Tech professionals once measured career success in promotions, stock grants and the prestige of solving hard problems. Now many track something else. Sleepless nights. A hollow feeling when they open their laptops. The sense that the skills they honed over years no longer secure their place. Jack Maguire captured this shift in a recent post on his site. He described an emerging emotional state among knowledge workers facing artificial intelligence systems that match or exceed their output. “AI-driven displacement is producing a distinct emotional category that most closely resembles grief, distinct from ordinary fear, anxiety, or burnout,” Maguire wrote. ( jackmaguire.org/blog/ai-job-grief/ ) The piece struck a nerve. Posted just days ago, it quickly spread across tech forums and X. Workers recognized the pattern immediately. They weren’t simply worried about paychecks. They mourned the erosion of their professional identities.…