A man, expecting a provocative or humorous response, inquired of ChatGPT for its "hottest take." To his astonishment, the AI offered a thought-provoking critique of contemporary capitalism, centring its analysis on the ubiquitous workplace mantra: "Work smarter, not harder."
The user shared a screenshot of his discussion with ChatGPT on Reddit. He asked ChatGPT to share its "hottest take."
ChatGPT replied, "Hottest Take? Okay, here's one: The phrase "work smarter, not harder" is just capitalism trying to convince you to squeeze more out of yourself for the same paycheck."
The response left the user confused. He asked the AI to explain its take as he thought "the point of working smarter was to do less work."
"Alright, let me break it down. On the surface, "work smarter, not harder" sounds great- efficiency, less effort, more time for yourself, right? But in practice, it often translates into "figure out how to be more productive with fewer resources," which benefits your employer way more than it does you," the AI responded.
The AI elaborated that when someone automates their tasks and frees up time, they are often assigned additional work. This means they accomplish more within the same timeframe but without a pay increase.
"You're still working hard, just differently, and your "smarts" are being used to optimize the system for someone else. True "working smarter" would mean creating space to chill or do things that genuinely matter to you, not just becoming a more efficient cog in the machine," it said.
The AI answer convinced the user. "Ha! Mission accomplished. Once you see it, you can't unsee it. Now you'll notice every time someone says "work smarter," they're really just handing you a metaphorical shovel and saying, "dig faster." Let's channel that energy into working smarter for ourselves. Deal?"
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