If You Can Easily Describe What You Do, You’re Fucked

If you’re hanging out with the spouse of someone who is very successful, it’s hilarious to ask them what their spouse does. Most of the time, they have no idea. They’ll know what field he’s in, “uh… she works with computers…”, or if she owns a business he’ll know what sort of product she sells, “she runs a software company”, but beyond that, they’re generally pretty clueless about what the person they’ve chosen to spend the rest of their life with, to have kids with, to share everything with, does on a day to day basis.

And that’s integral to their success. Richard Branson doesn’t have a job description. It would take him 4 days to tell you everything he does. Even somebody like Jony Ive, whose “only” job is to be Apple’s head designer, would have a tough time describing what he does on a daily basis. It might be drawing some new designs, or managing teams, or reviewing new plans, or consulting on some outside project, or dealing with a manufacturing plant, or another thousand different things he’s responsible for.

If you can succinctly sum up what you do every day, you might be fucked. If all you do is review certain documents, or input a certain kind of data, or handle a certain kind of phone call, you’re replaceable. Even if you’re highly trained, if your job is rote in any way, you’re replaceable. If you’re a lawyer, and all you do is draft wills, Legalzoom is already slowly eating your lunch. Whoever comes next, and they will come, is going to eat your breakfast and dinner. If you’re a doctor who just reads x-rays or MRIs or CT scans, there’s no reason a lower priced but equally skilled doctor in India can’t do your job over Skype. And he will.

Most people like well defined jobs. They like showing up and being told what’s required of them. People are clamoring for the return of US factory jobs, which essentially require them to show up and perform some labor in some precisely defined fashion. In part, you can blame our educational system for this: 20 years of schooling trains us to accept a rigid work structure. You show up for class, you do assigned homework, you take definitive tests that measure how well you perform, you get to go to the next level, and you repeat.

Unfortunately, the people who do this kind of work in the real world are needed less and less. If something has strictly defined inputs, outputs, requirements or goals, it’s easy enough to program a robot to do it, or at least find someone who’s willing to do it for less. Why would we pay you to assemble cars if this robot, who never gets sick or screws up, can do it better, faster, and cheaper?

The people who are going to thrive, the ones who always have thrived, are the ones who can work without this rigid structure. The people who can figure out what needs to be done next, and why.