Your Job Is a Compression.
Here's What Survives.
Dave Gray published something in March that I haven't stopped thinking about. He mapped 12,000 years of economic history into a single pattern. Three compressions, each faster than the last. And the third one is happening to your job right now. I've spent 20 years watching what happens when the coordination layer dissolves. Dave nailed the macro. I want to show you the micro.
The Three Compressions
Same arc every time. Expand. Optimize. Compress. Each one faster than the last.
"Every compression follows the same arc. Expand. Optimize. Compress. The work still gets done. Most people are no longer required."
But something always survives.
Barbershops survived all three compressions.
So did restaurants. Therapists. Architects. Coaches. Facilitators.
Dave Gray calls this the practice economy. I call it the relationship graph operating at the individual level.
The through-line: every practice that survived compression has short feedback loops, personal reputation as currency, and the relationship IS the product. Distance is what enables extraction. Proximity is what enables trust.
So what happens when you apply this to YOUR corporate job?
The Work Autopsy
Here are 12 tasks that fill a typical corporate week. Click each one to classify it: AI replaces this or this survives. Then run the autopsy.
You Don't Have to Wait for the Compression to Finish
Dave's insight is that the practice economy always comes back. Here's what I'd add: you can start rewiring now. You don't need permission. You don't need a new title. You need three honest moves.
Audit Your Calendar
Look at last week. How many hours were coordination (meetings about meetings, status reporting, approval routing) vs. relationship work (coaching, facilitating, building trust)? That ratio IS your compression risk. If it's 80/20 coordination, you're exposed.
Build Your Practice Before You Need It
"What do people already come to you for?" That question, straight from Dave Gray, is the most honest career diagnostic I've ever heard. The answer is your practice. Not your title. Not your department. The thing people seek you out for when they have a real problem.
Make Your Reputation Portable
Your LinkedIn title is corporate. Your reputation should be a relationship graph. Every person who would vouch for your work is a node. Every introduction you've made is an edge. That network is your post-compression career. Start building it before the compression finishes.
Dave Mapped the Macro.
We Build the Micro.
If you want to understand the compression, read Dave. If you want to rewire your organization's relationship infrastructure before the compression finishes, that's what we do.
