‘Humans Are Underrated’ gives empathy and feelings their due

“Humans Are Underrated” serves up two books in one, each interesting in its own right.

The first offers an overview of recent developments in smart software and artificial intelligence. The reader learns about the bright future of driverless cars; IBM’s Watson and its skills at “Jeopardy” and medical diagnosis; and the software of Narrative Science, which can write stories and, in some cases, cover events as well as a human journalist.

The overall message is sobering: The machines can now copy or even improve on a lot of human skills, and thus they are encroaching on jobs. We won’t all have to join the bread line, but not everyone will prosper in this new world. That material is well argued, and those stories are becoming increasingly familiar ground.

The second and more original message is a take on the human abilities that will remain important in light of growing computer efficacy: empathy, interpersonal skills and who we are rather than what we do.

This is ultimately a book about how human beings can make a difference and how that capability will never go away. It’s both a description of the likely future and a prescription for how you or your children will be able to stand out in the world to come.

Geoff Colvin puts it simply: “Rather than ask what computers can’t do, it’s much more useful to ask what people are compelled to do.” And what we are compelled to do is to contact other humans and seek value from them.

The theme of empathy recurs repeatedly. For all the virtues of software, it can’t bring the same connection human employees can. Good (human) managers understand how to motivate, how to set expectations and when to offer rewards or perhaps enforce penalties.

Face-recognition software may be able to judge our moods, but it doesn’t come close to having the same flexibility of response or the same two-way bond as a human who can hear and interpret our personal stories. The future of the American economy will prize people skills above all else.

Mark Zuckerberg was a psychology major. Steve Jobs also had a liberal arts background, which he drew upon to make Apple products attractive and compelling. I wonder, however, whether manipulation shouldn’t be added to the list of what one group of humans feels compelled to do to another.

Precisely because we are able to identify what others are feeling, we can use that knowledge to influence their behavior. So the future of human employment isn’t just about the caring doctor, it is also about the marketer, the nudger, the data collector and the advertising executive. Think “Mad Men” with a vengeance. Don’t forget that the supposed empathy of the doctor, the sales representative or the military commander, to cite a few of the book’s examples, is often self-interested and directed toward bending our will and not always in ways we would accept if they were made transparent to us.

Colvin presents the interesting hypothesis that empathy seems to be declining and narcissism rising today, possibly because we are obsessed with the superficial use of social networks. But is this so? Contemporary America just put its stamp of approval on same-sex marriage, even though a majority of people are not gay.

My favorite parts of the book are about the military, an area where most other popular authors on automation and smart software have hesitated to tread. In this book you can read about how much of America’s military prowess comes from superior human performance and not just from technology. Future gains will result from how combat participants are trained, motivated and taught to work together and trust each other, and from better after-action performance reviews.

Another lesson is that the future, including future jobs, will be more and more about telling stories. That includes telling stories to motivate and organize people, telling stories to express empathy, and telling stories to make people happy. Again, the liberal arts will be a lot more important in our future than many people think.

One interesting implication is that the future may be what Colvin calls a “woman’s world.” On average, women seem to be strong at empathizing and storytelling. There is also good evidence that female participation makes groups a lot smarter. Indeed, we already see in the data that by historical standards, a disproportionate share of men fall into the category of the long-term unemployed.

“Humans Are Underrated” is a worthy addition to the growing collection of books about the new economy in which, to quote Marc Andreessen, “Software eats everything.” It can serve as a good introduction to its core themes, but even if you’ve read all the other books in the field, it is still valuable for its insights into the enduring value of human performance and teamwork.

This story was originally published August 22, 2015 at 10:09 PM with the headline "‘Humans Are Underrated’ gives empathy and feelings their due."