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Passing Waters
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Perhaps one day if I could, I would build a comfortable house by the sea, looking over the water. Big windows at the front with quadruple glazed windows to keep the sound out and warmth in, when the overcast skies contrast with the interior, and open up when the weather is fair to hear the waves crashing on the shore and the sea birds. A place where I can feel at home, regardless of what is going on outside, or in the rest of the world. A place to think, write, and grow.
On the current trajectory, it is out of my reach, but maybe I am able to change the direction or the velocity in the future and something will happen that makes it possible. I would design, but have someone build and fit the house, and on the same property, I would have a work shed built, fitted with all the tools necessary to get my hands dirty and create. I have always wanted to design furniture.
But have never made even the smallest foray into that world.
Other than buying some furniture.
And nope, I am not going to get into it in that imaginary future either, though if I have time and money, I would likely dabble a little building something. Because I enjoy it. Yet, I am guessing I am not the only one in the world that had ideas of what I could do in life, but never followed through on them and instead chose what I thought I needed to do instead - To do the thing that I thought would allow me to live some kind of comfortable life.
The jokes on me.
Yesterday, one of the ex-colleagues was talking about her daughters and that she is "pushing" (she isn't actually pushing) her daughters into becoming plumbers. And by a stroke of coincidence, just that morning I had read an article from Australia that only one in a hundred fifty plumbers are women. Most of construction and maintenance is heavily skewed male, but I suspect that there is going to be a growing demand for female tradies of all kinds, where women will feel "safer" with a woman coming into their home.
However, how many women want to become plumbers?
I haven't met one.
And it gets me thinking about how many times we make career decisions on how we feel, without actually thinking about whether it is a good thing to do, or right for us. I am not sure if anyone says "Plumber is the job for me" when they are young, but I suspect that some realise that it is a job that will be in demand for any foreseeable future, and a job that isn't easily replaceable. Which is why my ex-colleague has this in mind for her daughters. She works in IT as a leader, and sees what is happening in her teams as AI replaces their tasks, and headcount is whittled down.
I think that we still feel that no matter what happens with the coming technology, there will always be some kind of work for most of us. And while that might be true to some extent, is it the kind of work that the average person wants to do? Perhaps even in the future, the oldest profession will be mostly replaced by AI, AR and VR. It is already happening.
Another colleague was talking about a friend who spends his time interacting with an AI-powered virtual girl. And unashamedly introduced "her" to him.
I am not one to kink shame... but that is not a kink anymore. It is increasingly normalised and people justify that spending time interacting with AI is actually a healthy way to live life. After all, it helps lonely people have connection.
So does learning how to connect with real people.
The more we practice, the stronger our habits get. But our current practices are building habits that make us increasingly fragile, whether mentally, physically, or emotionally. We are making decisions based on our feelings, that are weakening our abilities to interact with each other, or to deal with disruptive situations. Sure, people can ay the world is more complicated and difficult in different ways now - but that is a symptom of our habits too! We are making the decisions that take us along this path.
Demand and Supply.
I don't know if I will ever be able to have that "dream" home on the coast, overlooking a stormy sea, but I do know that if I were to get it, chances are that it is going to take me doing something quite different than I am at the moment. But I have habits too, and they make me feel like I am doing the right thing, even if I logically know it isn't likely to be the case. I am reserved when I should be bolder, and too bold when I should be cautious. My brain knows, but from years of repetitive practice, my body doesn't.
But, we don't know what the future holds, no longer how adamant some people are currently. Normally, the timeframe of "the future" is grossly overestimated as to how quickly things will change - but will that be the case in the future too? For somethings probably, but some other aspects, including some we are yet to even invent, will rapidly evolve and influence everything we know and do. Remember when the internet first arrived in the mainstream?
What has changed in the way we live our lives since?
But we still need plumbers.
Taraz
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