Maybe I should have called the video that.
It sounds clickable.
Anyhow, so I bitched about people being stupid about automation.
If your job necessarily involves interacting with physical objects, which is most jobs, trust me, you’re not getting automated any time soon.
In fact the whole idea that automation is coming for all our jobs is deeply bourgeoisie. When people say that, they’re not thinking about jobs like carpenter or nurse or managing a Stuckey’s.
No, they are thinking of nice soft middle class jobs. Info work. Creative work. Middle management “work”. The sort of things real people do, ya know?
Only people in that socioeconomic strata could even begin to imagine that automation is somehow going to take “all the jobs”.
Plus, the fact that business A doesn’t need you in order to generate profits any more doesn’t mean business B can’t exploit you.
So to speak.
Human resources are far too valuable to go to waste. It’s still possible that if you’re a middle class person, your job will go to AI and your highly specialized skillset will become obsolete and, well, you’re not exactly going to be able to switch to waiting tables or flipping burgers.
The social descent alone could kill you. We human beings tend to view loss of status as something only slightly better than death and so some people would rather starve while still technically being a lawyer than live as a fry cook.
Plus those jobs tend to be a lot more physically demanding, which is a problem if you are not used to physical work any more.
If you’re middle aged and fat, is what I am saying.
Anyhow, point is, automation and AI aren’t going to eliminate most jobs.
Just the ones people who went to college tend to want.
Switching subjects, I have been pondering what it means to take this whole YouTube thing more seriously.
It’s not an easy equation to solve. Of course, I could emulate the successful YouTube channels that I am subscribed to, and do things like exhort people to like and subscribe and join my Patreon and all that crap.
Oh gee, is my Gen X disdain for doing things like that shining through?
Another possibility would be merch but I don’t exactly have like a logo and a mascot and a (ick) “brand” yet.
I suppose I could take something I’ve said that I think is particularly pithy and slap it on mugs and T-shirts but that seems a tad premature.
Like I keep saying, I know that the product is essentially me. I am the one constant amidst all the random things I talk about. My personality, my charisma, my POV, my wit, and so on are basically what I have to offer the world.
And they’re pretty amazing.
But it’s pretty hard to imagine building a brand around myself. I don’t even have a catchy name to call myself and I doubt I ever will because I instinctively resist attempts to reduce me down to something easy to understand.
That’s not necessarily permanent though. I might figure myself out enough eventually.
My first thought was to name the channel, “Hey, it’s that guy!”. Then I would become known as That Guy.
I could then get all cute and steal something from Friends and call every episode of my show, “That Guy talks about… ” or “That Guy goes on and on about… ” or the like.
Eh. Maybe. That could work but I’m not in love with the idea.
Then again, that still sounds better than trying to market myself as some radical truth spitting iconoclast who tells it like it is.
I mean, I do, but… I don’t know if I want to make that my identity.
I would hate to get boxed in as some kind of angry firebrand and end up having to make up new things to be mad about all the time.
I dunno. Maybe I am just unable to imagine promoting myself at all.
In fact, it highlights one of the conflicts in my nature, where I know that I am pretty fucking amazing, and yet, I am still kind of meek as well.
Too meek to imagine saying,. “Hey world! I’m amazing! Gimmie money!”
I am cringing internally just thinking about it.
And that’s essentially what telling people to go to your Patreon amounts to.
I got some issues to work out.
More after the break.
You could be a big star
And I want that. Sorta. Kinda. Maybe.
Or maybe not.
I would definitely be the sort of celebrity who would make occasional appearance here and there and be all warm and charismatic and cool with my fans, then disappear into the limo and vanish for a while.
That’s the problem with being where I am on the whole introvert/extrovert thing. I am definitely not a pure introvert – I love attention too much for that. And I definitely have magnetism and appeal beyond the usual bounds of introversion.
But I am still fundamentally an introvert and being “on” like that is very draining for me so I would need to rest before I could shine, shine, shine again.
That’s subject to change, though. Could be that with the right social therapy, I would come out of my shell further and find that I can, in fact, derive energy from social interaction and not have to go back into my shell nearly as often.
But I will always need an avenue of retreat, I think.
Of course, this is all just theory. I will be lucky if I even become known let alone famous. I want to be a YouTube star and make a living doing videos, but like I demonstrated in the first half of this blog entry, that’s going to be hard for me to pull off.
So I will just keep plugging along doing what I do and trying to figure out a way to promote myself that I can live with.
I will talk to you nice people again tomorrow.