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The End of Nice: How to be human in a world run by robots
In this witty and refreshing book, the Sunday Times #1 bestselling author Richard Newton reveals the unexpected upside of life in the age of the robots.
The steel-cased algorithms that are hurtling into our world at the speed of howling six-legged soldier robots herald something quite different from the doom of our species. In fact, he says, we are witnessing the end of meat machines and the rise of human beings. The result is that we are on the verge of a creative revolution.
As automation eats jobs, destroys and builds industries and professions at a dizzying pace a new set of qualities will lead to the good life.
All of a sudden creativity, compassion, empathy, curiosity emotional intelligence and playfulness will be the supreme human qualities. Such behaviour is deeply human and perhaps for this reason it is also the hardest for machines to replicate.
But we were trained for a world that prized the traits of conformity, predictability, tradition, normality, gradual change,order, doing the right thing and being, let’s face it, robotic. This we were told was how to fit in and be “one of us”. To do this was to be "nice". But our big data-powered, socially frantic, instantly automated society no longer rewards such nice qualities. Today they line the path to economic meaninglessness.
To be future proof in a world of constant change we must adopt the liberated, Anti-Nice behaviours of artists, entrepreneurs and inventors. In a pacy and utterly engrossing read this book lays out the code to thrive in the machine age.
It turns out that the age of the robots may also be the age of the human.
The steel-cased algorithms that are hurtling into our world at the speed of howling six-legged soldier robots herald something quite different from the doom of our species. In fact, he says, we are witnessing the end of meat machines and the rise of human beings. The result is that we are on the verge of a creative revolution.
As automation eats jobs, destroys and builds industries and professions at a dizzying pace a new set of qualities will lead to the good life.
All of a sudden creativity, compassion, empathy, curiosity emotional intelligence and playfulness will be the supreme human qualities. Such behaviour is deeply human and perhaps for this reason it is also the hardest for machines to replicate.
But we were trained for a world that prized the traits of conformity, predictability, tradition, normality, gradual change,order, doing the right thing and being, let’s face it, robotic. This we were told was how to fit in and be “one of us”. To do this was to be "nice". But our big data-powered, socially frantic, instantly automated society no longer rewards such nice qualities. Today they line the path to economic meaninglessness.
To be future proof in a world of constant change we must adopt the liberated, Anti-Nice behaviours of artists, entrepreneurs and inventors. In a pacy and utterly engrossing read this book lays out the code to thrive in the machine age.
It turns out that the age of the robots may also be the age of the human.
- GenresTechnologySociety
88 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 12, 2015
51 people are currently reading
43 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 21, 2018
Felt a bit short and superficial. It laid out some intriguing issues of automation and AI well, but I didn't come away feeling I had any solutions.
February 20, 2018
A rambling, repetitive collection of clichés sprinkled with motivational quotes. A literary cat poster that says nothing.
April 26, 2020
Something to think about
More stories and specifics would have been nice but the concept was compelling. A short and worthwhile read. Not super actionable though.
More stories and specifics would have been nice but the concept was compelling. A short and worthwhile read. Not super actionable though.
April 12, 2018
This is a very well written book. It is timely but for many people who read it in years to come it will seem like a classic that they should have read long ago.
This was a free Kindle read with my Amazon membership. Otherwise I don't know that I would have run across it.
It is possible, perhaps even likely that in the next ten to twenty years, half the jobs in the U.S.A. will be replaced by robots and computer programs.
Really, the only reason this were not to happen is if those in control were too worried about what you would do once out of work.
The focus of this book is on the personality traits that will enable these displaced machine-cog humans to survive or even flourish in our post-repetitive labor world. The future belongs to the creative, the flexible, the motivated.
I'm going to include me favorite quote from the book here. It's something I've never read before attributed to Abraham Lincoln regarding his desire to see people passionate in their work.
He said, "When I see a man preaching I like to see him act like he's fighting bees!"
I don't need that kind of old-time religion in my life but I can appreciate the sentiment.
Get passionate, get informed, get ready.
The future is not the past.
This was a free Kindle read with my Amazon membership. Otherwise I don't know that I would have run across it.
It is possible, perhaps even likely that in the next ten to twenty years, half the jobs in the U.S.A. will be replaced by robots and computer programs.
Really, the only reason this were not to happen is if those in control were too worried about what you would do once out of work.
The focus of this book is on the personality traits that will enable these displaced machine-cog humans to survive or even flourish in our post-repetitive labor world. The future belongs to the creative, the flexible, the motivated.
I'm going to include me favorite quote from the book here. It's something I've never read before attributed to Abraham Lincoln regarding his desire to see people passionate in their work.
He said, "When I see a man preaching I like to see him act like he's fighting bees!"
I don't need that kind of old-time religion in my life but I can appreciate the sentiment.
Get passionate, get informed, get ready.
The future is not the past.
July 1, 2015
A little unstructured but a good jumping off point if you want a spark to get your mind changed about your career plan.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews