Re: "Are jobs obsolete?"
This guy goes in a different direction with Rushkoff's essay:
Increasingly, perhaps, a job is something that we each have to create. We can’t count on someone else to create one for us. That model is disappearing. We have to carve something out for ourselves, something that the machines won’t immediately grab.
That sounds difficult, maybe even a little dangerous. We’re all comfortable with the idea of “finding” a job. We search for them; we hunt them; we land them. All of these images assume the job already exists.
But to create something new…what does that even mean? Do we all become entrepreneurs? (I think the answer to that question is yes, although many of us will have to learn to be entrepreneurs within existing organizations.) Ultimately, it means we have to find something useful to do, something so useful that others are willing to pay for it.
Difficult, yes. Dangerous, maybe. But also — isn’t it just a little exciting?
The basic idea that people need to earn a living hasn't changed. If you look around, what seems to be changing is the idea of a particular job as a lifelong entitlement.
My dad's generation was still in the era of the gold watch and pension. Barely. My kids are in the era of careers that morph constantly from one area to another, including doing things that didn't even exist when they started out. I seem to be in the generation straddling two horses. That's oversimplified, of course.