Ordinary is defined as having no special or distinctive features, i.e., humdrum. 

Sounds to me like ‘good enough,’ and if you are like me and want a more than humdrum world, ‘good enough’ is not ‘good enough.’ I want things and experiences that make me take notice, things and experiences that are remarkable.

But why be remarkable as a person if machines are doing the work? What difference does it make?

“One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary [people]. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary [person].” -Elbert Hubbard

AI is, according to current thinking, going to make us humans, or at least some of us humans, redundant. But who will stay? If Hubbard is to be heeded, the extraordinary ones, that’s who.

Extraordinary is defined as unusual, noteworthy, exceptional, and yes, remarkable. But, like the earlier question, what’s extraordinary when a machine can do the work?

Well, what can we do that machines cannot? While the machine might have a brain, it doesn’t have a heart. Empathy, humor, asking the curious question, listening just to listen, these are things humans do; they are what set us apart. The unique humanity in each of us is what makes us, in John F. Kennedy’s words, “the most extraordinary computer of all.” Put simply, the machine can’t be what you are.

“The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.” -Jimmy Johnson

While a machine (computer) might do the job, that’s all it does, the job. A human, though, can add their soul. They can do it with flair. They can make it an event. They can make it remarkable. 

Back in the days of the Soviet Iron Curtain, I visited the East German border. The buildings on the East German side were good, solid, and functional, but they lacked character. They were bland, concrete blocks. They did the job, they were… ordinary. 

The buildings on the West German side, however, were different; they had style, they were more than functional, they kept you looking. They did something more, they added that ‘little extra.’ They did more than the job; they were… extraordinary.

“We must overcome the notion that we must be regular… it robs you of the chance to be extraordinary and leads you to the mediocre.” -Uta Hagen

Unless you want a world of mediocre and bland—that’s the one where we all get replaced by machines making East German buildings and heaven knows what else—you must begin working on extraordinary because extraordinary cannot be replaced. AI might be fast and easy, but it’s not nuanced, perceptive, able to find ironic humor, or capable of, I don’t know, bursting into song for no good reason. 

If you don’t want to be replaced. If you want to make a difference. If you want to matter and do work that matters, you must begin finding that uniqueness, that bit of extraordinary that you can offer the world. No AI can replace that.  So, stop doing replaceable, ordinary work and start doing extraordinary work we want to keep.

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