They say ignorance is bliss for a reason. I’m happy to be old enough that AI can’t destroy my life but worry for the kids growing up today and the great disparity between how they are being prepared for life versus what life will really be.
This is exactly why I have generally stopped reading anything about AI. When I do, that existential angst and hysterical worry creeps back into my psyche... and I simply don't want to have that in my psyche.
So if AI does change the world, unfortunately it'll probably catch me by surprise. But I just can't live that miserably - with that monster living inside my mind, worrying about what AI is up to. I just don't care anymore. I want to be happy.
As someone who worked in SF for years and moved to a mid size non tech city in the south, 100% feel this. I enjoy staying up to date-ish with what’s going on, but I know very little and still feel like the most AI knowledgeable person in my IRL circles. It’s so fun to introduce people to Chat and then possibly Claude, then we talk about what it said about our last dream. I worked for an infrastructure tech company and it taught me that while something powerful can be the foundation for an app, all the paying customer knows is they pushed a button and a car showed up. I’m sure AI is going to change things but probably not in the way we predict (because we never predict correctly anyway).
It really is an interesting point on adopters vs "ignorers" I'll call them. I'm a CFP, and people always ask if I'm nervous about AI taking my job. We still have clients in their 60s who want paper statements and don't use email! People want to talk to people, not trust some chatbot with their life savings.
The „first time“ you missed was the first time using a coding Agent and realising that a computer now can do in a few minutes, what would have taken you many hours.
I am not from the US, but I have friends who are software engineers. Talking to them about their jobs is just incredibly weird, it is just so obvious that they are wasting their time with what they are doing. Not having realised that their entire profession has drastically changed, they keep going on, doing what they did 5 years ago. Like a farmer plowing his field with an ox, because he never could quite figure out this „Tractor“ thing.
Experiencing the future is no harder than a Claude Subscription, yet the amount of people who have is a minority of software developers which are a tiny minority are the population. To the rest AI is just a vague notion of a machine doing this or that and all the talk about „Job loss“ is entirely abstract, because they have not seen a machine do most of their job with an enormous efficiency gain.
Great essay, Jack. A trillion dollar valuation for OpenAI is abnormal. So, my financial base case is that we are in a financial bubble that will cause short term pain when it bursts but the LLMs created will be extraordinary long term assets for all of us.
Great article. And you're right. It feels like the 90s when computers and the whole 'Y2k' apocalypse narrative. Many people were "Terminator' terrified of computers and the internet killing our jobs....and us. While much of the population was still just worried about passing a typing test. Guess what- we both survived and made money.
Mythos is way overhyped. Altman said that GPT-2 was too dangerous to release seven years ago. It's the same playback today. It doesn't matter if it's true or not; just as long as it creates hype.
Maybe I'm memory biased, but it seems to me like uptime and glitches have gotten worse not better recently. For examples, see recent Cloudflare, AWS US-East outages, Microsoft constant updates breaking stuff, Microsoft search no longer working, Anthropic leaking source code (remember, their "engineers arent writing code anymore", which implies that Claude leaked it).
I agree that it makes code far far easier to produce, but that doesnt mean that uptime goes to 100%. In fact it can mean the opposite
i don't think it's an existential risk lol and I've worked in AI research / presently am securing the AI bag, whatever, just gotta make the money while the spice flows. if you're not involved in AI, there's no reason to care about it more than whatever utility it may bring you
i agree with this none of my normies friends either care or understand whats going on. the thing is though, inevitably they will be shaped by it, whether they like it or not. will take a long time to diffuse all the way through the economy (and society) ofc tho. just like internet prob took 20+ years to play out entirely.
there’s something to be said for the main point made in this article: finding pleasure and joy in the “simple” things (the game, the show, the walk, the beach). but i also think it's wrong to downplay the joy of truly leaning into the shift and trying to be at the bleeding edge. equally fun and exhilarating.
They say ignorance is bliss for a reason. I’m happy to be old enough that AI can’t destroy my life but worry for the kids growing up today and the great disparity between how they are being prepared for life versus what life will really be.
honestly the most relatable summary of 2026 we've read. great writing.
I was about to unsubscribe because I didn't think you could bench press two plates.
Paying subscriptions require three.
I’m really glad that you can bench two plates and you must be as well because that was quite apropos of nothing lol
Victim weight talk
Bruh if youve never hit 2 plates you wouldnt get it
This is exactly why I have generally stopped reading anything about AI. When I do, that existential angst and hysterical worry creeps back into my psyche... and I simply don't want to have that in my psyche.
So if AI does change the world, unfortunately it'll probably catch me by surprise. But I just can't live that miserably - with that monster living inside my mind, worrying about what AI is up to. I just don't care anymore. I want to be happy.
As someone who worked in SF for years and moved to a mid size non tech city in the south, 100% feel this. I enjoy staying up to date-ish with what’s going on, but I know very little and still feel like the most AI knowledgeable person in my IRL circles. It’s so fun to introduce people to Chat and then possibly Claude, then we talk about what it said about our last dream. I worked for an infrastructure tech company and it taught me that while something powerful can be the foundation for an app, all the paying customer knows is they pushed a button and a car showed up. I’m sure AI is going to change things but probably not in the way we predict (because we never predict correctly anyway).
It really is an interesting point on adopters vs "ignorers" I'll call them. I'm a CFP, and people always ask if I'm nervous about AI taking my job. We still have clients in their 60s who want paper statements and don't use email! People want to talk to people, not trust some chatbot with their life savings.
The „first time“ you missed was the first time using a coding Agent and realising that a computer now can do in a few minutes, what would have taken you many hours.
I am not from the US, but I have friends who are software engineers. Talking to them about their jobs is just incredibly weird, it is just so obvious that they are wasting their time with what they are doing. Not having realised that their entire profession has drastically changed, they keep going on, doing what they did 5 years ago. Like a farmer plowing his field with an ox, because he never could quite figure out this „Tractor“ thing.
Experiencing the future is no harder than a Claude Subscription, yet the amount of people who have is a minority of software developers which are a tiny minority are the population. To the rest AI is just a vague notion of a machine doing this or that and all the talk about „Job loss“ is entirely abstract, because they have not seen a machine do most of their job with an enormous efficiency gain.
Great essay, Jack. A trillion dollar valuation for OpenAI is abnormal. So, my financial base case is that we are in a financial bubble that will cause short term pain when it bursts but the LLMs created will be extraordinary long term assets for all of us.
Great article. And you're right. It feels like the 90s when computers and the whole 'Y2k' apocalypse narrative. Many people were "Terminator' terrified of computers and the internet killing our jobs....and us. While much of the population was still just worried about passing a typing test. Guess what- we both survived and made money.
what why would you think humans will be able to build society, they're just trying to reproduce
Great read, thanks! How does your AI agent pay for the pizza?
Mythos is way overhyped. Altman said that GPT-2 was too dangerous to release seven years ago. It's the same playback today. It doesn't matter if it's true or not; just as long as it creates hype.
Maybe I'm memory biased, but it seems to me like uptime and glitches have gotten worse not better recently. For examples, see recent Cloudflare, AWS US-East outages, Microsoft constant updates breaking stuff, Microsoft search no longer working, Anthropic leaking source code (remember, their "engineers arent writing code anymore", which implies that Claude leaked it).
I agree that it makes code far far easier to produce, but that doesnt mean that uptime goes to 100%. In fact it can mean the opposite
i don't think it's an existential risk lol and I've worked in AI research / presently am securing the AI bag, whatever, just gotta make the money while the spice flows. if you're not involved in AI, there's no reason to care about it more than whatever utility it may bring you
Ha fun piece. Note more of the world will be software shaped as costs to produce decrease and customization potential increases...
i agree with this none of my normies friends either care or understand whats going on. the thing is though, inevitably they will be shaped by it, whether they like it or not. will take a long time to diffuse all the way through the economy (and society) ofc tho. just like internet prob took 20+ years to play out entirely.
there’s something to be said for the main point made in this article: finding pleasure and joy in the “simple” things (the game, the show, the walk, the beach). but i also think it's wrong to downplay the joy of truly leaning into the shift and trying to be at the bleeding edge. equally fun and exhilarating.
good read!