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0You Say You’re a Knowledge Architect? Why Modern Careers Are So Hard to Explain
A list of the world’s most misunderstood creatures includes sharks, bats and us—at least when we talk about our careers.
Knowledge architects don’t draw blueprints, conversation designers don’t foster dialogue between people, and orchestration engineers don’t work with musical instruments.
What do these people do? Their jobs all involve work with artificial-intelligence models. But mostly, they feel exasperated trying to explain their work, especially when sitting around the holiday dinner table with family.
Some well-known fields have evolved to a point where certain roles within them are practically unrecognizable. Still other jobs are highly visible, but many of us remain fuzzy on how they qualify as, well, jobs.
Jaeda Skye graduated from college last year and paused her plan to go on to physical-therapy school. She’d built an online following, initially by filming herself trying various coffee drinks, and had a budding business advising people and companies on social-media strategy.
Her family is supportive, though not always sure how sampling espresso martini lattes enables her to make rent in New York.
She has compared herself to a billboard, explaining that companies promote products in her reel much as they advertise along the highway. To illustrate the point, Skye brings freebies to family gatherings: drinks and snacks for her cousins, lotion and hair products for her grandmothers.
“Then they’re like, ‘Someone just sent this to you for free? Why would anyone do that?’” she says. Sometimes the explanation of your job raises more questions than it answers.
【重点词汇】
feel exasperated trying to do something 尝试做……仍感到崩溃
exasperated adj. （本文）抓狂的，崩溃的；使烦恼（make someone very annoyed, usually when they can do nothing to solve a problem）
I feel exasperated trying to get everyone on the same page.为了让大家达成一致，我真的很崩溃。
I feel exasperated trying to get my roommate to clean up after himself.我想尽办法让室友用完东西后收拾干净，真的特别心累。
practically 英 [ˈpræktɪkli] 美 [ˈpræktɪkli] adv. 几乎（almost）
fuzzy 英 [ˈfʌzi] 美 [ˈfʌzi] adj. （本文）模糊的，搞不清的（confused，unclear）；不清晰的
build an online following 聚人气，在网上积累粉丝
She has built a massive online following.她在网络上很火。
budding 英 [ˈbʌdɪŋ] 美 [ˈbʌdɪŋ] adj. 刚萌芽的，初具规模的，有潜力的
bud n. 花蕾，嫩芽
a budding designer 一位崭露头角的设计师
a budding project 一个刚起步的项目
sample 英 [ˈsɑːmpl] 美 [ˈsæmpl] v. 品尝，试吃（to taste a small amount of food or drink to decide if you like it ）；n. 样本，小样
billboard 英 [ˈbɪlbɔːd] 美 [ˈbɪlbɔːrd] n.（公路）广告牌
reel 英 [riːl] 美 [riːl] n.（本文）短视频，竖屏小视频；卷轴，线轴
freebie 英 [ˈfriːbi] 美 [ˈfriːbi] n. 赠品，免费礼品
