We were told that artificial intelligence would set us free. That automation would give us time back, reduce effort, and allow us to focus on what truly matters. Yet, looking around, the opposite seems to be happening.
The rat race has not disappeared. It has evolved into something quieter, more pervasive, and harder to refuse.
If you have a business, you are expected to manage more channels. If you run an activity, you are expected to be present on more platforms (and to perform better on all of them). If you were asked to onboard five clients, the benchmark quickly became fifteen. And when you reach fifteen, the expectation silently shifts to thirty. There is no point of arrival, no moment when “enough” is allowed to remain enough.
The technology meant to reduce our workload has quietly raised the bar. With no ceiling on productivity, work expands into every available space, turning performance into identity and output into worth. The paradox is clear: the more we automate, the more we are expected to produce.
The issue is not technology itself, but the rhythm it imposes. Machines do not pause. They produce, optimize, measure, suggest, and accelerate. More output. Faster delivery. Constant availability. And the cost of this acceleration is becoming visible. What I see around me is not just fatigue, but burnout treated as normal, fear of slowing down, and a gradual loss of enthusiasm. Talented, capable, creative people who rarely feel productive enough, visible enough, or relevant enough.
This leads to an uncomfortable question: will the machine truly evolve in a way that liberates us, or will we be the ones paying the price for its efficiency?
Leaving the machine altogether is, for most people, unrealistic. But the real question is not whether we can exit the system; it is whether we can reduce its damage. The rat race is not mandatory. It is an implicit agreement we renew every day, often without noticing. Limiting its impact does not require dramatic gestures. It is a quiet, daily form of resistance: saying no to one more project, turning off a notification, refusing to convert every idea into content, remembering that value does not grow infinitely simply because it can be quantified.
I guess freedom today is not about running faster. It is about deciding when to stop.
