Manifestos are old technology. We’ve been writing them since long before we had a word for them: the Declaration of Independence, the Communist Manifesto, the UN Declaration of Human Rights, the John F Kennedy Land A Man on the Moon Speech, the Futurists screaming for speed and machines back in 1909, more than a century before speed became the water we swim in without noticing it’s water.
So, why a manifesto? A manifesto is a living creed. A short document that captures the essence of who you are, what you stand for, what you believe, and where you’re headed. It explains what you’re about. It gives you clarity. It sets your direction. It’s a compass, with words. It can give you hope, joy, wealth, behavior change, quick wins, and greenlights. It can unite a team, sell a dream, and give you a competitive advantage.
Brands write manifestos too. You may have seen Nike’s or Apple’s.
Last week, Mark Zuckerberg published one.
It’s called “The Future Is For Everyone.“ The pitch is: superintelligence, distributed to every individual through a personal AI agent that works for you around the clock, building your business, writing your code, running your errands, thinking alongside you. Not concentrated in a handful of labs. Democratized. His case: this keeps AI safe and human. Millions of individually-directed agents checking each other, instead of one company’s model deciding for everyone.
It wasn’t well received.
His manifesto received a lot of attention from the media. Mostly negative.
Wired said the manifesto barely said anything. John Rougeaux said on Substack how it’s really just “a milquetoast laundry list of unsurprising and conventional recommendations for how society should benefit from AI.”
I read it twice. Both times I landed on the same question: distributed to do what, exactly? Besides MORE. More in service of what? And whom?
An agent that works for you 24/7 isn’t a rest from acceleration. It’s acceleration with a better interface. It’s still the same question we’ve been asking since the Industrial Revolution: how do we produce more, faster, with less friction. Just with more hands on the wheel now for the benefit of the company. A future for everyone who wants to build more, ship more, output more. We are training the tools that make us redundant. That’s not a new future. That’s the Default Path with a personal assistant at 10x the speed.
He talks about innovation but how we can we innovate, when we are walking around exhausted and overwhelmed and worried about what the future holds.
We don’t want to do more and we be laid off. We want to do the human, creative work and get paid for our value.
This year, I wrote a manifesto too. I placed it at the end of the book. I’d spent ten years and 300 conversations and I’m done keeping it on my computer.
My manifesto looks at things differently.
My manifesto looks at what it means to remain human in the age of machines.
My manifesto looks at the things only humans can produce.
A future where we use the tools, but not continue to be exhausted by them.
A future where human, not more hustle matters more.
A future where we can return to ourselves.
His future is for everyone who wants to do more.
Mine is for everyone who’s done giving it all to the machine while getting little in return.
This is for the rebels. The crazy ones. The ones willing to step away from the default path and reclaim their energy, time, and humanity in a world that won’t slow down. The ones willing to break the rules and remake them.
The meaning makers.
I wrote it for you.
Here it is.
We’re living in the Age of Acceleration where the pace keeps compounding.
We check email before we’re upright. We eat lunch over a keyboard. We answer at midnight and wake up exhausted.
Machines now move faster than our bodies and minds ever could.
But speed is not meaning.
Volume is not wisdom.
Efficiency is not aliveness.
For too long, we’ve treated ourselves like machines. We optimize our schedules, measure our worth by how much we get done, and cram our lives into calendars and dashboards.
First it was hustle harder. Then work smarter. Now? Automate everything.
That is the Default Path.
Well paved, and well lit by Hustle Culture, and it leads somewhere none of us chose.
But we are done. We are tired of being overwhelmed, burnt out, running on fumes. Overworked and underliving.
So we stop asking “How fast can we go?” and start asking “What is worth moving toward?”
That’s what Meaning Makers do.
We put human capacity ahead of speed.
We’re not against technology. We’re done living on autopilot.
We’re not against ambition. We’re just not willing to abandon ourselves for it.
We don’t reject progress. We’re here to give progress a soul.
AI can generate. Humans must discern.
AI can accelerate. Humans must direct.
AI can optimize. Humans must decide what’s worth optimizing at all.
AI can recognize pattern. Humans make meaning.
The future does not belong to the busiest people.
It belongs to the most awake.
The ones who bring taste, judgment, ethics, imagination, empathy, intuition, wisdom, authenticity, courage, and care to a world drowning in content and starving for what’s true.
A Meaning Maker asks different questions.
Not just: “How do I do more?” But: “What is this for?”
Not just: “How do I win?” But: “Who am I becoming in the pursuit?”
Not just: “How do I keep up?” But: “What am I running for?”
We believe work should expand life, not consume it.
We believe rest isn’t a prize for being productive. It’s the ground wisdom grows from.
We believe the body is intelligence, and it’s worth listening to. That requires space.
We believe a full calendar is not proof of a full life.
We believe success without considering what’s good for humans isn’t success. It’s extraction with better branding.
Life Wealth is the new measure of prosperity. Health. Time. Connection. Experiences. Work that matters.
The old world gave out gold stars for ignoring yourself.
The new world needs people who can return to themselves.
Because the more artificial intelligence we create, the more human intelligence we’ll need.
Not just cognitive intelligence.
Embodied intelligence. Emotional intelligence. Moral intelligence. Creative intelligence.
The wisdom to ask better questions.
To know when enough is enough.
To pause before producing.
To protect what is irreplaceable.
To say: “This matters.” “This does not.” “This is mine to do.” “This is efficient, but it is not wise.”
Meaning Makers do not surrender their humanity to the tools they use.
We use the tools. We do not become them.
We refuse to let the future of work become an infinite workday with better software.
We refuse to confuse acceleration with evolution.
We refuse to make decisions from fear.
We refuse to attend the meeting that could have been a message. Especially the recurring one.
We refuse to build a world where everything speeds up and nobody feels any better.
We’re here to make business more human and humans more alive.
It’s how the best work has always been done.
We’re here to remember that our lives aren’t fuel for someone else’s productivity system.
They are the point.
So this is our pledge.
We will rest without apology.
We will measure success in Life Wealth.
We will choose authorship over autopilot.
We will protect what only humans can do.
We will not hustle our way into a future with no room for humans.
We are not here to keep up with machines.
We are here to become more fully human.
Because we are Meaning Makers.
And the future needs us awake.
My rebellion is simple. I will be human.
That’s our desire path.
—
“The future is for everyone.” I believe that too. I just don’t think it belongs to whoever ships the most capable agent. Or to the company that wants us to do more, work longer and send us home without a job. I think it belongs to whoever remembers what all this speed was supposed to be for–to move humanity forward.
If this is the future you actually want, don’t just agree with it. Send it to someone. Print the line that got you. This is the heart of the book, in its rawest form. More on that soon.
— Milena
P.S. Write your manifesto and share it with me. I’d love to see what you have to say meaning maker!
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.