No. 041 · Contested This week: AI is coming for your bargaining position first
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Machines/The Economics of Work

The State Without a Mind

The OECD Digital Economy and Society Outlook 2026 paints a picture for society. Are we constructing an algorithmic public sector and have we forgotten to hire the civil servants who understand how…

By Lisa Gibbons · 9 November 2026 · 5 min read

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The argument this week

AI is coming for your job. It’s coming for your bargaining position, and that happens first.

Nine point nine million ride-hail drivers are the test case. If you build, fund or run a team, you’re designing the next one.

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Docket

No. 041

Contested

One argument a week. Some weeks we’ll be wrong; we’d rather be useful than safe.

Series · Thought Experiments · Interactive

Small experiments on the big questions about work.

What is work for when machines can do it? Who owes what to whom? Each experiment puts a question in your hands, then meets you with the evidence and what everyone else chose.

All experiments →
Exp. 01 · Opens Friday 6 November The Quiet Desk One working week at a desk alone, and what the numbers say about loneliness in freelance work. About 10 minutes →
Exp. 02 · Opens Sunday 6 December The Imitation Game Ten workplace messages. Two replies each. One of them wasn’t written by a person.
Exp. 03 · Opens Wednesday 6 January 2027 The Brief Learn the craft of asking, then enter the monthly prompt brief.

Anonymous, no sign-up, no scores.

Read by topic

MachinesAI, agents and what they do to the work itself. BuildingNew companies and new ways to organise them. Capital NewWhere the money is going in work and work tech. TeamsHybrid, distributed and teams in transformation. The Economics of WorkPay, cost of living and who holds the bargaining power. MeaningWhat work is for, and what it does to us.

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Worth rereading

Arguments that hold up whatever this week’s news: on organising, building and thinking about work.

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Filed under Engineering / Project & programme / People & transformation

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