#79: The impossible work of navigating changes
Early thoughts on the current state of the free market, design and the future
Hello friends and new subscribers!
One of the most pleasurable parts of my job is abstract reasoning. That is: making sense of things, digging into the logic of how things work and crafting a solution to a problem. Right now, the one of the problems/realms of topic i’m most interested in thinking about is the current state of the free market and design. This is, by no means, a solution-finding essay, nor a case study. This is more like a freethinking, opinion-driven long-form writing that I’m trying to get out of my head. In the hopes of receiving some feedback maybe, but really it’s just to clear my head. If this aligns with your curiosity, I’d recommend sticking around!
To be a designer in 2024 is TOUGH, no one can deny this. I don’t know if it has always been tough. There’s a lot of factors in play for that, in the past just as there are today as well. One thing is different though compared to, say 10-20 years ago: Artificial Intelligence. It is a real-game changer in a ton of ways but this isn’t about AI, specifically.
Post-Covid era economics and world events brought upon many instabilities, globally. Some can say more bad than good but this is contextual, and all beside the point. The world changed (or is still changing) big time and it all feels like we haven’t seen anything just yet. One can argue that every generation tends to feel this way at some point in their lives. It’s almost sounds like a sadistic right of passage of some sort.
But regardless, I am keeping notes and I am paying attention on a much broader level, rather than the opposite. This is not an exhaustive list but here’s few things I can think about on how much pivot has happened since the pandemic, from an economics/business perspective:
For white collar workers around the world - remote work became a thing, out of necessity (and desperation) in the height of the pandemic, and shortly after. This is still a source of tension among companies, particularly in the US. There is no middle ground just yet and it is far too early to tell which side is going to win (Remote vs in-person vs hybrid). As of this writing, it seems like many are adopting a more of a hybrid model. Only time will tell what’s to come after this. In my opinion, the idea and culture of working anywhere is here to stay. However, it will be a privilege for a few: the ones with an exceptional talents/gifts lucrative for certain fields. I’ve always believed that the higher you go up, in your skills, work ethic and status, the more control you have over your working conditions. It’s the antidote to uncertainty and corporate bureaucracy .
GenZ came into the workforce, bringing with them a culture that is quite different from their predecessor, the millennials, of which I am a part of. We are talking strictly on work ethics, principles and working mental models. We have a lot to learn from GenZ. They are worth listening to just as we are with having a seat at the table.
White collar workers experience a collective existential threat, thanks to generative AI, popularized by Openai’s Chatgpt. For a long time, there’s this wide belief that if—and when—automation comes, it will come for the blue collar work first. With OpenAI, it seems like the pendulum is swinging in the opposite direction instead. Call it the biggest plot twist in tech, call it whatever euphemism you want, actually. For a lot of us that’s is affected by this, there’s no denying it’s a wake-up call. Perhaps even the biggest, most important one we’ll ever have to face as a society.
A quote from a recent interview of Jeff Bezos about Large Language Models (LLMs) that I can’t seem to get out of my head:
‘It's interesting to me that that large language models in their current form are not inventions, they're discoveries. You know, the telescope was an invention, but looking through it at Jupiter, knowing that it had moons was a discovery. “My God, it has moons.” And that's what Galileo did…
We know exactly what happens with a 787. It's an engineered object. We designed it, we know how it behaves. We don't want any surprises.
Large language models are much more like discoveries. We're constantly getting surprised by their capabilities. They're not really engineered objects.’ - From Jeff Bezos: Amazon and Blue Origin | Lex Fridman Podcast #405, LLMs are not inventions, they are Discoveries. How That Fact Changes Adoption and Outlook by
Creator economy boomed, and thereby opened up a floodgate of new opportunities for creative people and entrepreneurs. This is not just about youtube superstars and Tiktok influencers. This also meant a slew of other things on the background: new startups building the backbone of this industry in the form of tools and platforms, death of the legacy gatekeepers and rise of the new guards, shift in power and influence. This is a big deal, bigger than anyone can predict. Creator economy is the birth of a brand new thing—one that would highly influence the business models of the future. Maybe even, disrupt it so mercilessly, we won’t be able to recognize what’s left of the old economy.
You are reading this on Substack, a platform is currently disrupting the media industry (from financing to production to distribution). Substack is not alone though. You have plenty others in this arena with pretty much the same mission: Beehive, Patreon, Fourthwall, Gumroad, etc.
Layoffs humbled the tech industry, and elsewhere. Some would say that this is directly connected to most of the other points I’ve mentioned. Others would say it’s just the nature of a bubble that’s always meant to burst. It might just be a combination of both, that and the consequences of the pandemic. One thing for sure, might be the only thing I am sure about is that this isn’t over. This isn’t the worst of it. Just as the pandemic made a lot of people rethink about their lives, recurring mass layoffs are currently doing the same thing. On one hand, nothing is worth celebrating about lives being destroyed, and morale being crushed all around. On the other hand, difficult times tend to force a lot of people to make equally difficult choices just for survival. Once the dusk has settled, new careers will be born and new beginnings will come for those that went through this fire. In one way or the other, things are going to change. By making the right call now, before we have, may just make the difference between an easy life from a terribly hard one.
I’m sure there is a lot more to add to this list, I didn’t even go into the socioeconomics or politics of it. That is for another substack, perhaps. My focus is in general tech and the adjacent industries connected to it.
A short takeaway
As I was drafting this post, I had this thought that was appropriate to this topic of change and uncertainties, a proper way to end this part:
Real change happens when you start to see the potential in things - the opportunities - rather than just as mere constraints. A lot of things may falter but that potential in you lives on, for as long as you believe it. Now is the best time to not just start believing in it, but also betting hard as well.
A career pivot story
Since we are on the subject of change, this is making me think about the last career pivot I’ve made, almost 8 years ago -
I left the ad industry a few years ago to focus on (the design side of) tech more. I was convinced my future lies more on product design rather than the types of creative work i’ve done in advertising. While I am proud of that era in my career, I’m glad I took a leap. Made a pivot and never looked back - unless, of course, to remember the lessons and the war stories. (See: #67: The work behind the work of chasing career-defining projects, and Mapping the journey of a design career)
It worked out well - it was a fantastic decision. In retrospect, if I were to do it again, I would gladly avoid the mistake I’m still trying to unlearn today: I thought that if I had to leap from one industry to the next, I had to start over from scratch mentally, as well. At least if I wanted a shot at being good at one over the other.
I’ve always had this idea that roles work in isolation, kind of like how a modern day job description is standardized—pre-genAI, strictly speaking. This fallacy, I imagine, comes from a number of factors (ie. traditional education, culture, industry exposure etc) but essentially here’s the script of it in my head:
“I am X so therefore I should only care about Y, if I were to succeed in it.”
This is pure nonsense and not to mention, a giant waste of acquired wisdom. There is no such thing as a meaningless experience. Even the most horrid ones, you know, the kind that makes a lot of us cringe just by the memory of it, even that has something to offer to us & to our future prospects. We can get something from it that we can benefit from. We can extract lessons to pass into the next phases of not just our CVs but also our lives in general. When things happen to you, regardless if it is good or bad, get the most valuable insights from those moments. Write them down. Documented learnings are an insurance to our future selves. Should we face something challenging or difficult again in the future, we have a source of inspiration to draw strength from.
Some of the biggest lessons on creativity from that era:
Learning how to sell is just as critical to learning how to design interfaces. Part of value creation is value presentation. Your work is no good if no one advocates for it, starting with yourself.
Storytelling plays a massive role to your career growth. Reframe, change your POV and constantly look for ways to tell a compelling story.
Creativity is a skill that requires a lifetime to master. A lot of what you do will be tethered towards this if you want to make it in any creative industry.
Taste is crucial to quality. The sooner you expose yourself to that, the better the quality of your work will be.
Talent helps but work ethic is so much better.
Collect an evidence of your work and your contribution. This will be your passport to opportunities outside of your current company.
Take pride in your work. It will show, big time. (and it works in reverse as well, if you aren’t proud of what you do and what you ship, it will be obvious).
Have an alter-ego at work, a persona of some kind. This will help you shape the kind of person (‘Designer’) you’d want to be so much more effectively.
Follow the rules, in the beginning but start learning how to break them like a pro. This is where the real work starts.
Experiences fuel intuition. This is how it comes alive. We are the sum of all that has happened to us. Our brains are this gigantic storage units where everything comes together. Every memory, the good, the bad and the in-between, they are all there. Every conscious & unconscious thought is processed there. Going through life so passively is the quickest, most effective way to waste all of that.
In the field of design, this is not just good in theory. There are benefits to practicing this as well. Especially during these turbulent times, job market-wise, it is more than useful for survival. It’s a lifeboat. Don’t be defined by a single-track specialization. With everything that is happening to our world, nothing is certain. Make use of everything you’ve got. Optimize for a future where you have choices - ideally good ones.
The best way to ensure that is to have it reflected on your portfolio, CV and everything else that represents what you do. That one, we have a lot more control on than many others.
Thank you for reading working title,
Nikki
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