Wash, Rinse, Repeat

Well into my twenties I was a picky eater (for a while as a kid I didn’t even like pizza), but thankfully those days are over. Now I’m a fan of many cuisines, and I especially enjoy fine dining experiences. White tablecloths, unique pairings, quality over quantity, that sort of thing. Admittedly, sometimes at first glance I wonder if it’s enough food, but inevitably I find that by the time I’ve eaten everything I’m full. Portions may be small, but they’re rich in flavor, with little filler. Having more in one sitting would be too much.

Further, I don’t believe meal after meal of fine dining would ultimately be either pleasurable or healthy. The experience is sensorily dense (and expensive); having space between experiences is a critical to sustainable enjoyment.

An oft-repeated benefit of AI (especially by those of us who sell it) is that it will reduce rote work so that humans can focus on what needs truly human judgment. Sounds good, right? Especially if you’re a leader concerned with an ever-growing backlog and an ever-tightening budget around staff to attack it (in my field of government work this is incredibly common). But there’s a problem.

Just like the stomach has a limited capacity for culinary complexity, the brain has limited capacity for decisional complexity. Constant deep thought without mental rest is a path to all manner of bad outcomes, for individuals and the business objectives they’re supporting. All sorts of work, normally conceived, includes a rhythm of push and pull between effort that requires focus and that which is rote:

• coming up with a business idea and then filing the paperwork to form an LLC
• authoring the text of a document and then applying formatting cleanups
• implementing functional logic and then surrounding it with boilerplate code
• formulating a tax strategy and then pulling together supporting documentation
• cooking a complex meal and then cleaning up the dishes afterwards

Of course it’s possible for work to be constantly mundane, and automation that relieves the burden of boredom is a good thing. But the elimination of all rote work? I’m not convinced. We may actually need mundane activities to stay healthily effective.