/Tech8h ago

@jujulemons argues that as machines outperform humans, economic value will shift from functional output to human connection

Story Overview

The contrarian thesis from Thrive Holdings flips the usual AI redundancy script, proposing that once machines handle every functional task the scarce resource becomes raw human presence, likability, and connection instead of productivity metrics.

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#667

Original post

Julia Willemyns@jujulemons

What are you worth when nothing is scarce?

For most of human history, economic value came from what you could do and how fast you could do it. If the machines end up smarter, faster, and stronger at every task, what's left? @alexolegimas wrote a great piece arguing that in the world the only thing left to price is human presence itself.

Which raises a set of questions I couldn't stop thinking about. What skills do you actually need when being human is the product? Does everyone end up competing on one likability leaderboard, or does status fracture into a thousand fields with their own hierarchies? Is a market in warmth coercive or any less of a meritocracy than the one it replaces?

New essay on Girard, Versailles, meritocracy, and the revenge of the jocks: https://juliawillemyns.substack.com/p/at-least-youre-likable

2:17 AM · Jun 12, 2026 · 37.5K Views

Open Question

Likability Becomes The New Currency

In this scenario popularity contests replace output-based merit, echoing Girardian mimetic desire and courtly Versailles dynamics where status flows from who draws attention rather than what gets produced.

Policy Risk

Governance Circles Mull The Fallout

Policy voices amplifying the essay flag fresh risks around eroded merit structures and abundance-driven hierarchies, though no concrete regulatory fixes surface yet in the discussion.

Sentiment

Many users praised essays on human likability and community as core future values in an AI-abundant economy because they found the analyses insightful and forward-looking about human relevance.

Pos

93.0%

Neg

7.0%

26 comments with sentiment.

Cluster Engagement

Posts from X

Most Activity

VIEWS6.7KREPLIES3

isaac@isaaccyn

@JoshuaKushner @ThriveHoldings typo?

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BOOKMARKS3

Patrick Donohoe@patrickdonohoe

@JoshuaKushner @ThriveHoldings i wrote an article about this. in competitive markets, winning companies will use ai to grow faster not replace people

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LIKES30

Ben@bennyautomatic

@JoshuaKushner @ThriveHoldings long human

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RETWEETS130

Joshua Kushner@JoshuaKushner

in markets, to go long on something is to bet it grows more valuable over time. much of the conversation today is short on humans, wagering that ai makes people redundant. we believe the opposite is true for the industries @ThriveHoldings operates in.

we are long humans.

https://www.thriveholdings.com/long-humans

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Finn Murphy@FinnMurphy12

@JoshuaKushner @ThriveHoldings ser when are you gonna buy the Knicks? - 5th Ave hometown asset

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signüll@signulll

@JoshuaKushner @ThriveHoldings thrive retrofit.

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Sanket Datta@sanketdattta

@JoshuaKushner @ThriveHoldings The older I get, the more I trust this direction.

Tools keep changing, but care, judgment, taste, and courage do not become less valuable.

They just become easier to spot against everything automated.

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Surya@sdand

@JoshuaKushner @ThriveHoldings Long trust Long time savings Long AGI diffusion Long term holding company Long a country of services delivered from one permanent capital vehicle Long…

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Grant Hesser@GrantHesser

@JoshuaKushner @ThriveHoldings Would encourage the team to spend some time around hospice.

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Soren Larson@hypersoren

@alexolegimas i just graduated to 4 x 445 when are we deadlifting in New York 😉

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Julia Willemyns@jujulemons

@alexolegimas btw this is a personal essay! think i'm going to write more on my personal substack where and when i have thoughts that do not relate to the British policy ecosystem.

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Matin@antimimetics

@JoshuaKushner @ThriveHoldings "Our time horizon is forever."

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Alexis Koumoudos@AKoumoudos

Couldn't agree more. As intelligence becomes abundant, the scarce assets become deeply human: personal relationships, judgement earned through experience, trust and loyalty built over years. Kindness, emotion and how people make us feel.

I've seen it for 15 years investing. The best deals never came from screens or data. They came from a founder calling someone they trusted first or human insights.

AI raises the ceiling on what a trusted person can do. It doesn't replace the reason they were trusted.

Long humans indeed.

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Kye Gomez (swarms)@KyeGomezB

@JoshuaKushner @ThriveHoldings Long Humanity

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Restless Egg@Restless_Egg

we too are deploying capital that is long humanity, starting by supporting a new genre of creative founder that we believe will give new purpose to these technologies, besides simply more productive workflows, but also the invention of new economic categories and new forms of life http://apply.restlessegg.com

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RG@rgvrmdya

@JoshuaKushner @ThriveHoldings Interesting. We are also long humans @reppo using market mechanisms to bridge the gap between human lived experience and AI learning.

Decoupling consumption and execution from humans and focusing on input is where both AI and humans can collaborate

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