After Automation: You'll Be Paid for What You Can Feel but Can't Explain
every · x · 2026-09-02
Designer Emmett Shine publishes an essay on Every, using the French phrase je ne sais quoi to explore human value in a post-automation age.
He identifies three inflection moments in making things that you can feel but not explain: creation (going from nothing to something, a flow state that can't be forced), curation (choosing a path by gut feeling, knowing when to stop expanding and start chipping away), and conclusion (killing your darlings and focusing, an internal compass built only through years of repetition).
His core argument: over the past century society shifted from physical to knowledge work; after AI automation, work that can be clearly explained and proceduralized will be done by machines, and humans will be paid for exactly this inexplicable judgment.
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