Welcome to Working Horizons

Notes on the future of work

For the last decade I’ve built Betabox, which has helped tens of thousands of young people discover career possibilities in technology and engineering through hands-on experiences we bring directly to schools. I’ve also seen tech trends come and go over that time. But we are living in a moment with AI and robotics where radical disruption at a scale greater than the Industrial Revolution is upon us.

Major fundamental systems within our society are going to change. The way people find jobs will change. The jobs that exist will change. Money might change. Retirement will change. Human purpose will change. This is bigger than tech. This is something potentially species-level.

There are plenty of insightful thinkers weighing in on the future of work. But so much of the conversation feels small and tactical. Tactical has its place, but the bigger, broader themes of how the future of work will lean on and change society deserve a seat at the table too.

Welcome to Working Horizons, a newsletter by me, Sean Newman Maroni!

This newsletter will distill insights and serve as an exploratory outlet for us to consider together how radical technological disruption will impact both the current and future generation as we all navigate our own careers (and help our kids think about what careers might look like for them). I’ll be pulling from my firsthand experiences supporting student career discovery via my day job running Betabox, while also leaning on my own experiences. And hopefully we’ll get to speak with other experts thinking about this — leaders in tech, corporate social responsibility, talent acquisition, and more — and hear how they’re working through it.

While this is a confusing and dynamic time, I don’t think it’s a time for hopelessness or throwing our hands up. As they say, the future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed. I see that on both ends. I’m often in San Francisco speaking with tech leaders and driving in Waymos. But I’m also in rural Alabama and North Carolina in forgotten small towns. The juxtaposition of realities my own work sits me between offers a perspective I hope to add to the conversation in the coming posts.

I expect these posts to take various forms. Some will be anecdotes from the field about what I’m seeing work. Some will be deep dives into exponential tech worth taking a closer look at. Some first-principles analysis and philosophical underpinnings. Some policy and education-system thinkpieces, if we must.

Maybe you’re a talent leader at a large company, or an educator in a small district. Maybe you’re a young person thinking about how to get your foot in the door at your first position, or a technologist considering the ethics of human-in-the-loop. If you’re curious about how we can all navigate this radical shift in what it means to be a professional, to have a career, to be a human in the economy, consider subscribing to follow along as we unpack what work might look like on the other side of the event horizon. All are welcome.

I hope you’ll come along.

— Sean