There's a tectonic seismic wave heading for every industry, business and job in the world.
A doomsday-sounding headline, written by a pragmatic optimist.
This is the end of how we've been doing things, and what you think are the problems worth solving are fundamentally shifting.
If you sat in a meeting in the past decade and ideas, goals or strategies were ruled out of the organisation's objectives because they were too hard or too resource-intensive, that just changed.
Suddenly the playing field when it comes to high effort has been levelled, flattened entirely, no matter where you sit.
And no, a strategic store of valuable relationships, data and competitive edges is not going to save you.
I work with giants, and I can see something they're all flying blind into.
Humans don't understand exponential curves emotionally. In the next five years you'll see a decade of progress. In the following five years you'll see a hundred years of progress.
It's more than whiplash, the feeling of it all.
So why is a pragmatic optimist pulling an alarm right now, and what even is the alarm he's pulling?
For years smart people have tried to figure out where the puck is going and get there first. That isn't the only way to play this. In fact, those who only play the game that way are going to appear to do great in the next five years, and get wiped out in the following five.
You need to figure out the new game, not just chase down the old one.
We are about to see a proliferation of new industries, same as every time in history when technology jumps by an order of magnitude.
We are going to see industries split into multiple sub-industries, hyper-specialisation of jobs, and an inordinate demand on human cognition like never before.
Let me explain each.
Industries like energy have already been splitting into sectors: renewables, fossil fuels and on and on. This will accelerate.
Hyper-specialised humans will need to make sense of the ever-increasing risk surface of rapid technology movements.
Stewarding this tech isn't optional.
And this will bring about an incredible renaissance of innovation that benefits humans, nature and technology. It will help us all thrive.
The only problem is that people don't understand coordinating resources at this scale.
The organism of the universe is objectively hard to comprehend, but what's not hard to comprehend is the reorganisation of resources, power and social structures.
Most people forget quickly. Humans didn't have toilets even 150 years ago. Now most people have better porcelain toilets than the royal families had all those years ago.
Your job, your role as a human, is changing.
The demand on your intelligence has objectively increased, not decreased, at this moment in time, with the proliferation of AI (and soon global-scale robotics).
Let me explain. These systems are only as good as their instructions. The rate at which AI models are improving has slowed measurably. We don't have truly self-replicating AI yet, and we're not as close as they'll scare you into believing. Anyway, that's another conversation.
What I do know (and you do too, on some level) is that what we have will just make things go faster. Not better. Yet!
But as the slop speeds up, the desire for precision will increase dramatically too.
That's the future of your work.
Precision. Fine-tuning work. Engineering the knowledge itself so it gets arguably better.
That's the value an infinite number of people can bring to the Cambrian explosion of new, specialised, niche roles that are going to melt people's faces off.
This isn't a moment to wait and see anymore.
This is obviously the moment to get ahead of this.
The window for starting to make your move is going to close in the next 15 months, I think. How'd I come to that number? Instinct is all. But I'm feeling that by then you will be able to secure a career or business upgrade that will transform the trajectory of the rest of your life.
There are a few skills, strategies and sources you're going to need to obliterate this next decade vocationally.
And if you invest 12 months right now to get ahead of the next decade, you may be able to create intergenerational wealth for you, your family and your communities.
Where is this conversation sitting in you? Check in with your head, heart and gut.
It's pulling at different parts of you all over, right?
You know why? Our entire nervous systems are at the start of being rewritten for the time we're living in. You now live in the future you always thought was "coming".
It's here. Time to act on it in the present.
So what can you do? What are the pragmatic steps?
Learn about the structure of knowledge: maps of how understanding itself works.
This requires you to understand how things work in simple terms, and also how complex systems aren't necessarily complex at all.
Everything is systems all the way down.
Ignoring this has become impossible if you want to effect your will on reality in a meaningful way.
You're not fucked if you don't. In fact, life will get better for all. But you might miss the meaning, and the consequences of not living up to your potential. To live the life you were meant to, on a waaay deeper level.
It's time to get the fuck up and get it.
No more sitting on the sidelines. The sidelines are lined with the floating chairs and sippy cups from the movie WALL-E.
And if you want a mind of mush, then please plug into the creature comforts of the matrix and enjoy.
But if you give a fuck about humanity, your participation isn't optional at this time in history.
A living draft. I'm still writing it.