In April 1860, the Pony Express launched its operation to much fanfare. Using a series of riders on horses to relay messages from Missouri to California, it became an instant icon of the Wild West. The service lasted all of eighteen months. The Pony Express couldn’t compete with the transcontinental telegraph, completed in 1861, which delivered messages in a fraction of the time. With AI poised to transform work today, we all have some degree of fear that our jobs will go the way of the Pony Express. But we miss the full story when we focus only on the fate of the famed riders. How the newfang…