Aaron Horwath writes in Noema Magazine that knowledge workers are undergoing existential disillusionment as AI automates tasks central to their sense of professional identity, a phenomenon he ties to the modern ideology of “Workism.” He distinguishes “outcome-first” workers, who value efficiency, from “experience-first” workers, who find meaning in the collaborative process, arguing AI’s removal of that process disproportionately affects the latter group. Horwath suggests that recognizing work’s constructed nature and deliberately preserving human-centered practices can help workers resist what he calls complete absorption into “the spectacle.”
