By Mike Pearl
Publication Date: 2026-02-10 01:58:00
You might think that automation tools would eliminate the need for tedious tasks and make work less stressful overall. However, this overrides an important law of the universe: the productivity brake only turns in one direction. That said, it’s a modern truism that if automation – AI or otherwise – brings about any positive change in your work life, you’ll feel some kind of pressure and extra work will come in to erase any momentary feeling of relief.
According to a case study highlighted in some “ongoing research” by Aruna Ranganathan, who teaches management at UC-Berkeley, and Xingqi Maggie Ye, a graduate student. For a student participating in Ranganathan’s Berkeley program, AI “intensifies” work and certainly doesn’t make people’s everyday lives any easier.
In other words, it sounds like hell on earth.
If, paradoxically, that’s what you want On your workday, you probably work in a place like Silicon Valley or even at OpenAI, where CEO Sam…