world they think different, and people would be very happy to just hang out all day, spend time with family, sit around and laugh and dance.

I just don’t know that that’s true. I don’t think we’re hedonists at our core. I think there’s a deep human need to create and have a purpose. Now for some their children are that purpose and that’s very beautiful, but I think for a lot of us that’s not enough. I love spending time with people that I love. Spending time with friends and family and going on adventures and laughing and eating food together and just being with people who I enjoy their company. But then I need to get back to work. Work is the through line. It’s the thread. It’s the scaffolding. It’s what holds everything else together.

Now in this utopia we’re imagining, we could still create. We could still make apps and businesses and side hustles and make our art and sell it to other people, but maybe money wouldn’t have the same meaning it has now. Maybe we would just give away what we create, or maybe it would be a barter exchange system where you trade one human need for another human need, not because we need it, but just for the pleasure of interacting with another human and seeing what another created.

For me the joy of creating, and having other people see my creations, is the point. I don’t get paid for this newsletter, but it feels important for me because I know a few people read it (thank you.). It’s you reading that makes it worth it. And I think that’s what makes creating worth it.

Money is just a ledger, it’s a database to help show how much people value the things we create. If we don’t have that ledger, maybe the ledger is attention. We already live in an attention economy. Attention is not something that can directly pay your bills, but the more attention you have, the more money you get. So maybe in this post-work utopia we’re imagining, attention will be the currency. People will create for people to pay attention to it, to consume it and love it and let them know that the idea that they had in their head is not something only they think, but that there are other people out there in the universe who love the same things they love. Are inspired by the same things they’re inspired by. Struggle with the same struggles they struggle with. Money keeps us alive, but after you’re fed, money isn’t really the point.

So many of us are already doing this. Social media, Substack, so many people preparing for this next step in the way the world is organized. So much is already being created really for the joy of creating and sharing.

We’re already choosing attention over money. So if money doesn’t exist anymore, and attention is the currency, attention will be all we need.

And I think that’s enough. Do you?