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Published 18 January 2027The Next Rung
Why AI is breaking the career ladder, and how to find your next step.
ABOUT THE BOOK
An honest map of what is coming.
Every previous technological revolution had somewhere for displaced workers to go. AI is different: it automates the next rung at the same time as the current one. The cognitive work that knowledge workers would normally retrain into, analysis, coordination, synthesis, is precisely what AI performs best.
The Next Rung maps what that means for the people in the middle, why they can feel the change but cannot yet name it, and what they can do this week, on their own role, household, and family. It is written for anyone whose job title still appears on the org chart but whose work is quietly hollowing out beneath them.
THE ARGUMENT, DRAWN
Three figures from the book.
The spine of the argument, in pictures. The full set of nine runs through the chapters.
The three pillars under loadEvery previous technology wave was absorbed by three pillars. This is the first wave under which all three crack at once.
The exposure hourglassThe top and bottom of the org chart hold longer than the middle. The educated middle is squeezed hardest.
The J-curve, conditionalDisplacement, trough, recovery. The trough this time is decades long, and the turn is conditional on what we do.
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The career ladder is changing. The question is whether you see it before it reaches you.