Peter Thiel on post-AI career skills, and Alex Imas's 'relational sector' economics
sebkrier · x · 2026-10-28
Asked by Walter Isaacson what humans can uniquely do in the AI era, Peter Thiel argued our relational dimensions will matter more; John LeFevre distilled the career skills left when knowledge is worth $0: social calibration, persuasion, curiosity, taste, storytelling, grit. Economist Alex Imas's Substack essay 'What will be scarce?' counters with a structural economics take: scarcity won't vanish under AI abundance, it will relocate. Citing Starbucks (a $112B company that reversed store automation and rehired baristas), he argues a post-commodity economy is emerging where value is inseparable from the human provider, shifting workers into a 'relational sector' much as 40% of American workers once left farms. Sharers note Thiel overlooks human connection, empathy, and shared understanding—key for healthcare and education jobs.
Related event: Peter Thiel: Human Relationships Matter Most After Superintelligence(3 posts)→
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