Letter 106: Reimagining the future
When we enter into the unknown
Welcome! This weekly email newsletter is a place where women spanning all ages share their sense of identity and their awareness of our world through personal narrative. Stories shared here come from writers across many generations, cultures, locations, and ethnicities.
We made it to September!
For those of you who spend your time thinking about the big, abstract things, you should know that our writer Mallory is one of you . (So am I.) I’ve written in this space about Mallory’s depth and thoughtfulness and how it showed itself even when she was sixteen. All our readers will appreciate her careful musings below about ChatGPT and just how quickly technology is changing. Both changing in general, and changing us.
We assume we are using it, but truly: We are the product. —Molly
“It seems my generation can look forward to a lifetime of unprecedented times.”
I was thirteen when we read this article in English class about machines becoming more intelligent than people, and it terrified me. My teenage self found it profoundly disturbing that the world would be overtaken by computers. I didn’t even understand how it could happen – if we were the creators, wouldn’t we always be in control? Later I’d study the Manhattan Project and realize exactly just how profoundly humans could not be in control of their creations.
Technology continues to trouble us.
In college I studied computer science, in spite of my fondness for English class. I studied it because I find it interesting and fun; coding and designing software unlocks a piece of my brain that lets me express both creativity and logic in a satisfying way. I studied it because I’m good at it. I also studied it because it seemed like a secure path to both making money and staving off the anxiety in the back of my head that makes me wonder if I will have solid job opportunities not just right now but for years to come.
I’d ask myself Did I pick something worth pursuing? and Is this a sure thing? I wanted to pick a career that shielded me from those thoughts.
If you don’t code for a living, perhaps you’ve encountered a tech bro who’s told you that your economic woes and job insecurity and anxiety over your career path would go away if you just knew how to code. I’m guilty of being this person at times—I’ve encouraged my younger brother to at least consider doing CS in college as a way to boost his skillset. Bad advice? No, but I gave it for the wrong reasons.
I love my software engineering job, truly, but it can’t shield me from persistent, existential thoughts such as do I have useful skills and will this technology I’m working on even matter in five years and, most poignantly, can I be replaced?
You’ve probably heard that a company called OpenAI released a chatbot called ChatGPT last year. I won’t detail the degree to which this has and will change the world, but personally it threw me for a loop at work and at home. We spent weeks at work trying to predict EXACTLY HOW it would change our plans as a company; I spent a few nights calling my mom wondering if at age 24 I’d need to start my career all over again when I thought it was only just beginning.
Suddenly it seemed like the fundamental principles of my job were being called into question. I’d picked this career in part because it was a seemingly sure path. What I’d failed to consider is that the only thing certain about a career in technology is you have to know when it’s time to throw your assumptions out the window.
I know this isn’t just true for software engineers. We all have to reimagine what it means to be teachers and writers, learners and workers when the landscape of technology shifts under us from day to day. The rate of change will only increase; the stakes will only rise. But it doesn’t need to be the identity crisis I made it out to be, because we ultimately do not know exactly how it will all play out. The guy on your Twitter feed who prophesies about the end of your industry at the hands of a chatbot doesn’t know either.
We only can show up each day with a willingness to reexamine what exactly makes our jobs interesting, important, and worth pursuing.
Some of my skills can and probably will be replaced. The type of role I have now might look entirely different in three years. Despite the uncertainty I am choosing not to despair. There will always be opportunities for those who understand both technology and people, those who can apply technical solutions to our world in new and creative ideas.
Good writing is more than the sum of words smashed together sensibly. My career is more than the sum of the technologies that exist today.
Mallory’s 5 Favorite Things
I can’t commit to a gratitude journal at this stage of my life, but I can commit to writing something down that brought me a little bit of joy that day. I use a Notion calendar, and have a shortcut to it on my phone’s home screen.
Anything written by Emily Henry. Her writing is a yearly summer highlight for me.
Something expensive that I haven’t regretted purchasing: my Oura ring. I am both a data nerd and a health nerd, so I love seeing stats on my sleep and workouts.
Silo is my favorite show this year. I haven’t been that enthralled by TV in a long time.
I bought this duffle bag on a whim eight years ago, and it’s one of my all-time favorite purchases. Durable, sporty, and accommodates all my overpacking!
In gratitude,
Mallory Price
P.S. If you want a look at how a small startup responded to ChatGPT, our founder wrote about it here.
