A few years back, I was sitting in a café in Mexico—a country I’d moved to by choice in 2016—when I got a message from a guy back home.
“Must be nice. I wish I could just pick up and move abroad like that.”
I put my phone down and looked out at the street.
This guy had access to most of the same tools I did. The internet. Cheap information. Airlines that could carry him across the world in a few hours.
But he was sitting at home wishing.
And I was sitting in Mexico doing the thing he wished he could do.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but that interaction taught me something that I think is going to become even more important as AI gets better:
The people who actually go out and live are going to have something the machines don’t.
Everyone’s Scared of the Wrong Thing
You’ve heard the panic. Robots are coming for your job. AI is going to destroy the economy. The machines are taking over.
I get it. Change is scary, especially when the thing changing might eventually do your job faster and cheaper than you can.
But instead of bitching about AI for the next ten years, I think there’s a better question to ask:
What can I do that a machine can’t easily replace?
Because AI is getting very good at things that are predictable and repeatable. If your only value comes from doing something a machine can eventually do faster, cheaper, and 24 hours a day, you might have a problem.
I don’t know exactly what happens next. Nobody does.
But I’m willing to bet on this:
Being average is about to get a lot more expensive.
Knowing What to Do Isn’t Enough
We have access to more information than any generation before us.
Want to get stronger? The information is online. Want to learn another language? Start a business? Become a better writer? Learn sales or marketing?
You can learn almost anything from the phone in your pocket.
Obviously, not everybody has the same circumstances. But for a huge number of people, lack of information isn’t the problem anymore.
Actually doing something with it is.
Knowing what to do is common. Doing it consistently for five or ten years is rare.
That’s one reason I’m not terrified of AI.
I think things like discipline, judgment, personality, courage, taste, real experience, and the ability to connect with other people are going to matter even more.
Because those things are harder to fake.
I Don’t Care Who Does the Job
I’m not rooting for people to lose their jobs. If I didn’t give a damn about people, I wouldn’t bother writing any of this.
But I’m also not going to pretend businesses will keep paying humans to do something just because employing humans feels nice.
Businesses want results. So do customers.
If I’m on an airplane, I want whatever gives me the best chance of landing safely. If I’m doing my taxes, I want whatever keeps me legal while leaving as much money as possible in my pocket.
Human or machine?
I don’t give a fuck. Get the job done right.
I think more people are going to feel that way as AI gets better.
So I have two choices. I can spend my time trying to beat machines at the things machines are getting really good at, or I can spend that time developing the things they don’t have.
I know which one I’m choosing.
AI Can Write About Mexico. It Can’t Live There.
AI can write an article about Mexico.
It can give you a workout program. It can explain how to start a business. It can probably explain some of those things better than a lot of humans can.
But it can’t go back to 2016 and live my life for me.
It wasn’t there when I got on the plane. It didn’t have the conversations I had. It didn’t make my mistakes. It didn’t take my risks.
I did.
And now when I sit down to write about those things, I’m not just rearranging information I found somewhere else.
I’m telling you what happened to me.
That’s something AI can help me communicate.
But it can’t give me the experience in the first place.
Go Do Something Worth Writing About
When I left the U.S., I kept hearing versions of the same thing:
“I wish I could move abroad.”
“I wish I could learn another language.”
“I wish I could start my own business and tell my boss to fuck off.”
“I wish I could get in shape.”
A lot of people are going to spend their entire lives wishing.
I don’t want to do that.
I’d rather go somewhere. Try something. Screw something up. Build something. Meet people. Change my mind. Get better at something.
Then I can write about what actually happened.
And I think that’s going to become increasingly valuable in a world where anyone can press a button and generate another thousand words of information.
AI can produce information all day long.
But it can’t produce my experience.
Don’t Compete With the Robots
Maybe AI destroys some jobs. Maybe it creates others. Maybe it changes the world far more than any of us expect.
I don’t know.
But I know what I’m going to do about it.
I’m going to keep developing real skills. I’m going to keep going places and doing things. I’m going to build a body of work with my name on it and keep building a life worth writing about.
Then I’m going to write about it.
That’s my plan.
Don’t try to beat the machine at being a machine.
Become more human.
Do difficult things. Go interesting places. Build something. Risk looking stupid. Develop opinions based on things you’ve actually experienced instead of repeating what somebody else told you.
While everyone else is arguing about whether the robots are going to take over, go build the one thing they can’t give you:
A life you actually lived.
Your man,
Uncle Blayde