Research
The investigation is shaped by the people living it.
Listener experiences, interviews, surveys, conversations, and contradictions determine what Deprecated Human investigates next. That means the project can follow emerging questions rather than beginning with a predetermined answer.
Featured dossier
The Great Calibration: 2027 and the return of direct human negotiation
Automated hiring reached saturation in 2026. Our forecast for 2027: employers abandon poorly designed screening systems, and evaluation returns to human conversation.
Read the 2027 forecastOpen lines of inquiry
- 01Why are experienced professionals struggling to get through hiring systems?
- 02What happens when AI becomes part of how human capability is evaluated?
- 03What does a career look like when the traditional ladder disappears?
- 04How are people creating income outside conventional employment?
- 05What happens to professional identity after a layoff?
- 06Which parts of work should we automate — and which require human judgment?
- 07What do organizations lose when experience and institutional knowledge disappear?
- 08What are people building when the existing system stops working for them?
Recent findings and writing
The newsletter follows the evidence between episodes.
The quiet disappearance of the mid-career role
What the last three quarters of hiring data suggest about where experienced work is going.
When the screening system becomes the employer
Evidence on how much of an early hiring decision is now made before a person is involved.
Identity after the layoff
Patterns from listener interviews about how professional selfhood rebuilds — or doesn't.