The Broken Staircase

What happens when AI doesn't just replace tasks-but entire professions?

In barely two years, artificial intelligence has gone from curiosity to revolution. But while the headlines debate whether machines will "take our jobs," the real transformation runs much deeper: it's rewriting the rules of what it means to work, to learn, and to build a career.

Javier Pardo Vidal-an engineer who spent 25 years building and managing technology teams-watched AI compress into months what used to take semesters. In The Broken Staircase, he maps the collision between exponential technology and a labor market designed for a world that no longer exists.

From ghost GDP that grows without creating jobs, to the intelligence crisis reshaping white-collar work, to the exponential multiplier that lets one person do what once required a team-this book connects the dots that news headlines miss.

With the voice of a dinner conversation between smart friends, and the cold counterpoint of Koko, his AI assistant, Pardo Vidal delivers a book that is neither utopian nor apocalyptic-but brutally honest about what's coming and what we can still do about it.

Essential reading for anyone who works, hires, studies, or has children who will enter the job market in the next decade.