When process improves, we don't get more free time. Instead we aim for more productivity. The more we produce, the more we have to produce to increase metrics.

Ibrahim Diallo

A personal essay recounts a data-entry job at a non-profit where the author automated a slow manual workflow (email attachments, Excel/Word forms, FileMaker Pro database) to boost output tenfold, only to have that new output level become the expected baseline rather than a reward. The author draws a parallel to managers today using AI to vibe-code apps themselves, noting that the productivity high is real only before the app faces real usage, after which every feature must be added carefully without breaking things. The essay ends with the author being let go once their contribution was normalized, and their untrained replacement failing to match the artificially inflated bar.

Where Did the Productivity Gains Go?

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“Increased output never turns into more free time. Instead, it becomes the new normal.”
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History taught us this. What’s important is for us to adapt and make sure that the automation is indeed automating correctly. Else, we are back to manual work where the expectation ceiling is a lot higher.