# mollick-setting-time-fire-button-temptation-2023-06-03

## Veille

Crisis of Meaning at Work - "Help me write" Button - Setting Time on Fire - Effort Signals - AI Recommendation Letters - Ethan Mollick - One Useful Thing

## Titre Article

Setting time on fire and the temptation of The Button

## Date

2023-06-03

## URL

https://www.oneusefulthing.org/p/setting-time-on-fire-and-the-temptation

## Keywords

The Button, Help me write, Google Docs, Bard, GPT-4, crisis of meaning, setting time on fire, signaling, recommendation letters, performance reviews, meaningless work, mere ceremony, job satisfaction, busy-work, AI adoption, tool integration, cognitive anchoring, productivity, quality vs effort

## Authors

Ethan Mollick

## Ton

**Profile**: Academic thought leadership, reflective first-person, analytical-provocative register, accessible intermediate level.

**Description**: Mollick (professor at Wharton) adopts a provocative thought-leader voice exploring the philosophical and organizational implications of generative AI at work. The conceptual narrative structure ("Setting time on fire," "The Button," "crisis of meaning") illustrates academic storytelling accessible to a general audience. The language of an organizational-behavior researcher (signaling, "mere ceremony," job-satisfaction research) combined with concrete examples (recommendation letters, performance reviews) bridges theory and practice. The tone, both alarmed and optimistic, is typical of Mollick, who balances genuine concerns with emancipatory outcomes. The personal admission ("I am still doing all my letters the old-fashioned way, but I wonder whether that will ultimately do my students a disservice") reveals an authentic confrontation with ethical dilemmas. A format characteristic of thought leaders on Substack (One Useful Thing) combining academic rigor with accessible prose, aimed at a broad professional audience seeking meaning amid technological transformation.

## Pense-betes

- **"The Button"**: Google Docs "Help me write" - irresistible temptation to generate first drafts with AI
- **Microsoft Office will soon integrate** the same capability - massive adoption inevitable
- **Setting time on fire**: work time-consuming by design as a signal of effort and commitment
- **AI recommendation letters**: GPT-4 produces excellent letters in seconds vs 10x the human time
- **Moral dilemma**: an AI letter can be better than a mediocre human letter - hurts students by NOT using AI?
- **Cognitive anchoring**: first AI drafts influence final work even when completely rewritten
- **92% of people** think their job is socially useful - meaning at work is crucial
- **Mere ceremony**: organizational tasks with no real utility - AI exposes and amplifies this
- **AI-to-AI workflows**: AI-generated documents sent to AI email inboxes - a loop without humans
- **Crisis of meaning**: when output quality no longer signals thoughtfulness/effort/time
- **Noy & Zhang research**: AI users enjoy work more, feel better able to use their talents
- **Documents as signals**: performance reviews, strategic memos, college essays, grants, speeches
- **Centuries-old approaches** to filtering and signaling lose value with AI
- **Empowering outcome possible**: stripping away meaningless work frees workers, reduces inefficiencies
- **Redesigning work is necessary**: leaders must rethink work for the "AI-haunted" world
- **Boschian nightmare** metaphor: meaningless tasks like a Hieronymus Bosch hell

## RésuméDe400mots

Ethan Mollick explores the impending crisis of meaning at work triggered by the integration of generative AI into everyday tools, symbolized by "The Button" - Google Docs' "Help me write" button using Bard, soon coming to Microsoft Office with GPT-4.

**The temptation of the button**

Faced with a blank page, people will press The Button. Adoption becomes trivial once AI integrates into familiar tools (like Adobe Photoshop). Students, managers, professors, scientists - all will use this button to generate first drafts of essays, emails, reports, feedback, grants. Cognitive anchoring means that even completely rewritten drafts will carry an AI imprint.

**Setting time on fire**

Mollick introduces the central concept: much work is time-consuming by design. A professor's recommendation letter takes time because that effort signals genuine support for the candidate. "We are setting our time on fire to signal to others that this letter is worth reading." But with The Button, an excellent letter can be generated in seconds.

He demonstrates this with a concrete example: a minimal prompt produces via GPT-4 a recommendation letter "better than most letters I receive," addressing the job requirements point by point with plausible details (albeit invented, but easily correctable through interaction with the AI). A moral dilemma emerges: using AI might serve the student better than a mediocre human-written letter.

**Documents turned into empty signals**

Performance reviews, strategic memos, college essays, grants, speeches - all these documents where written output signals thoughtfulness and time invested lose their value. With AI-to-AI workflows (AI-generated documents sent to AI email inboxes), tasks become "mere ceremony" - organizational rituals with no real utility.

**Crisis of meaning**

92% of workers consider their job socially useful. Research shows that AI initially increases job satisfaction - the worst tasks disappear, allowing focus on meaningful work. But when meaningful documents become easy to outsource, or when one realizes that no human actually reads our reports, meaning evaporates. Centuries-old approaches to filtering and signaling through written effort lose all value.

**An emancipatory opportunity**

Mollick sees a potentially empowering outcome: liberation from busy-work and mere ceremony. No longer having to "set our time on fire" as a signal. But this requires organizational thoughtfulness - leaders redesigning work for the "AI-haunted" world. The incentives are enormous: eliminating meaningless work reduces the burden on workers while removing inefficiencies.

**Urgency**

This transformation requires no AI more advanced than what already existed in June 2023. It is already underway in education (AI-generated essays). Without proactive thinking now, multiple crises of meaning will hit various professions as The Button becomes widespread.

## GrapheDeConnaissance

- Ethan Mollick —publie→ Setting time on fire and the temptation of The Button (DOCUMENT, 0.99)
- Google —a_créé→ Help me write (TECHNOLOGIE, 0.99)
- Help me write —utilise→ Bard (TECHNOLOGIE, 0.98)
- Microsoft Office —utilise→ GPT-4 (TECHNOLOGIE, 0.95)
- GPT-4 —permet→ génération de lettres de recommandation en secondes (CONCEPT, 0.97)
- The Button —permet→ crise de sens (CONCEPT, 0.95)
- setting time on fire —est_instance_de→ signal d'effort (CONCEPT, 0.97)
- IA générative —remplace→ signal d'effort écrit (CONCEPT, 0.94)
- Noy and Zhang —publie→ recherche satisfaction travail IA (DOCUMENT, 0.9)
- utilisation IA au travail —améliore→ satisfaction au travail (CONCEPT, 0.88)
- mere ceremony —est_basé_sur→ tâches organisationnelles sans utilité (CONCEPT, 0.92)
- IA générative —réduit→ valeur des documents comme signaux (CONCEPT, 0.93)
- Ethan Mollick —prédit→ crise de sens (CONCEPT, 0.96)
- Adobe Photoshop —utilise→ IA générative (TECHNOLOGIE, 0.92)
- Ethan Mollick —recommande→ redesign du travail par les leaders pour le monde IA (CONCEPT, 0.88)

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Canonical: https://www.thekb.eu/en/fiches/mollick-setting-time-fire-button-temptation-2023-06-03/