Facing Rapid Change (Without Losing It)
AI is dismantling our way of life, fast.
I've got this wild story for you. Imagine this: three weeks of work, done in just 48 hours. Yeah, you read that right! That’s the story I am going to share with you tomorrow. Before we dive into that epic tale, let’s chat about what's buzzing in the world right now. I think it’s important and you should know about it.
You have probably heard about Elon Musk's new project, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). They've got a bunch of young, tech-savvy folks who are basically using AI to play detective with government spending. They're finding all sorts of crazy wasteful spending and saving us taxpayers a cool billion dollars every single day. That's like giving each of us an extra $3,000 a year! But guess what? Not everyone's thrilled.
Why is that? That’s because some people are feeling threatened, insecure, and they are gravely worried about their job security.
Remember when you could start at the bottom, fetch coffee, and climb your way up the corporate ladder? You were doing all the grunt work early on, but as you got older you became a “manager” and ended up doing less, but getting more? Yeah, AI was like, "Nah, I got this." It's shaking things up, making people feel like their years of climbing the corporate ladder were for nothing. (or was that always for nothing, and they are finally feeling the feelings?)
AI is enabling anyone to do anything, and these 20-somethings are really well equipped to be doing the most in this situation. Think about it. They know computers, they don’t have a lot of obligations, and they don’t need to sleep a ton either. DOGE kids (lol) are machines, able to summon other machines to their will. They are insanely powerful.
Watch this video below, one of the guys from DOGE used AI to read words on a solidified 2,000 year old papyrus. How insanely cool is that?
(subtitles for the video are done via SubtitlesKing.com)
It’s 2025 and we are going to see these changes everywhere. With AI and robotics we now have unprecedented abilities to move mountains by practically anyone. In white collar fields, any knowledge can be found, analyzed, and synthesized with little to no human interaction. In blue collar, robots are on their way to be able to do most of the tasks. If you are at the top of your game, the best of the best, you have nothing to worry about. You will figure it out. But for everyone else, no one is safe anymore.
Skills over experience, folks. People are scared. The old guard feels like they're being left behind, and frankly it is because they are. And when Elon and Trump don't seem to care about the media's outrage, it's like pouring gasoline on a fire.
So, is it really that bad? I don’t think so. I am in my thirties now, so I am definitely not “young” anymore, but I am also not a dinosaur yet either, and I think there’s lots to look forward to. We are not talking about “Judgement Day” AI here, but AI that can increase our productivity by 1000x and in the long run make the society better.
Maybe your job was to draft contracts, analyze data, and manage customer relations before. Poof! That’s gone. That can be all done by AI now. So what? AI isn’t going to replace you overnight. You can look around and read newsletters (like this one) and figure out what tools are available for you to do your work better and faster and for less. Figure out that , and for the next few years you’ll be safe. Keep learning and stay on top of your game. In the medium-term, you can use AI to enhance your game and to become the best. In the long run, everything will be done by computers. Maybe we'll all become artists, strategists, or just professional TikTokers. Who knows?
Some would say, yeah, but that’s a lot of work that requires change. Well, yeah, sorry, there’s no free lunch. The idea that you could get paid just for knowing someone is dead on arrival. Are you scared? Nobody cares! Everyone is scared, so just “do it scared.” You can either save yourself and paddle out, or drown, just don’t expect a handout.
On that happy note, stay tuned for tomorrow's post where I'll spill the beans on how I pulled off my AI-assisted work marathon. It's gonna be a wild ride! Until then, keep your curiosity on and let's ride this AI wave together. Peace out!
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p.s. If you haven’t read it yet, see why I think that AI is going to be the pencil of the future, and if you have time for a podcast, check out my interview with Bijan, a startup founder that kept grinding it out until his AI thing took off. Bijan’s great!