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Robots Will Steal Your Job, But That's OK: How to Survive the Economic Collapse and Be Happy by [Federico Pistono]

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Federico Pistono

Robots Will Steal Your Job, But That's OK: How to Survive the Economic Collapse and Be Happy Kindle Edition

by Federico Pistono (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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You are about to become obsolete. You think you are special, unique, and that whatever it is that you are doing is impossible to replace. You are wrong. As we speak, millions of algorithms created by computer scientists are frantically running on servers all over the world, with one sole purpose: do whatever humans can do, but better.
That is the argument for a phenomenon called technological unemployment, one that is pervading modern society. But is that really the case? Or is it just a futuristic fantasy? What will become of us in the coming years, and what can we do to prevent a catastrophic collapse of society?
Robots Will Steal Your Job, But That's OK: how to survive the economic collapse and be happy explores the impact of technological advances on our lives, what it means to be happy, and provides suggestions on how to avoid a systemic collapse.

Print length

215 pages
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On Kindle Scribe
Language

English
Publication date

January 14, 2014
File size

2887 KB
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Meeting Federico is letting sunshine in your life. His enthusiasm, curiosity, and passion for his interests and sharing experiences with others make it impossible not to like him [...] "Robots Will Steal Your Job, But That's OK" is a smart, humorous, but thorough, and potentially important approach to a fundamental question of our time.
-- David Orban
CEO of dotSUB
---------------------------------------------

Understanding the complex relationship between automation and jobs requires empirical analysis and a nuanced inquiry. Federico Pistono's book "Robots Will Steal Your Job, But That's OK" is a unique and fearless contribution to the ongoing conversation on this topic. Pistono approaches the issues with a perspective that reflects his love of both people and technology. The approach is relentlessly constructive, optimistic, and controversial. Read it, then agree or disagree with various points, but join the dialog!

-- Neil Jacobstein
Co-chair AI and Robotics, Singularity University
---------------------------------------------
Thanks for sharing this splendid piece of work. I have never taken drugs, but if I did, I expect that the ride would be like what I experienced in reading your book.

-- Vivek Wadhwa
Author, Columnist for The Wall Street Journal, Forbes Magazine, Washington Post, The New York Times, and Science Magazine
---------------------------------------------Instead of an apocalyptic view of the future, Pistono is the rare prophet with a Panglossian view of the future [this] book is the refreshing exception: no, we are not doomed. That, per se, is a good reason to read it.

-- Piero Scaruffi, author and cultural historian, Stanford University

About the Author

Federico Pistono is an author, scientific educator, social activist, blogger, and aspiring filmmaker. He has written on science, technology, Internet communities, artificial intelligence, and climate change. He holds a BSc in Computer Science from the University of Verona, and completed the online course at Stanford on Machine Learning. In 2012 he graduated from Singularity University, NASA Ames Research Center, Silicon Valley, a special program whose aim to is solve humanity's grand challenges by leveraging exponentially growing technologies. He speaks regularly at TEDx events, schools, and symposia around the world. He's cofounder of the benefit corporation WiFli.
federicopistono.org
robotswillstealyourjob.com

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B009R93JR6
Publisher ‏ : ‎ CreateSpace; 2nd edition (January 14, 2014)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 14, 2014
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2887 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 215 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #1,957,470 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #261 in Automation Engineering
- #615 in Robotics & Automation (Kindle Store)
- #1,926 in Robotics & Automation (Books)

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78 ratings

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Federico Pistono

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Federico Pistono is an entrepreneur, angel investor, researcher, author, science educator and public speaker. He holds a BSc in Computer Science from the University of Verona, and he's a graduate of Singularity University, NASA Ames Research Park.

He's Futurist and Technology Expert in the program "Codice: la vita è digitale" (Code: life is digital), which airs on Rai1, the major national TV channel in Italy; and Head of Blockchain at Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, the first supersonic travel on land in history.

At 31 years old, he became the youngest member of Italian Angels for Growth, the largest and most prestigious Angel Investors group in Italy.

He has co-founded four startups—two in Italy and two in the US—in the fields of e-learning, media production and distribution, wireless communication technology, and has consulted on technology and innovation for governments and Fortune 500 companies across the world, including Lufthansa and Google.

In 2012 he wrote the book "Robots Will Steal Your Job, But That's OK: How to Survive the Economic Collapse and be Happy", which became an international success, published in English, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Korean, and Chinese.

His work has also been cited and utilized by major economic institutions, universities, and think tanks, such as The Economist Intelligence Unit, the Italian Government, Google EU Public Policy and the European Commission.

Federico has more than a decade of professional experience in a variety of different fields—Education, Wireless Communication, New Media, IT Management, System Administration, Web Development, Product Management, UX design, Human Machine Interaction, Editing, Screenwriting, and Directing.

Customer reviews

5 star		44%
4 star		22%
3 star		13%
2 star		16%
1 star		5%

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Top reviews from the United States

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A book about where we are already headed

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 16, 2013

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Federico has written a much needed assessment of where jobs in the economy are already headed in the US and around the world. By now it should be clear that technology and automation will become the dominant means of production, and the transition will mean less and less people being employed. The question for us now is not how do we create more jobs, but more so how do we create a society in which less and less people need to work.

The first half of Federico's book describes well the issues of unemployment, exponential growth, information technology, and artificial intelligence. He clearly understands the problems and challenges of technological unemployment in a capitalist society. One of the most salient points he makes in his book is, "Today, most of the economy is a ghost economy a financial transactions, profit-maximization schemes and computer operations, with little regard to consequences... Today, a small group of the hundred and 47 mega transitional corporations form a giant bow tie structure, and economic super-entity that controls 40% of the entire world."

Technology and automation, using scientific research and planning, could ultimately alleviate worldwide poverty, lead to universal education, medical care, and an overall better way of life for us all. But technological unemployment means that people will not have the jobs they need in order to buy the goods and services that so-called free market, capitalist system relies upon.

In the second half of his book, Federico proposes ways to "survive the economic collapse", but his suggestions are primarily based on learning how to do more with less. He advocates for self-education, eating more healthy, learning to grow your own food, and conserving energy in your home. This is all good advice, but I think there needs to be more discussion about systemic and structural changes within the capitalist economic structure.

There is no point in people working jobs in which technology and automation can perform the same tasks more efficiently. Far too many of us perform jobs in which we carry out mundane tasks only so we can make a paycheck to pay bills. This is not the best use of human labor and intelligence. There are far more better things we can do with our time, creativity, and intelligence.

"Robots Will Steal Your Job" is an important contribution to a growing body of books ("Abundance", "The End of Work", "Lights in the Tunnel", and "Race against the Machine") on this topic.

11 people found this helpful

Helpful

Connor Sites-Bowen

Great introduction, but a bit light on solutions

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 25, 2013

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This is a great introduction to the coming future (and present) - the long term implications of globalization and late-stage industrialization.

The research is well-cited, but also clearly done entirely online. Most sources are web-published data, which, well, I'm not totally used to, but I'm also not opposed to. I think we'll be seeing that kind of thing more and more.

I was left still a little depressed towards the end - the "but that's OK" did not leave me feeling totally OK.

The last set of chapters were full of suggestions on how to adjust to this new future, true, but I think that section could be more fleshed out (and really, could be a whole book). There is a growing network of resilient community thought abounding across the web, and I wish that more of those insights and solutions had been tapped.

Overall, it was well worth the read.

12 people found this helpful

Helpful

J. Casper

Weak cheese, not worth the read.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 22, 2013

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Really this book was mostly a waste of time. Other than the cool cover art, there is very little substance worth bothering about.

1. The author spent the better part of the book regurgitate other people's ideas about the coming day when automation will take everyone's job.
2. He spends a little time rambling on about "Happiness" and how the rich are too rich and the poor are too poor, and how he managed to get a lifetimes worth of experience and perceptions from traveling to 30 countries and talking to people from over 100.
3. He then goes on talking about "solutions" such as LED lighting, growing your own food, and working part time in order to find fulfillment.
4. The final 20% of the book is literally nothing but references to other books he may or may not have read.

His list of accomplishments are little more than fluff to make it sound like he has a deep background from which this book springs (leaks).

- BSc in Computer Science from U of Verona. A 3 year degree in IT, we'll give him the benefit of the doubt, not everyone finishes college.
- Singularity University - Graduate Studies Program as in a 10 week summer course to "challenge future leaders and entrepreneurs to tackle widespread global problems with innovative team-based technology solutions. Like insulating your home and buying LED lighting.
- speaking at TEDx sounds pretty cool, right up until you find out it's the local circuit and not the actual "TED" conferences.

To sum up this book, essentially it is the ramblings of a twenty-something trying to come to grip with the fact that his degree is worth little more than the paper it is printed on, and not only is life not fair, it's about to get a lot more so because he needs to find some sort of real employment. To forestall this momentous event he taken to the social network to fund the slacker lifestyle we all wish we could live.

39 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Stephen Oberauer

My 2nd favourite non-fiction book. There's more to say, but that's OK.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 29, 2013

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There are at least two books that I think everyone should read: Software for the Brain and Robots Will Steal Your Job... (Both are also available as free downloads on the authors' websites.)

Having interviewed Federico, listened to a few of his talks, and read this, his first book, it is quite obvious to me that he is very intelligent, very eager to be unbiased, using scientific evidence wherever possible, and very knowledgeable.

The reason this book means so much to me, is because understanding the topics that Federico discusses is essential for humanity to make better decisions about where to go from here. I'm not particularly good at explaining these topics verbally, but now I can just say, "Read Robots Will Steal Your Job..."

The book covers how we can transition to a better world through open sourcing everything, but I would have liked it to have included more about the end goal. The good news is that Federico is planning to publish a new book this month, "A Tale of Two Futures," in which two scenarios will be presented, one where things have gone terribly wrong, and the other where things have amazingly right. Although it's a science fiction book, I think his goal is to give us an idea of where humanity is headed based on the choices we make today.

Stephen Oberauer
Author of The Mischievous Nerd's Guide to World Domination

3 people found this helpful

JPNH

This is a thought-provoking book.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 20, 2013

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Extremely original and thought-provoking this book helps to dispel the negative ideas about the future which most people have. It shows that mankind's future depends on all of us adapting to new roles in an ever-changing world, and it will be an exciting, thrilling place to live in for all!

Costas Tringides

A book written by a robot -probably...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 23, 2017

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Well constructed presentation of information.

Christopher cook

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 5, 2017

Verified Purchase

It offers a perspective I hadn’t considered before.

Bruno E

Definitely good value, I like the factual aspect of it and the (more or less) unbiased analysis

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 14, 2013

Verified Purchase

I blazed through this book in about a week, I think it's definitely worth your money and I really enjoyed the first two thirds of the book where it presents you with the situation we have at hand based on facts. So basically I would say the first two thirds are about explaining why robots will steal your job, and why it should be ok. The last third is dedicated on what you "should" do to survive the apocalypse... this is where I thought the book doesn't really bring added value. I think the only really good advice is to educate yourself, which is pretty obvious... un-qualified jobs will disappear so obviously you have to qualify yourself... other than that I didn't find the last part all that interesting. Still definitely worth a read though!

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