I’ve always been a bit jealous of builders. You finish your day’s work and there’s something solid to show for it. At the end of the week, the month, the year, you can drive around town and point: “I built that. And that one too.”
For a lot of us now it’s different. The quiet question in the back of the head is simple: “Am I actually being useful?”
Some jobs you look at and think, “Probably not.”
And now with AI coming hard for chunks of what used to be human-only work, that question gets louder. Things are shifting faster than they ever have. Will there still be a place for me? Will I still matter?
Now even?
It’s the end of my week and the evidence is thin: a few tasks ticked off, some meetings, a bit of writing, a workout (many actually) squeezed in. Trying to live my best life. Trying to be useful. (there’s my one sheet of “plan the week” paper in the photos.
Truth is, I love my work. I think it’s important. I believe I can still shift the dial on human health. But it looks nothing like what any previous generation would recognise as “proper work”.
So how about you?
When you stack up what you do, day after day, do you feel useful?
In this new world that’s arriving fast, what does “being useful” even mean to you now?
Me: Maybe I’m going to get my surfboard out….
