The Last Sfogliatelli

If you were hoping for a quirky, short, slightly informative post, I hate to disappoint.This time it needs to be something more.

I want to write, really write, with more depth, more meaning and more effort. No shortcuts for conveying my thoughts this time.

All about the sweet tooth..

So I decided to write about sfogliatelli. The Italian, sweet ricotta filled pastries, candied citrus peel and a vanilla smell you’ll never forget. All wrapped in a crispy, layered seashell pastry.

But is it really just about pastries?

You do it

It’s becoming easier and easier to outsource anything. Don’t feel like vacuuming? Turn on the Roomba. Don’t feel like cooking? Order a pizza. Don’t want to write that e-mail? Just dump some info and ask ChatGPT to do it for you.

And it makes sense, to let these tasks be done by other people or machines. Laziness usually wins. When something can be done in an easier, faster, less burdensome way. We go for it.

Automate your life away

We’re still (or aren’t we) years or decades away from being blatantly automated fully. And then what?

And then what?

That’s where the story starts.

A Neapolitan Morning: A Tale of Two Choices

I remember going to Italy, Napoli. 8 AM and the sun already burning my Belgian forehead. Underslept, but ready for adventure.

When in Napoli, the first thing you do in the morning is having an espresso, right? Walking through the narrow, but already bustling streets my search couldn’t be more simple. Every 2nd step there’s an opportunity to grab an espresso, and.. A pastry.

Option One: The Efficient Chain

There’s two categories to pick from. Number one: the coffee, pastry chains. Where I would get my espresso and pastry in a minute. Where every second counts. Where every second saved is an opportunity to sell something more to another client. And of course, with efficiency from the chain, also comes time savings for you.

I was pretty confident in the quality of the chains. If you’ve ever been to Italy, you will know. They still value their coffee and the quality thereof.

Option Two: The Allure of the Artisan

But option number two just felt that tiny little bit more enticing. Option number two is the tiny, one-off store. The kind of store that doesn’t bombard you with 20 options. It’s the kind of store that is run by an old lady. The kind of lady that has an arched back but that still wakes up at 5 AM every morning to slowly and steadily prepare the sfogliatelli for the day.In a couple of hours, she only manages to make about 60 and that’s it. The ingredients, all locally sourced, in small quantities paired with the manual labor, somehow make it taste that tiny bit better. That tiny bit that makes all the difference.

Needless to say, option two is what I went for. I waited in line and after about 20 minutes I was enjoying an a freshly brewed espresso and a artisanal sfogliatelli in the morning sun.

No more effort, yaay?

It seems quite easy to think that with all this automation coming our way, less and less people will put in the effort to take the slow route, when so much quicker and more efficient is an option.

Maybe nothing will be made manually anymore.

Maybe the machines will take over everything.

Maybe we won’t have any incentive anymore to put in the effort.

Maybe we will all lose our reason for existence, and wallow in a pit of despair.

Naay..

Except. I don’t think so.

My belief is this: because of all this automation, a lot of boring, routinous tasks will be gone. And people will have to do less of those. People will get something back though. Time. And I believe we can use that time to search for the thing we really want to do. The things that bring us joy. That make us feel fulfilled.

What to expect

As a result of this automation I expect to see a couple of things.

We’ll Choose Craft Over Convenience (Sometimes)

There’s a time and place for everything. When we do have the time though, the manual way is the more fulfilling way. Doing something the manual way adds “soul” and it adds a “story”. And for me, we don’t just experience with our eyes, we experience with our nose, touch, smell. Consciously and unconsciously. A manually crafted, anything really, brings that extra layer. A layer that permeates your entire being. And when it comes to sfogliatelli, the more layers, the better!

Mastery as Status

When everything can be automated, the tasks you chose to do manually, the tasks you chose to invest time in and become good at, will be the ones that give you status. Our self-worth will be tied to what we can do and what we can do well. The good thing is, we will have the time to look for what it is.

The Allure of Authenticity

Robot-made, whether it is a painting, a song or a pastry just doesn’t hit the same spot. We crave something that is real, authentic. Something imperfect has a body, it has soul. And no machine can replicate that.

The Magical Old Lady Toouch

As I finished my pastry that morning in Napoli, I glanced back at the old lady. She was handing the next sfogliatelli to another customer, smiling despite the tiredness slowly creeping in. I couldn’t help but think about how her craft, her slow, imperfect, but deeply human effort, was exactly why I chose her over convenience.

Navigating the Future: AI as an Enabler

The future is uncertain, that was the case and will be the case for the (ha) foreseeable future. Many experts today are putting out estimates that between 10 and 30% of jobs will be fully automated by 2035. The next decade, that is.

And even if it is not true, at the very least AI will transform the world, changing jobs as we know it.

An Optimistic Outlook on AI's Impact

There’s a way to see it negatively but I see it positively. I don’t see AI as a technology that takes away. I see it as a technology that augments, a technology that provides us with space. Space we can use to improve, space we can use to become more human. AI will enable us to focus on what matters. It will enable us to become more human. It will allow us to experience something real, authentic and soulful.

The Lasting Taste of a Story

The old lady isn’t the fastest, cheapest nor most efficient. But when you buy your sfogliatelli at this lady's place you don’t just leave with a pastry, you leave with a story.

Don’t let it be your last.

‍