J.C.'s revelation at Spotify mirrors a broader crisis in our AI-saturated world: We're drowning in information but starving for meaning. We have infinite answers but forget the questions. We optimize everything but understand nothing.
Consider the paradox: - More data than ever, less wisdom than ever - More connections than ever, less belonging than ever - More choices than ever, less purpose than ever - More efficiency than ever, less satisfaction than ever - More content than ever, less meaning than ever This isn't coincidence—it's consequence. When we optimize for metrics we can measure (clicks, views, efficiency), we often sacrifice what we can't (purpose, identity, belonging). AI excels at processing information. Only humans can transform information into meaning.
Viktor Frankl, the psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, identified this uniquely human capability: "Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way"⁹¹.
Even in concentration camps, where every external freedom was stripped away, humans retained the freedom to create meaning. This meaning-making capability—finding purpose in randomness, narrative in noise, significance in suffering—remains irreducibly human.