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 a half glass amp you take for sure. Certainly you understand there are other applications for AI that will improve our lives dramatically, such as medical research.
Yes, there are great uses for AI but there is going to be massive job disruption. The changes are most going to affect the youth who are caught between the world they are trained for and the one that exists.
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).
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
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.
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.
Because I like to google stuff first I had to find out what 2 plates is and then check and for the follow up it's about a percent of men at any time can do it. The rest of us are ladies, you revert back to lady if you can no longer do it. Since you put it and the first sip of alcohol above the sex it must be humor.
Google
"Less than 1% of the general male population can bench press 225 lbs (two plates). While it is a common benchmark in gym culture, it represents an intermediate to advanced strength level, making it rare among all adult men, likely representing only 3–4% of the population."
duuuuuuude. I am also living in a parallel universe where my adrenaline is so high I can't calm down because I have my 306th app idea that I need to deploy right. now. My friends are taking Friday afternoon off. Who's really winning?
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.
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 a half glass amp you take for sure. Certainly you understand there are other applications for AI that will improve our lives dramatically, such as medical research.
Yes, there are great uses for AI but there is going to be massive job disruption. The changes are most going to affect the youth who are caught between the world they are trained for and the one that exists.
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).
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
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.
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!
Because I like to google stuff first I had to find out what 2 plates is and then check and for the follow up it's about a percent of men at any time can do it. The rest of us are ladies, you revert back to lady if you can no longer do it. Since you put it and the first sip of alcohol above the sex it must be humor.
Google
"Less than 1% of the general male population can bench press 225 lbs (two plates). While it is a common benchmark in gym culture, it represents an intermediate to advanced strength level, making it rare among all adult men, likely representing only 3–4% of the population."
duuuuuuude. I am also living in a parallel universe where my adrenaline is so high I can't calm down because I have my 306th app idea that I need to deploy right. now. My friends are taking Friday afternoon off. Who's really winning?
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.