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College Graduates Are Losing the Clone War April 15, 2026
College grads, it may be time for different approach, not just in getting a job but in life.
If we scrape away the hype and the humbug, this is the corporate economy in a nutshell. Sorry about the bluntness, but alas, there's no way to sugarcoat calling Ultra-Processed Life what it really is. We're all sheep to be sheared, living commodities. As consumers, the goal is to extract as much of our earnings and capital as possible by any means available, and do so as often as possible. As employees, the goal is to extract as much value as possible from our labor. Yes, we're each unique. So are sheep. I could tell you about Bootsie the sheep, such a character, for individual sheep are unique, too. But that doesn't mean they're not commodities whose value and purpose in life is to be sheared to profit those doing the commodifying. We're all commodities, just like sheep. Corporations have vast expertise in the psychological tricks of making it appear that the corporation really, really cares about you: yes, you, the consumer of their products and services (you're special!) and you, the employee / 1099-contract worker / gig worker--you're special! Actually, we're not special. We're just commodities being processed to extract as much money / value as possible from each transaction or hour of labor, and an integral component in that extraction process is to mask the heartbreaking truth behind warm and fuzzy stories, signals and images--we really, really care about you, you're important. Yes, we are important, in the same way sheep are important because they're the source of profits. The cold-steel truth is we're interchangeable. Ideally, we sign up for a high-interest credit card and charge our way into a high balance we can never pay off, but if we pass up that offer or default, we're replaced by another sheep in line to be sheared. The individual who replaces us at work may not be as good as we were, but we remain replaceable. If the value of our work can be commoditized, that makes us more easily replaceable. And if the commoditized work can be automated, that's a slum dunk for the corporation, because the commodity AI agent / software process doesn't require stupidly expensive healthcare insurance, doesn't need training and won't sue us. The work that can't be commoditized / automated requires experience, and if we don't have the necessary mix of experience to create value on Day One, we're a commodity of no interest. Which brings us to college graduates sending out 90 resumes and being ghosted or rejected by the cloned HR (Human Resources) bots deployed by all 90 corporate employers to weed out everyone but those few with the requisite experience. Which in the case of recent college graduates, is near-zero because they've been university students with minimal opportunities to gain high-value / intensive work experience. Here's a real-world example of high-value / intensive work experience: I was speaking with a frontline healthcare tech and her first job was working alone on the night shift: no supervisor, no co-worker, just her and the patients. In these situations you learn fast or quit fast. There are innumerable accounts online of the commoditization of applying for a job and the commoditization of rejecting applicants. 'I feel helpless': college graduates can't find entry-level roles in shrinking market amid rise of AI. There's a Catch-22 here that everyone sees: you need a university degree, and so you have little high-value work experience, but we only hire people with a university diploma and 3 to 5 years of the exact type of experience we need so the employee starts generating value on Day One. (The Catch-22 in the novel of the same name is the military service member who requests to be relieved of hazardous duty due to insanity is obviously sane, so their application is rejected.) No corporation wants to waste the money and time to train a green employee with a university diploma of uncertain but likely low value. They want to poach a highly experienced employee from some other company that invested scarce resources in training the employee. The analogy here is a Clone War: the recent grad incorrectly assumes getting a job offer is a numbers game, where volume / quantity will eventually generate "bingo"--a job offer in the grad's field of interest. But HR has a digital army of clones programmed to find a reason to reject our application / resume, because that's the commoditized job of HR: process applications and resumes as quickly and cheaply as possible, which boils down to commoditizing the rejection process. In the current zeitgeist of Ultra-Processed Life, the recent grad's response is to commoditize counter-strategies by using AI agents to tweak the resume so it gets through the clone army by guessing what triggers rejection and inserting some signal that evades the work experience requirement. Battling commoditized clones with commoditized clones is a dead end. Fabricating work experience may be tempting but that will be revealed in the first interview, or the first week on the job. College graduates, it may be time for a completely different approach: don't fight in the clone war, realize you need experience and the way to get it is by de-commoditizing yourself and your job search by pursuing a path of what I describe in my book Get a Job, Build a Real Career and Defy a Bewildering Economy as accrediting yourself by doing real work and documenting it in ways that verify its value and your ownership of that value. I wrote the book 12 years ago, but since I've been a student of AI since the mid-1980s, I anticipated what's happening today in the workplace and economy, and laid out a way out of the clone war's commoditization. 
The way to avoid being ghosted by the clone war's commoditization is to forget about applying to corporations with HR clones and start looking for small to medium-sized businesses that don't have HR departments or AI clones--they have what Peter Drucker observed every enterprise has: expenses. In many cases, they're not even aware they could use some help because they assume another employee is an expense they can't afford. These businesses are not in the business of commoditizing the extraction of money / value via transactions; their business includes transactions but their core value proposition is relationships, not faceless digital transactions. It takes shoe-leather research to find businesses you might want to work for not necessarily because they're doing whatever your field of interest might be, but because of the integrity of the enterprise and the people working there. Corporations have budgets for consultants and tech, but smaller enterprises are often struggling with legacy systems that they don't have the time or ability to replace or upgrade. They're often so overworked just keeping everything glued together they don't see ways that they could streamline processes or add value to existing sources of revenues without spending a fortune. This is where, you, recent college grad, come in. The foundation of accredit yourself is to start thinking and acting like a self-employed entrepreneur. It's you against the world, and so you need to acquire the essential skills every self-employed person / entrepreneur needs to know via experience, not case studies. Where you get those experiential skills matters less than acquiring them, for the point of these eight essential skills is they can be applied to every enterprise regardless of scale or sector or locale. Learning how to think and act like a self-employed person must be learned by experience. While others can mentor you, no one can teach you how to do this, you must train yourself via focus, effort, willingness to experiment and fail, willingness to learn what you thought you knew but didn't really know, and desire for mastery. The core trait of the self-employed person is figuring out what the customer is willing to spend money on and responding to that in a way that benefits the customer more than the other alternatives. In some cases, it's lower price; in others, it's providing a better product; in others, it's real customer service, not commoditized service being passed off as authentic customer service--in other words, a relationship not a transaction. My own experience is the value lies not in fighting the commoditization war but in bypassing it completely, in effect obsoleting the entire corporate-HR commoditization. Find small businesses, try to meet the boss / owner, find out what they do, and if it's of interest, write them a letter or call them. Don't say, "I want a job." Say "I'm interested in your business and work, I want to learn more, can I come by?" The self-employed entrepreneur you're nurturing within you will observe, ask questions, and if there is some small opportunity to help, offer to help without compensation, just because you find it interesting. In many cases, the owner is overworked and has people demanding things, not offering to help. They may be reluctant to accept help, and if so, try to find some tiny task you can do for them that they'll accept. Then go to work on the real task, which is figuring out ways they could reduce expenses or increases revenues in ways that don't require a big budget or major effort. In every case, you understand it's experimentation. Maybe ten owners blow you off. It's discouraging, but you anticipate this. Somebody will accept your authentic interest and sincere offer to help, just for the experience. Your value isn't necessarily a skill at this point, it's the willingness to help, to learn, to establish a sincere, authentic relationship with customers / clients. Nobody will tell you this, so I'm telling you: those are all priceless and cannot be commoditized or automated. Every attempt to automate these is fake, nothing more than a synthetic, superficial simulation, just another debilitating, lifeless iteration of Ultra-Processed Life. The value of your commoditized diploma is not what will get you hired. Learning how to create value with experiential skills and authentic relationships is what will get you a job offer. I get emails from people discouraged by the commoditization, the lifelessness of their current job, the many obstacles to changing careers. All these are real, and I've lived all the obstacles, not just more than once, but as a continuous process of adaptation and learning. Although I titled my book Get a Job, it's not about getting something, it's about acquiring experiential skills and a mindset, an approach, an enthusiasm for learning by doing even when there is no money in it at first--or ever. Authentic skills, mastery via continual learning--these are what's scarce and valuable. I don't want to veer too close to sappy homilies, but in my experience Emerson was right: Do the thing and you shall have the power. Rumi was right, too: when it comes to mastery gained from experience, What you seek is seeking you. We all seek to become good at something, to establish authentic relationships, to become valuable to others. Our job is to find ways to do so that are authentic. No one can map the path for us, we must do it for ourselves. Success has also been commoditized, so de-commoditize it. Must get rich, must check these boxes, blah blah blah. Guess what: nobody cares, because everything's that's commoditized is interchangeable. What's worked for me through decades of failure is Churchill's dictum: Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. Spot-on, Winny. MacArthur got it right: There is no security on this earth; there is only opportunity. So did Aristotle: We are what we repeatedly do. Painful but true, as John Paul Jones knew from experience: He who will not risk cannot win. College grads, it may be time for different approach, not just in getting a job but in life. My book Investing In Revolution is available at a 10% discount ($18 for the paperback, $24 for the hardcover and $8.95 for the ebook edition). Introduction (free) Check out my updated Books and Films. Become a $3/month patron of my work via patreon.com Subscribe to my Substack for free My recent books: Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases originated via links to Amazon products on this site. THE REVOLUTION TRILOGY: Investing In Revolution Ultra-Processed Life The Mythology of Progress Systemic Problems/Solutions Investing In Revolution (2025) Introduction (free) The Mythology of Progress (2024) Introduction (free) Global Crisis, National Renewal (2021) Introduction (free) Money and Work Unchained (2017) Introduction (free) A Radically Beneficial World (2015) Introduction (free) What You Can Do Yourself Ultra-Processed Life (2025) Introduction (free) Self-Reliance in the 21st Century (2022) Introduction (free) When You Can't Go On: Burnout, Reckoning and Renewal (2022) Introduction (free) Get a Job, Build a Real Career and Defy a Bewildering Economy (2014) Intro (free) Novels The Adventures of the Consulting Philosopher Intro (free) The Secret Life of an Asian Heroine First chapters (free) Become a $3/month patron of my work via patreon.com. Subscribe to my Substack for free Investing In Revolution print $18, (Kindle $8.95, Hardcover $24 (145 pages, 2025) 
Only now do we see that we've been investing in revolution for decades--not the revolutions we thought we were investing in, revolutions in technology and finance, but in the social revolution made inevitable by the extremes that we've reached in our single-minded pursuit of private gains.
The pendulum that we've pushed to an extreme will swing to the opposite extreme, and the artifices that have propped up a facade a stability for decades will accelerate the disorder rather than reverse it. We now stand at the point of decision, and this book offers a path to a reformation and renewal that serves the shared interests of us all, not just the few. Introduction (free) Ultra-Processed Life print $16, (Kindle $7.95, audiobook, Hardcover $20 (129 pages, 2025) 
Ultra-Processed Life: the substitution of a synthetic, commoditized, very profitable facsimile for what was once authentic.
Ultra-Processed Life is my term for everything that is analogous to ultra-processed snacks: attractively marketed, instantly alluring, easy to consume, addictive by design, tasty in the moment but harmful over time, its origins a black box of unknown processes, the brightly colored product bearing no resemblance to the real-world ingredients, an idealized form of what is inherently imperfect, untethered from the natural world. As with many others, the catalyst for my exploration was a life-threatening medical crisis that did not have a specific cause. This led me to wonder if our entire way of life is like an ultra-processed snack: tasty but not healthy, edible but stripped of the nutrients we need to be healthy, addictive by design. Introduction (free) The Mythology of Progress, Anti-Progress and a Mythology for the 21st Century print $20, (Kindle $9.95, Hardcover $24 (215 pages, 2024) audiobook, Read the Introduction and first chapter for free (PDF) 
What if the policies to accelerate growth are no longer working because our fix for every problem--growth at any cost--is failing? We're told Progress is inevitable as a result of technology, but everyday life is getting harder, not easier--the opposite of Progress, what I call Anti-Progress.
What if the real source of the unraveling is far deeper than economics or politics? What if the problem is what we see as the inevitable destiny of humanity--Progress--is actually a modern mythology, disconnected from the real-world consequences of growth for growth's sake? We indignantly reject that Progress is a mythology, but our need for mythology hasn't gone away because we've mastered technology; we've created a modern mythology of technology that is heedless of its own consequences. To truly progress, we need a new mythology aligned to 21st century realities. Read the Introduction and first chapter for free
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Extra-Special Bonus Aphorisms:
"There is no security on this earth; there is only opportunity." (Douglas MacArthur) "We are what we repeatedly do." (Aristotle) "Do the thing and you shall have the power." (Ralph Waldo Emerson) "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." (E.F. Schumacher, via Tom R.) "He who will not risk cannot win." (John Paul Jones) "When we drink coffee, ideas march in like the army." (Honore de Balzac) "Progress is not possible without deviation." (Frank Zappa, via Richard Metzger) "Victory favors those who take pains." (amat victoria curam) "The man who has a garden and a library has everything." (Cicero, via Lee Bentley) "A healthy homecooked family meal and a home garden are revolutionary acts." (CHS) "Do you know what amazes me more than anything else? The impotence of force to organize anything." (Napoleon Bonaparte) "The way of the Tao is reversal" Or "Reversal is the movement of Tao." (Lao Tzu) "Chance favours the prepared mind." (Louis Pasteur) "Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." (Winston Churchill) "Where there is ruin, there is hope for treasures." (Rumi) "The realm of gratitude is boundless." (CHS, 11/25/15) "History doesn't have a reverse gear." (CHS, 12/22/15) Smith's Law of Conservation of Risk: Every sustained action has more than one consequence. Some consequences will appear positive for a time before revealing their destructive nature. Some consequences will be intended, some will not. Some will be foreseeable, some will not. Some will be controllable, some will not. Those that are unforeseen and uncontrollable will trigger waves of other unforeseen and uncontrollable consequences. (July 8, 2014)(thanks to Lew G. for retitling the idea.) Smith's Neofeudalism Principle #1: If the citizenry cannot replace a kleptocratic authoritarian government and/or limit the power of the financial Aristocracy at the ballot box, the nation is a democracy in name only. The Smith Corollary to Metcalfe's Law (The Network Effect): the value of the network is created not just by the number of connected devices/users but by the value of the information and knowledge shared by users in sub-networks and in the entire network. (CHS, 4/6/16) My Credo of Liberation: I no longer care if the power centers of our society--the distant, fortified castles of our financial feudal system--are changed by my actions, for I am liberated by the act of resistance. I am no longer complicit in perpetuating fraudulent feudalism and the pathology of concentrated power. I no longer covet signifiers of membership in the Upper Caste that serves the plutocracy. I am liberated from self-destructive consumerist-State financialization and the delusion that debt servitude and obedience to sociopathological Elites serve my self-interests. (Thank you, Klaus-Peter L., for reminding me) "We've become a culture of excuses rather than solutions: solutions always require sustained effort and discipline." (CHS 4/9/16) "Fraud as a way of life caters an extravagant banquet of consequences." (CHS 4/14/16) "Creativity = problem solving = value creation." (CHS 6/4/16) "Truth is powerful because it is the core dynamic of solving problems." (CHS 7/21/17) "We live in a system of human emotions that masquerades as a science (economics)." (CHS 1/1/18) "Always remember, your focus determines your reality." (George Lucas) "Diversity is for poor people. Sameness is for the successful." (GFB) "When power dissipates suddenly, it dissipates completely." (CHS 7/14/19) "Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves." (Henry David Thoreau) "Markets cannot price in the value of non-monetized natural assets such as diverse ecosystems." (CHS 7/14/19) "Magical thinking isn't optimism, it is folly." CHS 1/3/22) "Tune in (to self-reliance), drop out (of hyper-consumerism and debt-serfdom) and turn on (to relocalizing capital and agency)." (CHS 1/5/22) "The path to everything you desire starts here: like yourself as you are right now." (CHS 11/20/22) "There are only two signals: how many essentials you produce and share and if you're consuming less with better results. Everything else is noise." (CHS 12/17/22) "Liberation is no longer needing any confirmation or feedback from others or the world for one's sense of self. Wealth, fame, recognition, admiration, praise, prestige, approval, sainthood, martyrdom, success: none are needed, none are desired." (CHS 12/26/22) "When fame, wealth, prestige, status and glory are out of reach, you're free to pursue other more valuable things." (CHS 2/6/22) "It is the sacred duty of every activist who seeks to better their community to grow and share as much life-giving food as is humanly possible." (CHS 6/15/23) "Being anonymous, gray and unknown is the ideal state of freedom." (CHS 3/15/24) "We seem to have entered a world of anti-leisure and anti-productivity in which the unpaid shadow work demanded to keep all the complicated digital bits in motion obliterate our leisure and productivity." CHS (5/22/24) "It is axiomatic that failing systems work the best just before they fail catastrophically." Ray W. "Looking younger is mere technique; thinking younger demands creativity." CHS (10/16/24) "Tell me what's taboo and I'll tell you the truths that threaten the status quo." CHS (12/15/24) "This is the core of the Attention Economy: the ultimate addiction is the addiction to ourselves." CHS (1/28/25) "If You Seek the Truth, Look for What's Taboo." CHS (7/18/25) "My definition of self-reliance: the less you need, the easier it is to get what you need." CHS (7/26/25) "Mastery requires reading and doing." CHS (7/28/25) "The replacement of authentic value, quality, agency, choice, trust, legitimacy and experience with self-serving facsimiles is the key dynamic of Ultra-Processed Life, my term for the present-day human condition." CHS (8/12/25) "Ultra-Processed Life replaces an authentic experience with a synthetic, simulated, commoditized, highly profitable version that's superficially attractive but destructive over the long term." CHS (8/12/25) "What we see everywhere is the replacement of authentic things--including democracy--with synthetic facsimiles designed to maintain the illusion of choice and value." CHS (8/12/25) "Sometimes certainty is the enemy we don't even see and uncertainty is our most faithful ally." CHS (9/20/25) "Sanitized, homogenized, synthesized Ultra-Processed Life isn't more fun; it's just more profitable." CHS (4/6/26) "AI is ultra-processed cognition." CHS (4/6/26) |
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