đź’Ľ You Are Not Your Job

If the Robots Are Coming for Our Jobs, What Does That Mean for the Concept of Identity? Plus — MSFT Cuts Engineers, Saudi Dealmaking, and More

Author

Katie Perry
May 15, 2025

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The Big Story: Who Are We Without Our Jobs?

This week, I’ve been thinking a lot about how we take the easy way out when we describe ourselves.

We rely on titles and badges. We reference where we work, who we work for, who we’re related to. It’s clean. Legible. Optimized for LinkedIn intros and cocktail party small talk. But it’s rarely who we actually are.

Where do I even START with this

So here’s a challenge: pause for 15 seconds and think about how you’d describe yourself if you couldn’t reference your job, your family roles, or your affiliations. It’s HARD, right?

Personally, I got stuck, so I asked GPT to give me some ideas based on what the tool already knows about me. I prompted it to write 50 words describing who I am without using professional titles or affiliations. Here’s what it came up with:

She’s an energetic observer and strategic thinker who thrives on bringing big ideas to life. Curious by nature and sharp with words, she builds bridges between people and concepts. She finds clarity in chaos, leads with instinct and humor, and is drawn to people who are sincere, self-aware, and quietly confident.

Describing yourself without labels is difficult, but it’s also so much more interesting. It forces clarity. And it pushes you to articulate values instead of categories. 

Ask someone what they do, and they’ll almost always respond with who they are relative to something else.

  • “I work with startups.”

  • “I’m a founder.”

  • “I host a podcast.”

No verbs. Just identity. The language tells you everything.

In the U.S., work isn’t just about money. It’s a proxy for status, intelligence, ambition, and sometimes morality. It’s how we define ourselves and how we expect others to define us. According to Pew Research, nearly half of Americans say their job is “extremely” or “very” important to their overall identity. That number is significantly higher than in many other countries.

And it shows. Just look at how we treat titles like badges of honor, how we conflate busy with important, or how we turn workplace burnout into something almost aspirational. Gary Vee built an empire by making videos encouraging people to “CRUSH IT!”

Is this just an American phenomenon? We do looooove to work, after all. Kinda.

In countries like France, the Netherlands, and Denmark, there’s a clearer cultural boundary between what you do and who you are. People take long vacations. Work ends when the workday ends. The OECD Better Life Index consistently ranks these countries higher in life satisfaction and work-life balance.

Meanwhile, in the U.S., your health insurance is tied to your employer, and “rise and grind” is used unironically. The stakes of work feel existential. The job isn’t just a job. It’s a lifeline, a persona, and in some cases, a brand.

Japan and South Korea show similar tendencies, with intense overwork cultures and phenomena like karoshi, or death by overwork. So no, it’s not just us. But we’ve arguably turned it into a national philosophy.

Now layer in automation. The IMF recently said AI could affect nearly 40% of global jobs. And in advanced economies, the white-collar workforce may feel the biggest shock. (More on that in the sections to follow.)

We’ve long worried about job loss for economic reasons. But now it’s personal. If AI can do what I do — faster, cheaper, and without needing sleep — what does that say about me? This isn’t just a labor market issue. It’s a full-blown identity threat.

One study found that job insecurity significantly undermines our psychological well-being and sense of self. We don’t just fear being unemployed. We fear being irrelevant.

So, where should our identity come from, if not work? That’s the uncomfortable question more people are asking, especially those in high-status, knowledge-worker roles where the job isn’t just what they do, but who they are.

Some psychologists say we should shift our identity from what we do to why we do it. Values are portable, points out psychologist Bryan Dik. In other words, if you see yourself as someone who builds, teaches, or questions, that stays with you, even when your title changes.

Others argue for a multi-dimensional identity. Philosopher Alain de Botton suggests we stop asking people “What do you do?” and start asking “What are you curious about?” or “What are you working on these days?” Questions that invite texture, not just categories.

Communal cultures often do this better. When identity is also tied to family, community, art, or faith, your job doesn’t have to carry the full psychological burden. Which makes you more resilient when things shift, as they inevitably will.

All this is not to say that you can’t or shouldn’t tie at least part of your identity to work.

Work can be meaningful. It can reflect your values, your creativity, your ambition. If you’re lucky, it can even be energizing. But when it becomes your entire identity, it becomes brittle. One layoff, one bad year — and suddenly, you’re not just questioning your job. You’re questioning your worth.

The founder who moves on from the company he built. The salesperson who’s always hit quota and suddenly doesn’t. The journalist whose byline disappears. When identity is wrapped in outcomes, change starts to feel like failure, even when it’s not.

Once you notice the habit it’s easier to try to move away from leading with labels, although give it a try; it’s a hard habit to kick! But eventually, we start asking better questions — and being a little braver about giving more honest answers.

We make space for hobbies that don’t double as side hustles. We invest in relationships that have nothing to do with who invests in our next venture or gets us into that exclusive party. We get curious about things that don’t require LinkedIn validation.

We also prepare, emotionally and practically,  for a world where our job might look very different in a few years. Because tying your entire identity to something actively being disrupted is a recipe for existential vertigo.

If you love your work, great. Let it be a facet. Not the foundation. You’re a person who works. Sometimes. Some of us more than others. Among many other things.

Daily Rip Live: MBS Bromance, NVDA Chips are the New Oil, and Airbnb Expands to Experiences

Catch us LIVE every weekday M-Th at 9 AM EST!

Every weekday, we cover the biggest market news and events LIVE on Stocktwits’ morning show, The Daily Rip Live. Here’s what we covered during Wednesday’s episode, which featured the always friendly and familiar Shay Baloor and our special guest, Jonathan Morgan, a crypto analyst at Stocktwits.

If you’ve been watching this week, you know that we are paying special attention to the crypto markets this week — while still following all of the major headlines in the equities market. We typically skew “TradFi” (traditional finance) on our show, so it’s been a lot of fun to explore DeFi for a bit.

  • 1:15 | Following the Strategy playbook, public companies are adding Bitcoin to the balance sheet $BTC.X ( â–Ľ 0.49% )  $MSTR ( â–˛ 6.09% )  

  • 4:30 | What's going on with Ethereum? So much promise but down 22% on the year with a valid lack of momentum and enthusiasm. Are they the BlackBerry of crypto? $ETH.X ( â–˛ 1.65% )  

  • 10:25 | Making sense of Solana activity $SOL.X ( â–˛ 1.69% )  

  • 12:00 | Coinbase’s major milestone, joining the S&P 500 this week. Why this is such a big deal for crypto’s earliest adopters. $COIN ( â–˛ 6.52% )  

  • 15:40 | How investors can use social sentiment data to see what’s trending, pick up on signals, and guide their research (h/t cryptotwits.xyz)

  • 20:50 | Over to stocks! Palantir’s Alex Karp heads to Riyadh with other VIPs, Palantir stock catches a bid $PLTR ( â–˛ 1.64% )  

  • 26:40 | Nvidia chip triumph: A major deal is struck with the Saudis on the heels of bad news a few weeks ago regarding their ability to expand into China $NVDA ( â–˛ 1.72% )  

  • 29:05 | Perplexity + PayPal team up for AI-powered in-chat shopping $PYPL ( â–˛ 3.48% )  

  • 33:30 | Comparing go-to-market strategies for Venmo (PayPal) v. Cash App (Square) and Zelle $XYZ ( â–˛ 6.79% )  

  • 36:55 | People used to overshare on Venmo, and it was incredible.

  • 40:57 | Airbnb’s latest evolution — Experiences are here! Chesky came up with the idea when his buddy was going through it? $ABNB ( â–˛ 2.76% )  

  • 45:15 | Robots with limbs = hard no for me âťŚ … The Serve robots are cute, though! $SERV ( â–˛ 4.97% )  

  • 47:45 | ESPN streaming app is called “ESPN” and I’m a fan; Michael Jordan signs talent deal with NBC Sports, someone get JR Smith in the mix! $DIS ( â–˛ 2.28% )  $CMCSA ( â–˛ 1.64% )  

Now Here’s a Chart

Big yikes. Take a look at this breakdown of recent layoffs at Microsoft (focused on Washington state). The company’s CEO recently said that about 25% of its code is now written by AI tools. Generally, companies will couch this type of commentary with reassurances that the technology is “only empowering workers to be more powerful and productive';” however, breakdowns like this reveal which roles may be at most risk — at least in tech.

Here’s another view revealing a similar trend beyond what we’re seeing at Microsoft:

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Tuesday Thursday Saturday is written by Katie Perry, owner of Ursa Major Media, which provides fractional marketing services and strategy in software, tech, consumer products, professional services, and other industries. She is also the co-host of Stocktwits’ Daily Rip Live show.

Disclaimer: The contents here reflect recaps and summaries of pre-reported or published data, news, and trends. I have cited sources and context for the information provided to the best of my ability. The purpose of the newsletter is to inform and educate on larger trends shaping business and culture — this is NOT investment advice. As an investor, you should always do your own research before making any decisions about your money or your portfolio.