As artificial intelligence reshapes how we work, Mind Your Business asks a question that is easy to overlook: if AI can help us do more, should doing more really be the goal?
Set during an intensive four-day retreat, the book follows six people competing for a single grant. Each brings a different approach to work—speed, scale, service, growth, originality, or craftsmanship. What begins as a competition over whose idea deserves funding gradually becomes something more personal, as each participant is forced to examine not only what they want to build, but why they work the way they do.
At the center of the story is the concept of Soulcode: the patterns of purpose, belonging, imagination, and courage that shape how each person uniquely contributes. Rather than presenting it as another productivity formula, the book uses its six characters to explore how our individual strengths influence the work we choose—and how those strengths can sometimes become weaknesses whereas ambition can become overwhelm, creativity can become performance, and care can become self-sacrifice.
This book arrives at a particularly relevant moment. As AI makes it easier to automate tasks and increase productivity, Mind Your Business argues that the bigger question is not how much more work we can do, but what work is actually worth doing. It encourages readers to think about where human intuition, connection, creativity, and purpose remain essential.
The retreat setting gives these ideas a human dimension. Through disagreements, competing personalities, and moments of self-reflection, the characters confront challenges familiar to many professionals: constant urgency, unclear priorities, analysis paralysis, and the tendency to hold too tightly to familiar ways of working.
Rather than serving as a conventional business guide, Mind Your Business combines parable, humor, and practical reflection to explore a changing relationship with work. Its message is ultimately optimistic: AI does not simply have to mean more productivity. It can also create the space to pursue more meaningful contributions.
Exclusive: Conversation with the Author
To better understand the thinking behind Mind Your Business, the author shares about why the book was written, the idea of Soulcode, and what the AI era means for the future of work.
Who is Mind Your Business written for?
McKean: Mind Your Business is a practical guide for people rethinking work as AI advances, especially those who want to contribute more deeply rather than simply do more.
Why did you feel this book was necessary now?
McKean: The AI era demands that we stop focusing on productivity alone and start asking what work is worth doing. I wrote the book to provide a framework for making that shift.
You introduce the idea of “Soulcode.” How would you explain it to someone encountering the concept for the first time?
McKean: Soulcode is the set of patterns—purpose, belonging, imagination, and courage—that define how a person uniquely contributes. For founders, it can be a way to understand how to align their teams with the work that genuinely gives them energy.
What is one idea from the book that readers can put into practice immediately?
McKean: Look at your current tasks and identify which ones align with your unique contribution and which are simply busy work that could eventually be automated. That distinction can help you decide where your time and energy are best spent.
As AI takes on more tasks, what kind of work should people focus on?
McKean: We should focus on work that leverages human intuition, connection, and creative problem-solving—areas where AI can support us, but cannot replace the “why” behind the work.
The Takeaway
As you dive deep from one page to another, Mind Your Business is less interested in predicting exactly what AI will do to work than in asking what we should choose to do with the possibilities it creates. Its central idea is simple but timely: AI’s greatest promise may not be helping us accomplish more, but giving us more opportunity to focus on work that is meaningful, distinctly human, and worth doing at the end of the day.
About the Author
Ben McKean is the founder and CEO of Hungryroot, the leading food discovery and delivery platform, using AI to make meal planning, food shopping, and personalized nutrition effortless and enjoyable.
