Months before every semester break, people around me dedicated all their time and effort to one clear goal: securing at least one vacation scheme, ideally with a Magic Circle law firm. Nerves were high. Even more intense when word spread that someone else had already got an offer, that it could pave the way for a training contract, that it would mark a defining moment in their future legal career. Rejection feels like failure, especially in an extremely competitive, meritocratic society like Hong Kong. And you’re constantly reminded that if you can make it, you’ll be rewarded with not only lucrative paychecks but also elevated social status.
The peer pressure and societal expectations were there, but I still couldn’t see myself as a to-be lawyer after several legal internships. The work was monotonous, repetitive, and unsatisfying. The contrast was stark when I started taking on some research roles, during which I experienced an astonishing outpouring of intellectual curiosity and interest for the first time. I wasn’t sure how capable I was or could be, but I imagined endless possibilities lay ahead.
So I ended up becoming a researcher and writer. To this day, I have no regrets. I still struggle, though, even more so these days, to find work and do the work, much like many others my age across the globe.
Undeniably, work has become the primary source of income that enables us to survive in modern society. Life without work may be ideal to some but the slightest thought of it scares me: how could I afford food and the other basics then?
Yet beyond a means of sustenance, work can be a vehicle for self-realization, not least when an individual’s passions, strengths, and core values interact synergistically. As philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre puts it, “The best work is not what is most difficult for you; it is what you do best.” A statement that truly resonates with me.
After all, we spend a ridiculous amount of time working, and deep down, we seek meaning and satisfaction in what we do — neither of which money can yet buy. And the means to achieve this are diverse and vary from person to person: maybe it’s through writing up a piece or creating an original artwork that fully expresses yourself or contributing to a cause you’re deeply passionate about so that you acquire a sense of purpose. Be patient; time will tell what works best for you.
I’m conscious of how all of this may sound overly aspirational and even contradictory to our shared experience. At times, it feels as though modern-day work has only hindered our ability to exercise agency and left us feeling alienated.
Dating back over 180 years, Karl Marx argued in his Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 that capitalism estranges workers from the product, the process, themselves, and one another. “Labor is external to the worker, i.e., it does not belong to his intrinsic nature” (my emphasis).
Indeed, work under capitalism is far from an expression of personal fulfilment. Let us take a moment to reflect on our 9-5 jobs: being subjected to stringent management, regularly reviewed KPIs, exorbitant expectations for efficiency, fierce competition among co-workers, and many other daunting conditions that pile up fresh pressure on us every single day.
Pointless and unfulfilling jobs across industries such as finance and law, or, as anthropologist David Graeber refers to them, “bullshit jobs,” have proliferated in recent decades. But we’re now witnessing a turning point that I believe no one is utterly certain whether it’s for better or worse: a massive portion of these jobs is expected to be reshaped, if not replaced, by AI in the foreseeable future. A 2026 Anthropic research report finds that LLMs could theoretically perform 90% of tasks in roles like computer and math, office and admin support.
Just look around; an urge has quietly arisen in us to gain access to as many AI tools as possible, stay abreast of major updates, examine each tool’s strengths and weaknesses, and learn to craft better prompts for more relevant and useful responses. Every move is driven by the fear of being seen as replaceable and useless at work, and staying ahead in this never-ending digital race seems to be the only way out.
Under the guise of “efficiency” and “productivity” at work, some people (myself included, admittedly to a small extent) have now developed a rather worrisome habit: outsourcing their critical thinking to AI. By letting AI think for them, they risk being estranged from their own thought processes, a quintessential quality that makes us human. My utmost concern is that what if, one day, we unknowingly cease to act as ourselves but as mere channels for a machine’s mind? Our work would then be reduced to a little more than human-mediated automation.
Or, is this already happening — epitomized by the ubiquity of AI slop, the making of which involves minimal thought? The post-ChatGPT era has seen a surge in academic submissions, and so has the degree of AI involvement in manuscripts, making them denser and more difficult to read. While business leaders and C-suite executives still rely on gut instinct for decision-making, they are increasingly turning to AI for faster decisions and for relief, as though it were backed by up-to-date, absolutely accurate data.
As you may ask, so what’s next? Among the many possibilities that follow is a heightened feeling of alienation from work, our own selves, and even society. In his 1893 The Division of Labour in Society, sociologist Émile Durkheim argues that society is bound together through interdependence, with individual members contributing specialized work and gaining a sense of worth through such roles. This sense of purpose and social belonging would be under grave threat if work were no longer specialized enough and if we could produce everything we need solely with the help of AI (perhaps with a well-crafted prompt?) and other technologies.
Such an absurd possibility — this is probably what’s on your mind right now. The only thing I’m certain of is that our struggle to find meaning in work, in life, and in our place in society will only continue as new technologies advance. The onus to navigate it all is on us. Through trial and error, we will eventually find what’s worth doing for each of us, where we can proudly realize ourselves.
Jodee Fok
Jodee Fok is a Hong Kong-based writer who restlessly tries to make sense of today’s world, fueled by coffee and the ritual of brewing. Her work, spanning from politics and social impact to the culture of specialty coffee, has appeared in The Diplomat, Inside Philanthropy, and Sprudge.