Disrupt yourself
The way I see it, all of us - business owners, leaders, employees, parents, children, members of society as a whole - have just two choices. Which you pick will have a greater bearing on how the next few years play out for you than more or less anything else.
Either you choose to fundamentally reinvent how you work and live your life, or you choose to wait for someone else to do it for you.
The World Economic Forum’s most recent Future of Jobs report predicts that 39% of workers’ skillsets will be transformed or become outdated by 2030 at the latest. More than that, they also expect 59% of workers to need significant upskilling and retraining over the same period, even if they stay in the same jobs. The ground is shifting beneath our feet.
2026 is expected to be the first year we see household consumer robots manufactured and shipped to the world. Companies like 1x, Tangible and Weave Robotics have begun inviting members of the press to try their machines, and while they’re expensive and far from high-functioning now, the rate of improvement is rapid. Imagine what capable domestic robots mean for how you spend your time, personally and professionally. Care workers, cleaners, handymen (and handywomen) and other professions are at serious risk here, but over time so are those in hospitality. As a restaurant or hotel owner, why go to the trouble of hiring, managing and training staff when robots can perform their tasks just as well, with no breaks, no arguments over shifts and pay, and less mistakes?
We’re not there yet, but it’s the direction we’re heading.
Most software engineers I know are very worried about the impact of vibe-coding platforms like Lovable, Replit and Figma. Again, these tools aren’t perfect and their output often needs additional work from professionals to be genuinely worthwhile, but they’re improving every day. As researchers unlock further aspects of intelligence, particularly big-picture thinking and long-term memory, the role of the developer will shift to one more akin to an architect or film director.
Technology brings change, and the current wave of change is likely to impact more of us, more significantly, than any of its predecessors.
Let’s assume (for now) that we all survive the next decade or so. The world will be a very different place - for some, a much better, more abundant, more comfortable one, but a significantly worse one for others. Which side of the divide you end up on will be decided by how proactively you lean into change, and how you reframe the role that work plays in your life.
The fundamental reason most of us work is to pay our bills. Once that’s taken care of, there are further benefits. Work gives us purpose, status, contribution and identity. It allows us to be part of something bigger than ourselves, and is a platform for our personal growth, giving us the opportunity to learn and develop. It connects us with others and helps us to fill our time meaningfully.
If the abundant future some predict arrives, the “paying our bills” part of the arrangement becomes much less important. So the question to ask is this: if your reasons for working aren’t about financial reward, but instead about those listed above, would you still do what you do now? And if not, what would you do instead?
We all hate change, and these are big, challenging questions to wrestle with. If my life and work are going to be turned upside-down anyway, though, I’d much rather be the one driving the disruption than be taken by surprise when someone else decides it’s my turn.
Today, we have more power at our fingertips than ever before and - for now, at least - the agency to choose how we deploy it. Will you disrupt yourself, or be disrupted?
All of us must answer eventually.
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