Harmless Work

I heard a story from someone recently who was on the brink of launching a new rum brand. Then, a doctor friend of theirs shamed them, because rum is not healthy for people.

I spent a good portion of my career helping to advance social media. I saw it as an opportunity to give people the tools to connect. I know it could help businesses grow. I hoped it could help everyone to feel seen.

And yet it’s become one of the most powerful dividing forces in human history. It has become one of the world’s most powerful propaganda machines, releasing torrents of misinformation and disinformation, and unleashing armies of bots designed to make us angry.

Even now, I’m doing a ton of work with artificial intelligence, knowing full well that those same companies are using their technology to create autonomous weapons, conduct warrantless surveillance over vast populations, and burning through more energy and water than the nearby human populations.

And so, I find myself wondering what sort of work is truly harmless.

The Dark Lining

How many professions can you name where there is not a dark lining surrounding it?

Doctors save lives, and are our most trusted professions for healing injuries and illnesses. But they also are under enormous pressure to see more patients, bill at higher rates, and avoid everything that could expose them to a lawsuit. Doctors are among the most important professions in society, but they are not harmless.

Teachers equip the human beings of the future. But in addition to math and spelling, they may also be teaching compliance, fear, and spreading the propaganda built into the curriculum. Teachers are critical in the pursuit of an educated populace, but it’s not harmless work.

I’m not picking on doctors or teachers. We could do this for just about any position in any type of work.

That’s because there is no such thing as harmless work.

So, what? Just give up and do nothing?

No, this does not mean that we should give up.

It doesn’t mean that we’re bad people.

Regardless of what it is that we choose to do, we can focus on the best aspects of it, knowing that we are all working within a system that makes it near impossible to operate without causing some sort of harm.

Our mission isn’t to be perfect. It’s to do the best we can. We do that by looking for the people in whatever we do.

Out of Harm’s Way

And so we get up, and look for how we can help someone. We try to make a positive impact knowing full well that we won’t achieve a perfect score.

Then we get up and do it again.

Perfect isn’t the point. Harmless isn’t the point. The point is to help as much as you can, as often as you can.

So launch that rum brand, knowing that somebody at the end of the day might just need one small cocktail to take the edge off, to help them relax, because they spent all day doing good work that was very stressful.

Keep using social media, not so that you can get famous because of the algorithm, but because it might allow you to meet one amazing person that you can help.

Use AI, if you want to, because you can find a way to make someone’s life easier, to make it more enjoyable, or to give them the tools to do less harm, even if the tool itself is harmful.

None of us have to be perfect. Hopefully all of us can see the value in trying to be good, in trying to be generous, in trying to be kind.

That’s how we become superhuman.

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