My Personal Leadership Journey

Setting the Stage

In a recent EconTalk episode with Nicholas Bostrom, Russ Roberts explored a fascinating question:
What happens to human purpose, pleasure, and meaning if work is no longer necessary?
If technology solves scarcity and survival, how will people find meaning? Will we slip into hedonism or rise into new forms of creativity, service, and growth?
Over a century ago, James Allen, author of ‘As a Man Thinketh,’ offered insights that remain startlingly relevant to this thought experiment. His words can act as a compass for how to live meaningfully, even in a world without compulsory labor.

1. Circumstances Reveal Character

Allen wrote: “Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself.” In a world of abundance, people’s true character would shine through; not in how they earn a living but in what they choose when survival is guaranteed. Without necessity, laziness, vanity, or wisdom and virtue would no longer be masked. Theoretically, abundance would not excuse vice; it would expose it.

2. Hedonism vs. Joy

LDS leaders echo Allen’s warnings. James E. Faust expounding on David O. McKay taught: “Pleasure, unlike happiness, is that which pleases us or gives us gratification. Usually it endures for only a short time. You may get that transitory pleasure, yes, but you cannot find joy, you cannot find happiness. Happiness is found only along that well beaten track, narrow as it is, though straight, which leads to life eternal” (Ensign, October 2000) Hedonism or pleasure-seeking, Allen would argue, is shallow; joy is deep. When Allen wrote of “calmness of mind,” he envisioned stability rooted in virtue, not indulgence. Real joy is not consumption, it’s cultivation.

3. Becoming, Not Wishing

Another Allen gem: “Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves.” Applied here: in a world without work, some might still want meaning without effort. Yet Allen and LDS theology insist that becoming is an inside-out process. There will always be growth to pursue. You don’t attract meaning by wishing for it, but by becoming the kind of person who lives it.

4. Service and Contribution

Allen’s philosophy pairs with the Christian ethic of service. President Thomas S. Monson taught: “We are the Lord’s hands here upon the earth, with the mandate to serve and to lift His children. He is dependent upon each of us.” (General Conference Oct 2009) In a world where daily bread becomes automatic, hopefully our greatest work shifts from survival to stewardship, caring for others, cultivating beauty, seeking wisdom. Civilization flourishes when abundance is matched by responsibility.

A Practical, Reflective Invitation

If Allen is right, then the true challenge of a post-work world is not idleness or luxury but deliberate cultivation. Abundance gives us the stage, but character writes the script. That makes this moment both a responsibility and an opportunity: to train our habits and to design communities where joy and contribution can flourish. To be clear, the future while in some aspects is flying towards us, is not always as fast at accepting change and technology as quickly as the visionaries and early adopters predict, but that’s also why pondering such ideas can be helpful.

#AAMT #JamesAllen #EconTalk #NicholasBostrom #JeffreyRHolland #ThomasSMonson #Purpose #FleeingCaptivity #ThoughtExperiment #UniversalBasicIncome

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