Automation as Freedom
Ryan YuShare
“If you have to do it twice, automate it."
This mantra would come to guide my career and unlock what I value most, my creativity. If done responsibly, automation promises to free our minds from the tedium of modern work and unlock our creative potential. My hope is to share that freedom with the world so that we may all become what we could be. My story is a testament to an optimistic automated future.
Earnest in 2015 was buzzing with energy. In a compressed and dramatic startup cycle spanning 4 years, 3 offices, 2 CEOs and 1 acquisition, I witnessed Earnest scale its student loan refinancing business by 10x to $500 million of originations per month. Despite this, it wasn’t what we added to our balance sheet that left a lasting impression on me, but rather what we eliminated through automation.
I started on the assembly line. One of nine people involved in the credit underwriting process, I became exceedingly efficient at my role: check FICO, calculate income, sum up assets, repeat. I developed a Zen-like flow and for a while, I was content. However, that mantra would echo louder (“do it twice”) and louder (“automate”). Eventually, the discomfort of repetition became the inspiration for a vision of automated underwriting.
Recognizing the repetitive patterns of underwriting, I documented each underwriter’s actions and pseudo-codified that set of actions into logical instructions that a machine could perform, faster and more accurately. From there, I was able to architect a 2-year vision to transform Earnest’s labor-intensive process into a lean automated pipeline which today generates half of our AAA-rated loan assets all the while saving student borrowers thousands in interest within minutes and without human intervention. Reflecting back, I realize that my fintech experience is a microcosm of the broader “4th Industrial Revolution” of automation that is now widely acknowledged in our national dialogue.
Looking beyond the Silicon Valley bubble, I wonder: who else is performing a repetitive task? What else can we automate with technology? What could we automate with tomorrow’s technology?
The benefits of automation are obvious, despite the elephant in the room. We at Earnest were fortunate that automation did not result in any loss of jobs. Those who remained on the underwriting team tripled their productivity, enabling the business to scale with nearly flat costs. Others like myself moved into roles that offered more dynamic challenges and new opportunities to grow. Overall, automation afforded us all the precious mental freedom to pursue more creative endeavors at work and at home.
With a newfound sense of creativity, I meditated on the meaning of value creation. Instead of chasing the latest tech trends, I looked within to see what gift I could share with my community. And I couldn’t have found the answer further from fintech. Invented in Hong Kong of the 1980s, XO sauce is an umami-rich amalgamation of chili, fried garlic, smoked ham, and golden dried scallops; it is a bold expression of my Hong Kong heritage. For many Hong Kongers, XO is the distillation of deliciousness that is so intertwined in our collective memory; it symbolizes togetherness, celebration and prosperity. Every holiday season, I produce jars by the dozens to be delivered to friends and family on Christmas Eve. The act of creating and giving from my intuition has brought a sense of joy and abundance to my life; I imagine Santa Claus must have the best job in the world.
Back to our elephant of lost jobs, I’m reminded of a quote by Maslow: “what we can be, we must be”. Observing the advent of artificial intelligence and my own experiences with automation, I believe more and more of our basic needs will be met by automated technologies. Our job then, will be to ensure that automation does not simply replace people with machines, but instead leverages machines to enable us to tap into our full potential to create, to grow and to give; this may manifest itself in craft, in art, in scientific inquiry, in philosophy, in charity, in raising our youth.
Indeed, there are still many unanswered questions about how we will support an economy that is becoming more automated everyday. I may not have the answers yet, but I do know that as technologists, we have a moral obligation to share our successes and lift all boats.
We must accelerate the trend of automation and shepherd in the new era of creativity.
This mantra would come to guide my career and unlock what I value most, my creativity. If done responsibly, automation promises to free our minds from the tedium of modern work and unlock our creative potential. My hope is to share that freedom with the world so that we may all become what we could be. My story is a testament to an optimistic automated future.
Earnest in 2015 was buzzing with energy. In a compressed and dramatic startup cycle spanning 4 years, 3 offices, 2 CEOs and 1 acquisition, I witnessed Earnest scale its student loan refinancing business by 10x to $500 million of originations per month. Despite this, it wasn’t what we added to our balance sheet that left a lasting impression on me, but rather what we eliminated through automation.
I started on the assembly line. One of nine people involved in the credit underwriting process, I became exceedingly efficient at my role: check FICO, calculate income, sum up assets, repeat. I developed a Zen-like flow and for a while, I was content. However, that mantra would echo louder (“do it twice”) and louder (“automate”). Eventually, the discomfort of repetition became the inspiration for a vision of automated underwriting.
Recognizing the repetitive patterns of underwriting, I documented each underwriter’s actions and pseudo-codified that set of actions into logical instructions that a machine could perform, faster and more accurately. From there, I was able to architect a 2-year vision to transform Earnest’s labor-intensive process into a lean automated pipeline which today generates half of our AAA-rated loan assets all the while saving student borrowers thousands in interest within minutes and without human intervention. Reflecting back, I realize that my fintech experience is a microcosm of the broader “4th Industrial Revolution” of automation that is now widely acknowledged in our national dialogue.
Looking beyond the Silicon Valley bubble, I wonder: who else is performing a repetitive task? What else can we automate with technology? What could we automate with tomorrow’s technology?
The benefits of automation are obvious, despite the elephant in the room. We at Earnest were fortunate that automation did not result in any loss of jobs. Those who remained on the underwriting team tripled their productivity, enabling the business to scale with nearly flat costs. Others like myself moved into roles that offered more dynamic challenges and new opportunities to grow. Overall, automation afforded us all the precious mental freedom to pursue more creative endeavors at work and at home.
With a newfound sense of creativity, I meditated on the meaning of value creation. Instead of chasing the latest tech trends, I looked within to see what gift I could share with my community. And I couldn’t have found the answer further from fintech. Invented in Hong Kong of the 1980s, XO sauce is an umami-rich amalgamation of chili, fried garlic, smoked ham, and golden dried scallops; it is a bold expression of my Hong Kong heritage. For many Hong Kongers, XO is the distillation of deliciousness that is so intertwined in our collective memory; it symbolizes togetherness, celebration and prosperity. Every holiday season, I produce jars by the dozens to be delivered to friends and family on Christmas Eve. The act of creating and giving from my intuition has brought a sense of joy and abundance to my life; I imagine Santa Claus must have the best job in the world.
Back to our elephant of lost jobs, I’m reminded of a quote by Maslow: “what we can be, we must be”. Observing the advent of artificial intelligence and my own experiences with automation, I believe more and more of our basic needs will be met by automated technologies. Our job then, will be to ensure that automation does not simply replace people with machines, but instead leverages machines to enable us to tap into our full potential to create, to grow and to give; this may manifest itself in craft, in art, in scientific inquiry, in philosophy, in charity, in raising our youth.
Indeed, there are still many unanswered questions about how we will support an economy that is becoming more automated everyday. I may not have the answers yet, but I do know that as technologists, we have a moral obligation to share our successes and lift all boats.
We must accelerate the trend of automation and shepherd in the new era of creativity.