Why jobs of the future won't feel like work | David Lee

We've all heard that robots are going to take our jobs -- but what can we do about it? Innovation expert David Lee says that we should start designing jobs that unlock our hidden talents and passions -- the things we spend our weekends doing -- to keep us relevant in the age of robotics. "Start asking people what problems they're inspired to solve and what talents they want to bring to work," Lee says. "When you invite people to be more, they can amaze us with how much more they can be."
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[@Count2Two2Times]

We need more talks about jobs in the future!

[@mitchmikkkel3237]

jobs in the future will be pedophile companies and banks making the super poor doing mundane work, thats the future

[@Dookie6891]

"People are amazing on weekends." The most boggling and profound truth, that we constrain our vast creative potential to two days a week. We all do it. Why??

[@nayandusoruth2468]

because the other five days a week, other people waste our lives...

[@MuadDib1402]

"People are amazing on weekends." I'm not sure that can be applied to everybody.

[@SammyCee23]

I'm only amazing at breakfast

[@soyboynpc8236]

Talks like this need to be more often!

[@mitchmikkkel3237]

go read a book if you like fantasy then

[@djeffecen]

I truly believe that this is our future

[@Kas-yw5fe]

WE NEED MORE OF THESE CONVERSATIONS!

[@sgsogo0029]

I foresee that in the future, TED Talks will be given by a robot.

[@teodorabrnovic8864]

i seriously want everybody who reads this to actually use it in real life... we can change the world people!!!

[@PierreLaBaguette]

i do

[@dhruvamukhopadhyay1931]

He is right, but he missed one thing, the baseline, i.e., education needs to be improved.

[@lydiaharm7495]

Fantastic talk, hope it makes people think more about this subject.

[@brendarua01]

What an inspiring talk! David Lee shows how we are at a cusp, one where humanity can blossom when freed from drudgery, or where we collapse into a degraded morass of skilled elites and unemployed drones. I'm reminded of the early social and economic theories of work, and how it can nurture and enable our potentials to be fulfilled, or it can be twisted toward other ends such as mere efficiency or profit or status, and thus alienate people from their work and from other people. Sound like Marx, Marcuse to you? You'd be right. Have we come full circle? Or maybe it is the historical dialectic at work?

[@ccranberry0]

We could blossom, if it were not for capitalism, and the ideology that makes us think that capitalism is the only option.

[@brendarua01]

vvni I agree with you. AI an robots may ultimately let us break the ties that limit people and make them mere objects like machines, a means of profit for others.

[@sanjuansteve]

Great talk! The key to happiness isn't figuring out how we can all work despite computers and automation doing nearly all of our jobs, and doing so 24/7/365 with much greater productivity. The key to happiness is simply in much more equally distributing and consuming the greatly enhanced productivity worldwide, aka wealth (and doing it in balance with the Earth).

[@dominiquebutler3704]

this talk gave me chills. im so inspired.

[@dajana5005]

It was very good talk! But on the time we are wondering: what will drivers do in 10 yrs, when we will have automatic cars, there are hundreds of miners dying everyday from decades doing the same work. And a lot of kids in China or Africa that instead going to schcool are working. So how is it, that we have predictions about desapiring so many types of work in modern countries and I am always thinking about something completly different what is going on now around the world...

[@CorrectCrusader]

As people say, America first!

[@danielkim1255]

hey, so David Lee is presenting to people a problem that we should think about solving. Yes, there are many problems in this world - inequality getting bigger, people in third world countries working for $1 a day and starving, people dying with AIDS. These problems don't get solved magically one day. its achieved through hard work and someone needs to do that hard work. Just like how Elon Musk is tackling on the problem of CO2 emissions by promoting solar and renewable energy. So David Lee in this presentation is trying to inspire people to work along side him to solve this problem. A problem as big as this cannot be solved by one person and requires a collective effort. Hopefully you'll be inspired to solve a problem that this world is going through one day :)

[@12skippy21]

My biggest concern is that we run out of the natural resources capable of creating such a future. I do not yet see an alternative to existing elements we have to extensively mine for, let alone imagine a future where we all have robots doing the grunt work.

[@rreemer]

Excellent. Jacque Fresco made this point very well a long time ago.

[@Kas-yw5fe]

That old fart is a fraud, anyone with a brain saw this coming.

[@rreemer]

I meant about it being a very positive thing. Not the foresite of it.

[@tdona77]

This is a great presentation! Although technology has made our lives seem to be easier, I feel we are slowly losing our own humanity in this digital era. I hope we can fix this issue before we head into a time period where we destroy our own opportunities and livelihoods. Also creating more meaningful work will help us leverage some of the issues we are facing today with the millennial generation who are entering in the workforce.

[@nayandusoruth2468]

This loosing humanity does have something to do with this, but it is more a side effect of alienation from other humans. Humans evolved to live in small but intimate social groups, however, now we just have a large groups of acquaintances. This is degenerating to humans, as it makes us unable to rely on anyone at a deep level, creating a hidden loneliness... Ideally, we would change this by making sure that jobs do not effect where one lives, and design our cities so that social groups can live in small isolated and intimate compounds, yet retain contact with the larger whole...

[@yelenayegorova9836]

Very Inspiring! Thank you David.... Our life is about JOY ......

[@DamKaKaDaNi]

It's also about growth as a human and life fulfillment. Sometimes refered to as Eudaimonia.

[@B0ssRWass]

Loved the talk. However, I have a comment worth thinking about. The projected path forward is to take advantage of our capabilities as humans to be creative, and problem solve. I 100% agree that this side needs to be magnified, but the truth is that there can't possibly be enough roles to support EVERYONE being the problem solver, flexing their prowess on the world. The reality is that maybe only half the world's population has the thought processing capability to demonstrate these creative processes that are actually meaningful enough to be paid for by a company. What about the people who aren't capable of contributing enough to generate income? What about the engineers who will have an even more disconnected job function due to software being able to design the best parts in CAD, and do the analysis on them? I agree that action needs to be taken to generate compassion towards a brighter future, and based on these comments it seems like our education system, as well as public benefits, needs to be completely restructured. That being said, I am very optimistic about the future and hope that someone will establish the power required to implement these ideals into society.

[@theAadi47]

4:30 good job by editor. Get more ted talks like these

[@Mr-co5uv]

so many talks addressing the problems, but never putting forth a solution.

[@mba2ceo]

More hand waving !!! DETAILs !!!

[@skoky76]

Service economy = Someone somewhere makes jeans for 1usd per piece and my job is to sell it for 100usd on the other side of the world. I think that is missing from this talk. Advances in technologies should be primarily used to spread wealth to Africa and other poorer parts of the world. Just my opinion, i am not a communist or socialism fan though....

[@SoFlyIndustry]

good point. but technology unfortunately only fulfill a demand for a need that has investments.

[@nayandusoruth2468]

I agree, but regarding that last part, no previous political and economic ideology will help us with this new revolution. With tech replacing humans, if we do it right, we can provide both the freedom of capitalism, and the equality of socialism, as we can be provided for automatically, without one human having to put in effort to do so, instead pursuing personal projects...

[@brendarua01]

Petr Put ideology, with all its baggage and simplistic labels aside. You have a vision that steers us away from the darkness ahead. That is something noble to work for.

[@akj7]

Petr Skokan, Can we please leave Africa out of this? Africa's poverty is psychologic. The continent needs time and self-retablishment to evolve. Please do not meddle with it's business.

[@skoky76]

We cannot leave Africa out of it (at least in Europe) as potentially tens of millions of refugees from Africa will sooner or later be on their way to the north because of the climate changes and lack of resources... So better help them to be economically stable and energetically independent so they can develop. Without technologies it is impossible to move forward...... you need energy (preferably clean energy)

[@yahiaal-yousef1668]

Please add a video about study skills Thank you

[@joewilder]

Instead of a suggestion box, perhaps there should be a suggestion dept.

[@Robert08010]

Joe Wilder Oh.... you get a $35,000 bonus for that! LOL.

[@suicune2001]

Just like Star Trek. With basic jobs done by computers, people are free to be expressive.

[@kcmn0089]

Exactly

[@brunon.8962]

Basic Economics: if a robot/software can do better and cheaper than a human, a wise competitive company will replace workers to increase profit and stay tuned.

[@Robert08010]

walperstyle Exactly what I have been saying. That's why they are floating this new communism or socialism or whatever you call it. That's why they are floating this idea of taxing theses manufacturers to provid a basic living for everyone.

[@imant126]

This the rise of youtubers , vinners and vloggers. .....

[@americanknight2070]

can we PLEASE work for THIS guy?

[@luislozano2896]

The problem is that their are no managers in the corporate world to care about people and to change process that don't work and HR loves more layoffs!

[@foxtrotkilomike]

At the moment, companies pay their workers, so the main day to day job is automated that effectively means that such workers are made redundant and the company gets a huge profit boost on the saved wages, in fact this happens already. Its not self driving cars that have started this, its computers, and doing back mechanical inventions. So those saved wages could be sent to government instead, in the form of tax to fund universal basic income, that's going to be difficult to achieve especially with capitalist governments. Alternatively a company could keep those individuals on to perform more creative work as discussed, widen and empower them But i also think companies should also widen and empower themselves too as a whole, and i'm thinking more in social circles where they will support the communities that business serves so if an employee does something for the wider community, they are given extra annual leave for example. But that can start now.

[@wickedleeloopy2115]

Until public speaking is performed by a robot......your not immune

[@apassmore9872]

No struggle but class struggle.

[@denisk.8280]

Future work will be divided in two parts. Modern slaves and just getting money for nothing

[@RandomChatterRoom]

I don't think everyone can and likely do creative job. Creative need talent and passion.

[@fleXcope]

And I am a Weekend Warrior... Too...

[@user-ed2vq1pq5u]

I don t know english well TnT but i think it is pretty good

[@ricksanchez6704]

Going to work SUCKS.

[@nayandusoruth2468]

This is true, that for the moment humans are more creative an adaptive than AI systems, but the technological singularity is a mere 28 years away, many of us will still be alive (especially considering increasingly advanced medical tech), meaning we need to improve our mental capacity, wether it be through genetics or cybernetics. But also socio economically, even if we deal with the robot replace humans thing, with robots doing the simps tasks much better than us much longer than us, practically for free, humanity as a whole will accumulate such vast quantities of resources, we could probably live in a star trek style utopia. However, in current capitalistic society, wealth tends to accumulate around already rich individuals, meaning that everyone may have jobs, but there will be an enormous wealth gap in between the majority and the super rich. We are not at this point yet, because we can't use robots to produce said wealth, however, this is something that is going to become an issue that we need to consider, perhaps moving towards a socio economic system that distributes tech produced resources and services equally. For example, if we work hard as a species, we may be able to provide food, shelter, water and some other basic neckties automatically, in quantities that everyone can get what they need, so why not distribute it equally free of charge if it doesn't take any human effort to do so? Eventually you may see the rise of a system where money is no longer needed thanks to tech, eliminating poverty, inequality and lack of freedom... Note: This can only happen if we dodge climate change, extinction of bees, political instability, the general trend against democracy...

[@abhimat]

Bring your Saturday self to Wednesdays, and it will make Mondays more interesting

[@RadishDoctor]

People already play videogames and have etsy shops. Digital era access allows anyone with a computer to be an artist, anyone with a camera to be a performer. Jobs of the future are already HAPPENING. Lucky for me I'm also an electrician, mechanic, and aspiring culinary expert too, so I'm not threatened. Person to person retail... that's DYING. People need to jump ship now.

[@user-zh3cs6ff1v]

수행평가 on

[@bas182341]

this subject bothers me for years aleady. what happens in a few decades if million of jobs are gone because of the rise of smart/cheap/strong/fast machines? there is just no solution....

[@curiousone2751]

Take out the politicians that disagree. Theyll only slow us down

[@user-us7bx7mu1z]

1:51

[@thecasualfront7432]

Fully automated luxury communism

[@HakuCell]

sounds good to me

[@xyBoyMusic]

Cool! I work on my channel "xy Boy Music" only cuz I love doin it. It never feels like work! :)

[@kinngrimm]

Then we have at least enough workforce to build barrages against rising water, putting out fires and clean up after hurricanes. Also if you put all your chips on big companies, do you really think those are about craftmanship and artfully creating stuff by hand? Societies need to put their focus on smallscale buisnesses otherwise all these grand visions are going to fail.

[@robertrichardson6827]

I was born to be a government drone...I'm dooooomed.

[@user-su3mw1ow4e]

8:31

[@cwl82108]

Then what if your boss underpaid you and require you to do different kind of jobs at once ?

[@fleXcope]

I am the owner of 5 robots. So far...

[@bornintoacorruptsystem9to5]

We need freedom from all jobs immediately plz

[@ArturoTabera]

O.K. But who's gonna pay you to do so? Or do you mean the time when money, possession, property, states are things of the past? What if i create a robot for ALL your problems? I can do that! What's then left to do? Lets say you have 10% creators and 90% consumers. Who's gonna pay the consumers? Does this tell me I should learn robotics and programming then?

[@indviduation]

*This is bunk:* The top 25 jobs are mostly low skilled, low pay, and low benefits, clearly these jobs are work. So this is *bunk.*

[@hoanglampham6313]

Cooking will disappear in future ?

[@freshjuicysucculentmemes6196]

26th

[@informing_]

STOP 9-5 JOBS NOW!

[@kinsmed]

Beautiful thing about robots is they don't see color or gender when serving.

[@SaltVinegar2010]

chas ames Really? Computer vision recognition technology is very advanced now. A robot could easily tell the difference.

[@whatho85]

Someone will inevitably add it into their programming.

[@Dookie6891]

Undoubtedly it's already programmed into the robots we use today. But the problem you missed is, what purpose do we have in creating a gender-conscious robot if we're using it as a service tool? The moment our robots start to become sentient is the moment that our utopian human vision gets applied to robots as well. Then the tech supplanting them will be saying "Beautiful thing is they don't see metal or flesh when serving."

[@devonleblanc9152]

Of course they will see gender and color when serving lol wtf are you on

[@wookehdookeh]

hahaha

[@Original1Thor]

/clap /clap /clap

[@kimdw24]

3:56 4:18

[@user-qv3qy5fb3p]

명덕고등학교 김동원

[@kimdw24]

명덕고등학교 이도훈

[@user-tm1ms1hb1c]

안녕 난 ㅇㅊ이야

[@unf3z4nt]

What happens if machines become like people?

[@oldhollywoodangels]

u hope u gonna be old enough to not see the human vs robot war

[@nayandusoruth2468]

We will not create robots like us, androids are quite useless at tasks we dont like. We would create robots that do stuff we dont like to do...

[@madmanmad6968]

HELOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[@yannisconstantinides7767]

Geez, he just keeps saying the same stuff over and over. He never actually gets to the point.

[@abbasperto4120]

اذا اكو عربي هنا حق لايك

[@NoName-nq2zj]

me

[@RandomForcedHandle]

Can you frezze me somehow untill that future comes? Cos i feel like slave at this present.

[@krzysztofm1059]

This is all great, but i doubt that a company with 100000 emploees will need 100000 creative emploees that get payed for playing with their imagination, 1000 is a optimistic gues :/

[@maxineyang1332]

People who are in the labour industry don't get paid enough even though they work a lot harder than doctors......................... What a sick world.

[@nokoolaid]

Yeah, low pay service jobs.

[@aliabrahim315]

sure Great Ideas, To Innovation in smart system. is Intelligence Robot world. The importance for the future generation is coming from the latest technology in the world Robotics. the most important field Medicine and challenge in the different environment is the most important make solutions is Useful to mankind.!!! solution to how make Assist in Human Developing and Great Jobs is Huge Impact, in Business there are better idea sure

[@donovanapuestas]

m

[@nonomomo3810]

Please translate to Arabic .....Please

[@akeemperez8509]

Yes a minimum income is needed. But I feel like it should come with a cost. Like you have to go to college no exceptions. Make our country smart again. Get everyone on a higher train of thought.

[@Noah-un7hl]

LMAO

[@TiborRoussou]

Automation, computers and robots have already taken many jobs; they will only take more. There will still be demand for trades. Modern technology can't replace many of them now. It also doesn't help that the youth of today is lazy. Most of our youth look for simple and easy jobs. Who will fix their electrical, or plumbing, or tile? It won't be the majority of them since that is work. True work. When I left University in 1996, I already seen the trend for automation and computerization. I suppose that is why I've spent the last 19 years being an independent tile contractor. This way I would not easily be replaced!

[@SaltVinegar2010]

Tibor Roussou Depends on what you define "lazy" as? The problem is those "easy" tech jobs pay a lot more money than being a tiler. If tiling paid a good income then more people would gravitate towards that area. If they pay somewhat the same then of course people will choose the easier job because why not?

[@ElectricChaplain]

Tibor Roussou Yeah no millennials aren't lazy. We're the most educated generation to date, going to college and usually working at the same time. Engineering or Science related fields are not "easy" by any means. Usually above average IQs (120

[@TiborRoussou]

Tile is one of the oldest professions; a good tile man can make 500 to a thousand a day! It is also mentally and physically challenging!

[@re_animator]

I've done it, physically challenging yes, but not what I'd call mentally challenging work, and if you think machines wont take that job keep dreaming, I mean if it would be cheaper, better and faster then why not, well at least it wont happen in the near future, lucky you.

[@TiborRoussou]

jose/drkrt There is a world of difference from "I've done it' and I've been doing it for twenty years! After you tackle a hundred or more custom installs where you determine the sizes of each and every piece; fabricate them and then hand set each piece, then and only then can you tell me it wasn't mentally challenging. Each and every project has different dimensions. This I know. Some jobs are straight forward; many are not! I would love to see a machine that can replace me. Damn, I'd buy it and retire permanently :)

[@rubenjimenez221]

When the time of survibing comes and will become the most important aspect of our lifes. Who will care about building robots? Those times are very close so prepare yourself for survibing instead

[@annonymsurfer3189]

survive from what?

[@rubenjimenez221]

annonym surfer you must be dreaming if u think were going to reach that far. Dont know where u live or what position in society you hold but where I live dont know who or whom is turning humans into stupid brainlees beings, we will not be able to live among them

[@rubenjimenez221]

annonym surfer sorry for my writing I just learned this language

[@user-vg5by2tf8y]

hello im a korean, and could you please tell the answer of how chocolate makes people happer knowing that chocolate is a source of caffeine? i will hope you guys to answer this as possible as you can, because it is my assignment!

[@LinkMEP]

Fear monger.

[@MechanicWolf85]

technology should help us evolve not serve us, we shoulnt be letting tech do everything for us while we dont do anything, we should be hand in hand with machines i wanted a future where we had hover motorcycles and metal wings (like the ones in spiderman homecoming villain) why is the future so god dam borring now? i hate this future i want to be iron man, not the fat people of wall.e

[@maddog9867]

I bow to my robot overlords :/

[@HakuCell]

i am inspired by his sweaty scalp

[@angelic8632002]

Oh look its someone who doesn't know much about economics *or* AI research talking about AI taking over our jobs and how we can create new ones...

[@Wauly]

Do you think this isn't what the future will be like?

[@Lejone974]

Oh look its someone who doesn't know much about economics or AI research disrespecting someone who made a valid analysis of what's happening now and how we should react to it

[@angelic8632002]

What he said is plain impossible. The economics of his pretty words arent there

[@Lejone974]

You don't understand.. at some point, not that far from now, AI and robots resource will be more profitable and effective than human resource for most of the presently existing jobs. And peoples aren't going to let themselves die without income so there are 2 clear choices to me The first one is to create new jobs working with AIs / Robots and this cooperation may only appear in jobs where AI and Human is more effective than AI alone. The other jobs will be AI / Robots only The second is Universal Basic Income, but its not easy to create and set up and it may eventually strengthen the inequalities we have today but it may also do the opposite and there certainly are other choices but we all need to think about it

[@angelic8632002]

I know whats going to happen. His idea is a pipe dream. Only way forward is to have a universal basic income since about 30% of jobs will disappear fairly soon(coming two decades). And then about 50% more after that. That will crash the economy since there is no purchasing power left. This is a massive upheaval of how we do economics and will force us to rethink how we do things since market economies wont work any more as they are today.

[@stormbytes]

Empty, inactionable ramblings.

[@JivanNavij]

Maybe it's reflecting back to the emptiness of how you feel.

[@aarinn8223]

first comment. i guess ?

[@jain4613]

no one cares really

[@KanjsCat]

how about not create more robot, the wolrd will look like walle-E Or robot