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Do you know your p(joy) score?
What it is
Manoush Zomorodi (NPR's TED Radio Hour) coins p(joy) as a deliberate counterpoint to p(doom), the probability-of-catastrophe number traded around AI circles: instead of estimating disaster, estimate whether satisfying moments are increasing in your life and what reliably creates them. The second half is a long interview with Brian Elliott of Work Forward on knowledge work right now — identity loss as machines take a skill you spent decades building, cognitive overload from supervising AI agents, and executives privately saying their best people and heaviest AI users are the likeliest to quit. Elliott's summary: human-led, AI-enabled, because nobody's competitive advantage is being average faster.
Why I recommend it
Read this the next time an AI doom number is quoted at you as though it were measured. The piece cites Gizmodo's plain point that no one at the frontier labs has an actual method for producing a p(doom) figure. The useful part is Elliott's three patterns in companies getting value from AI: a scorecard covering business impact, quality and employee engagement rather than tool usage; aiming at teams instead of individuals; and leaders using the tools in public, mistakes included. Free to read in full, no paywall.
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Added Sep 23, 2026 · 0 opens