Ruminations

“I think if this technology goes wrong, it can go quite wrong. And we want to be vocal about that,” he said. “We want to work with the government to prevent that from happening.” - Sam Altman

Everywhere you look people are up in arms about AI and its potential to completely upend the way the world works. Just yesterday Sam Altman testified at a Congressional Hearing about AI being regulated in order to “prevent” bad future scenarios. I throw prevent into quotes because it’s not going to stop nations or even decently funded shadow entities from creating AI which does not have humanity’s best interest in the future. Alfred said it best “Some men just want to watch the world burn.”

However, that is not the point of this blog post. I’m not here to discuss the future issues of AI. They have been discussed ad nauseam in every media outlet possible, I am here to discuss the most important aspect of the AI revolution. I am here to discuss what is in your control. What YOU as an individual can do to help mitigate and prepare for a future where a lot of jobs will be automated out and conversely a future where opportunities are more abundant.

Since the industrial revolution (using that timeframe as a broad indicator, not a precise one), people have been focused on becoming more and more niche-focused in order to provide value and expertise that is difficult to get elsewhere. This modality and focus subsequently raised their earning ability and “prestige.” It’s worked for a long time, however, I would have to argue that that time is coming to an end. In fact, I would take it a step further in that it is actually going to be one of the major reasons people become less affluent and unable to adapt to a much more rapidly changing work environment.

The reason behind this is simple, the more niche-focused one becomes, the less able to adapt and change they are. They typically lack the skills to rapidly shift and refocus to another revenue-generating vertical if their niche gets automated out. One would have to start back at the beginning you can read more about this here and learn new skills and modalities if their niche becomes obsolete.

Thus the focus should to become a deep generalist, not just a generalist. One who has a very broad base of knowledge coupled with depth across multiple verticals within that broad knowledge base will be the ones who truly excel in an AI-rich business environment. It is because the modality of a deep generalist is predicated on constant learning and improving their skills across a wide range of specialties. It gives them the ability to rapidly fall back on other skill sets as the job landscape changes thus not starting back at the beginning to learn things completely new.

To be able to shift to a deep generalist approach, one needs to embrace constant learning across a wide range of topics and skills. This isn’t something you can do easily and quickly, it takes years (at least until we have the ability to upload skills and expertise to our brains). Thus knowing that AI will completely change the economic landscape on Earth for good or bad, you should start now developing the skill sets across a wide range of topics, then start drilling down into the ones that interest you so you have the depth needed to build with.

Don’t go the way of the buggy driver or in the near future the taxi/Uber driver. Be adaptable, be able to problem-solve, and most importantly start now so you are ready when your carrier is automated out…

Per ardua ad astra