… I’m using AI to design AI-powered tools and I work with some people who are AI-pilled. When I get home, I read and listen to AI maximalists and billionaires’ manifestos so that I know what my executives are consuming and to get ready for what I’ll hear from them at work next week. I also follow people on the opposite spectrum, who talk about societal, environmental, and economic harms of AI, as well as predatory marketing tactics and lobbying employed by big research labs. Wading through all of that continuously takes energy and time.
I’ve been working in tech since 1994. Tech has always moved quickly and I’ve always done my best to jog along and keep up. Over the course of these decades there have been several times I’ve felt the need to sprint.
To me, a sprint is not sustainable. It is a short period of time where I must almost totally consume myself in order to do my job well. Sometimes the sprints are necessary because I fell too far behind and I needed to catch up, other times it was because I wanted to be at the head of the pack. Most of them have been relatively short-lived sprints; lasting perhaps half a year or so.
This AI sprint seems to only be getting faster and lasting longer than any other sprint I’ve experienced.
It can be argued when the sprint began. Artificial Intelligence has a much longer history than just the last few years. In fact, much of the work in the field was done before I was born. But this most recent race is the one I’m personally taking part in.
As Head of AI & Product at NerdPress, I’m obligated to keep up with what is happening in the industry, what the tools are capable of, and how best to apply them to our team’s work. It is a lot. And I feel Merlin’s words above where it is a bit consuming. But I took it on. I decided to start sprinting. I wasn’t asked to. Which I’m sure helps to make it a bit easier for me than others who were forced into the sprint.
Will it end? While I’m a little bit tired, a little frazzled, from nearly a year of all out sprinting, I think the pace is about to quicken yet again.
But now I have help. I’m no longer running alone. I have several AI agents to help me. To some, that sentence feels icky. But I’m totally OK with it. Even as the pace continues to quicken, I feel empowered to keep up much easier today than I was able to even a year ago. And I think the next year or more is going to be at least three times more work to do than the previous year.
So, I guess I’m saying that I’d better get really good at knowing when to take a short break, hydrate, shake out my legs, and get sprinting again. Because I think this is going to be a marathon and I’m here for it even after all these years.