AI is actually now shaping up to replace these jobs much more simply than blue collar work.

So, yes absolutely, administrative work now can finally be replaced, and we can free up all the tormented souls in these managerial positions to do something more meaningful with their lives.

We all feel like management contributes nothing, right? But they seem to always be around successful companies. I dunno, correlation isn’t causation, but I think there must be something there.

Weirdly enough, many unsuccessful companies I know of had management too. Correlation isn't causation, but maybe there's something there.

There are also plenty of successful companies and projects without management too. Basically every 1-to-5ish-man consulting shop has zero managers and some of those do wildly well. Some of the best indie games, produced by teams of 3 or 4, had zero dedicated management. Most open source projects have effectively 0 management.

Valve, famously, kept a flat organizational structure for a long time, and certainly was somewhat successful.

In many workplaces middle management has already been automated. Algorithms manage Uber drivers. Algorithms manage Amazon warehouse employees.

These companies are even more stratified than before with the lumpenproletariat doing human-mechanized tasks while executives program their lives using software we write in exchange for the unbridled luxuries like the chance to own a roof over our head one day.

It's not exactly the future I wanted.