Students graduating from universities in the spring of 2026 will not have the career they thought they would have by the end of the next 5000 days. People who are between 35 years old and 45 years old will live through a time that could leave them adrift in life’s meaning, as the things they thought would be forever at 25 years old rapidly become like an ancient memory in the next 5000 days.

The rate of change is accelerating; what would take three generations for most of human existence now happens in a few months, and in the next 5000 days, in a few days. I write a lot about technology, but what about you and me? We all define ourselves by what we do. When we first meet someone, it seems natural for a majority of us to wonder or outright say: “So, what do you do for a living?” Indeed, what will we do “for a living” when we enter what I ha ...