The future of human work is creative and project-based
ChatGPT is now a core part of my workflow and I keep having this reoccurring thought:
I’m so glad I get paid by the execution, and not by the hour.
Not only can I work faster with AI and create more value, but the inherent creativity within each project protects me from being automated away by AI agents.
The more I rely on AI, the more I realize this simple truth: the best defense against automation is creative, project-based work.
Don’t “fill time.” Create value instead.
When you’re paid per project, it doesn’t matter how long something takes to do. What matters is how much value you create doing it.
When I worked my corporate job - in the office five days a week, eight hours a day for five years - a lot of my time was spent trying to find ways to fill my day.
My job involved pitching, developing, and eventually shooting car commercials. I was on a yearly salary (with capped revenue-based bonuses), so really no matter how much “harder” I worked, I wasn’t going to make much more money.
Plus, I didn’t want to work faster because if I did, there would be nothing for me to do. It’s like the classic Parkinson’s Law:
“Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.”
Because I worked an eight-hour day, I took eight hours to do my work.
But when you get paid by the execution, you don’t have to “fill hours.” You can just focus on creating as much value as possible, as quickly as possible. And AI really helps me move faster.
I use ChatGPT to organize my creative projects, break creative blocks, save time using its memory feature, and just generally boost productivity.
And very soon, AI agents will do all the “busy work” for me.
If the work is not creative, AI agents will do it.
But AI isn’t just helping us work faster - it’s replacing jobs altogether. And it’s coming for anything that doesn’t require creativity.
What makes work creative?
Creative work inherently involves applying your unique judgment and taste. It’s about your choices - often thousands of them.
In my field (screenwriting), before pen hits the paper on a first draft, there are hundreds of decisions to make.
First, genre (gross-out comedy, rom-com, horror-comedy, action-comedy, adventure-comedy?), then format (TV pilot, movie, sketch, web series?), then all the decisions around plot and character and structure and story beats - all of which influence the direction of the screenplay.
Then, there’s the actual writing of the piece and the decisions around dialogue, action and character descriptions, page count, formatting, etc. etc. etc.
And the worst part (or best - depending on your perspective) is that there’s NO ONE to tell you what to do. There’s no “boss” to give direction. You decide, and live with the consequences.
Now, what makes work non-creative? The opposite. Work that involves zero judgment from you.
And here’s the rub: AI agents are coming for everything that doesn’t require that kind of judgment.
If the work is repetitive, formulaic, or purely mechanical, it’s only a matter of time before an AI agent can do it faster, cheaper, and probably better.
But AI can’t tell you what’s worth spending time on - what resonates, what moves people. That’s still a human skill.
The future belongs to people who make good decisions about what projects deserve to exist.
Find a way to get paid by the project.
Stop thinking in hours - think in results. Start treating everything like a project and focus on what value you deliver, not how long it takes to do.
In screenwriting, no one cares if a script took a week or a year to write. The only thing that matters is if it’s great. That same principle applies to every creative field.
The key is to find a way to get paid for what you finish, not the time it takes. That may mean going freelance and getting paid per deliverable, negotiating performance-based compensation, or creating assets that generate ongoing revenue.
Whether you’re a writer, designer, consultant, or entrepreneur, the goal is to shift from trading time for money to producing results that people will pay for.
So start building a body of work that proves your execution. Every completed project leads to more opportunities, more leverage, more control over your income. And - even more importantly - more control over your TIME. And use AI to help you get there.
Start now. And thanks for reading.