So I want you to imagine something for a second.
You're standing on a bitch, and it's perfect.
The sun is out. The air is warm. You can smell
the salt. But then you notice something a little
strange. The water pulls back. I mean, it goes
further out than you've ever seen. And the sand
is suddenly just dry and exposed. It gets really
quiet. And if you don't know what that means,
you might just think, huh, low tide. But that
quiet, that drawback, That's the warning sign
for a tsunami a wall of water moving at 800 kilometers
per hour and that image that exact moment That's
where the job market is right now last year 1
.1 million jobs gone at the exact same time Companies
are just pouring billions into AI. It's not a
wave It is a wall of water and most people are
you know, they're just standing there on the
sand looking at the seashells It's a really powerful
image and welcome to the deep dive today. We
are not just going to talk about AI technology
We're not talking about the newest chatbot We're
looking at a blueprint for well for your own
survival for thriving Really in a world that
is shifting right under our feet, right? And
our mission for this deep dive is super specific
We want to move you from what the source material
calls the flood zone And that's where like 99
% of people are to the high ground. The top 1
% who adapt. Exactly. So we have a roadmap. First,
we're going to look at something called the rail
test to figure out how safe you are right now.
A quick diagnostic. Then a framework called script
versus strategy for your actual work day. And
finally, we'll get into the specific tools and
the three Rs you need to, you know, build a career
fortress. We have to get tactical because that
water is coming back. And it is coming back fast.
So let's stay with that metaphor for a second.
The flood zone versus the high ground, it feels,
well, it feels a bit dramatic, doesn't it? Is
it really that black and white? It feels dramatic
until you look at the economics of it. I mean,
the source puts it so bluntly. If your job can
be done 100 % on a computer, you are in a direct
fight with AI. And here's the really hard truth.
You're fighting a robot that costs what? Pennies
to operate. And it never sleeps. You know, I
have to admit, when I read that, it really gave
me pause. I think we all have that sort of that
late night worry, right? I know I do. I'm sitting
there wondering, could a machine do my research
faster? Could it structure my thoughts better?
It's a very human feeling. Oh, totally. I think
everyone feels that little hum of anxiety. But
the high ground, it isn't about becoming some
computer genius overnight. It's not about learning
to code. It's about positioning. Positioning?
Yeah. The people who get wiped out are the ones
who try to compete with the machine on the machine's
terms. The high -grain is where you do what the
machine just can't. So how does a listener know
where they stand right now? You know, am I on
the beach or am I on the hill? That's where the
real test comes in. It's like a 50 -second diagnostic.
Okay. R -A -I -L. Yep. Four questions, and if
you answer no to two or more of them, you're
in the danger zone. Okay. Let's walk through
them. What's R? R is for revenue. Does your work
make money from real customers right now? So
not potential money or or future money Exactly.
We've all been on those projects that are in
eternal beta right or the department That's just
researching in this new economy If you aren't
tied to actual money coming in the door, you're
vulnerable AI lets companies cut the fat with
like surgical precision that seems harsh especially
for people and say R &D or long -term strategy
is harsh but the window for just pure research
without a clear path to application, it's shrinking
fast. OK, that brings us to A, acceleration.
Right. Can you deliver value to a user in two
weeks? Two weeks? Wow. I mean, that seems incredibly
fast for most big companies. It is. But speed
is a new currency. If you're on a six -month
cycle to ship a simple update, some AI -assisted
competitor is going to do it in six days. If
you can't move fast, you are standing still.
And if you're standing still, The wave hits you.
Right. OK. So speed matters. What's I? I is for
in market. Is the thing you're working on actually
being used, or is it just sitting on a shelf?
Is it a hobby, or is it a real business? Let
me push back on that a little. What if my market
is internal? You know, my boss is the consumer
of my weekly report. Does that count? Ooh, that's
a dangerous gray area. The source argues that
internal validation is, well, it's awesome political.
It's polite. Oh, great report. Thanks. But real
market feedback from a paying customer, that's
honest. It's brutal. If you're only serving internal
people, you are much closer to the flood zone
than you think. OK. And finally, L. Learning.
Are you learning from real customer mistakes
every single day? Every day. Yeah. This is so
crucial. AI models update constantly. If you're
working off a playbook from three years ago or
even six months ago, you're becoming obsolete.
You have to be a learning machine yourself. Revenue
acceleration in market learning. It's pretty
tough filter. So if that test comes back red,
if you realize you're in that danger zone, where's
the safe ground? You have to climb. You got to
get with the source calls layer three. Layer
three. OK, walk us through this map, because
when people talk about AI, it's usually all about
the big models or the chips. All right, so picture
the AI industry like a pyramid. Three layers.
Layer one, the foundation. That's infrastructure.
The hardware. The hardware. The chips, the data
centers. This is Nvidia's world. The trillion
dollar club. So we should ignore that. Unless
you have a few billion dollars lying around.
Yeah. Just ignore it. It's too expensive. OK,
fair enough. Layer two. Layer two is the models.
This is where you're open AI, you're Google,
you're anthropic. This is where they live. They're
building the brains. Chet, GPT, Claude. And it
feels like that's where everyone wants to be,
right? Everyone wants to build their own model.
And that is the trap. It is so crowded. And it's
so hard to win. You're fighting absolute giants.
The margins there are just going to race to zero.
But then there's layer three. The application
layer. The app. This is it. This is the big chance.
This is where you use the intelligence from layer
two to solve a really boring specific problem.
for a normal person. Why is that safer? Why isn't
it just as competitive? Because context is everything.
See, open AI knows a little bit about everything,
generally. But it doesn't know the specific zoning
laws for some small town in Ohio. It doesn't
know the workflow of a dental practice in London.
Layer 3 is all about taking that general brain
and applying it to a very specific mess. So the
opportunity isn't building the brain. It's like
being the therapist who helps the brain deal
with a specific patient's problem. Precisely.
And there are three huge opportunities here.
First is specific apps, solving those deep niche
problems. Second is service and setup, just being
the person who holds an old school company's
hand and teaches them how to use AI. And third
is data help. just cleaning up the mess of information
so the AI can even use it. It really reframes
it. You don't have to build the rocket ship.
You just have to know how to fly it for someone.
Whoa. I mean, just imagine the scale of that.
We're not fighting the model builders. We're
literally standing on their shoulders. You can
take the smartest intelligence in human history
and use it to help a local shop owner. That's
massive. So once we're in that right layer, in
layer three, how does our day -to -day work change?
We have to separate script. from strategy. Okay
the script versus strategy idea. I want to dig
in here because most jobs are a mix aren't they?
Oh yeah it's a mix but the ratio is shifting
like violently. The script parts. Those are the
boring repetitive tasks. Yeah. You know typing
data into a spreadsheet, writing the same basic
email update over and over, summarizing meeting
notes. It's anything that follows a set of rules.
That's strategy. Strategy is the human stuff.
It's creativity, empathy. Figuring out why a
client is upset, not just reading their email.
It's building trust. It's connecting dots that
don't seem related. And the argument is that
AI just... it eats the script for breakfast.
It creates this split reality. If you spend eight
hours a day just following its script, you are
in so much trouble. The robot does it faster,
cheaper, and it never complains. So the advice
is... to fire yourself. That sounds like career
suicide. It's the big paradox of this whole thing.
You have to fire yourself from the script to
save your career. Okay, walk me through the practical
steps. How do you fire yourself? It's a three
-step plan. Step one, check your work. Seriously,
make two columns. Script versus strategy. And
you have to be honest, if a machine could learn
to do it, it goes in the script column. And step
two? Step two is the firing. You use AI to automate
everything in that left column. You don't wait
for your boss to do it, you don't wait for IT.
You become the first person to automate your
own job. But okay, isn't the big fear here, if
I automate my job, isn't my boss just gonna see
that I'm doing less and like, you know, fire
me for real? That's the fear, 100%. But you have
to think about the alternative. If you don't
do it, a competitor will. Or a consultant will
come in and do it for you. By doing it yourself,
you buy yourself time for step three. The human
side. You use all that time you saved for what
they call deep work. Right. The walking, reading,
thinking. Exactly. While everyone else is just
drowning in their inbox, you're the one who's
actually looking at the horizon, solving the
really expensive problems. So if we automate
all those tasks, what are the human traits that
protect us in the long run? It's what the source
calls the three Rs. The things computers just
can't replace. Let's hear them. OK, first is
rigor. Deep, deep expertise. AI is a fantastic
liar. It hallucinates. It gives you plausible
-sounding nonsense. Rigor is your ability to
look at an AI output and say, nope, that's wrong.
So you have to be smarter than the machine just
to use the machine properly. You do. AI exposes
laziness. Second R is relationships. Trust is
the ultimate currency. An AI can simulate empathy,
but it can't sit across from you, share a real
vulnerability, buy you a coffee, and just listen.
That human bond. That's what keeps clients. And
the third R. Resilience. It's the raw ability
to change. The tools we're talking about today
might be gone in six months. The whole market
could shift. If you crumble when your workflow
changes, you lose. Rigor, relationships, resilience.
OK, we promised some secret weapons. What are
the tools? Three specific ones. First up, perplexity
AI. Right, for sourcing news and answers. It's
for sourcing truth. See, unlike a normal chatbot,
it actually cites its sources. It shows you where
the information came from. In an age of deepfakes,
perplexity is your anchor for rigor. Got it.
OK, number two. Cursor. Now, don't tune out if
you're not a coder. It lets you build little
apps or fix data just by asking for it in plain
English. It helps you pass that acceleration
test we were talking about. And the third tool.
Gamma. It makes presentations. You just type
in a topic, and it builds the whole slide deck
formatting, images, everything. It stops you
from wasting hours just moving text boxes around.
It frees you from the script. But it's not just
having the tool, is it? It's how you talk to
it. That's everything. It's the prompt. And the
source has this consultant prompt that I just
love. How does that one go? So you explain your
problem to the AI, and then you add this line,
act like a smart consultant. Tell me why those
ways might fail so I can prepare a backup plan.
Tell me why I might fail. That feels counterintuitive.
It's brilliant. It forces the AI to be critical.
You don't want a cheerleader. You want a sparring
partner. So after all this, does the fear just
go away? No. But the fear turns into action.
So let's recap this whole journey. We started
with the tsunami, that threat of the job market
pulling back. Yep. Then we diagnosed ourselves
with that rail test. Revenue, acceleration, in
-market, and learning. And if you failed that
test, the advice is to move to layer three. You
build apps, offer services, clean up data. You
don't try to fight the giants. Right. And you
fire yourself from the script, all those repetitive
tasks, so you can double down on strategy and
the three Rs. Rigor, relationships, and resilience.
And you use tools like perplexity, cursor, and
gamma to stay on that high ground. You got it.
The source ends with this metaphor that I think
is a great place to leave people. It says, you
are not a small wave that breaks. You are the
ocean. I like that. Your value isn't your job
title, it's your ability to adapt. So tomorrow
morning, try that consultant prompt on a hard
problem. See what happens. See you on the high
ground. Thanks for listening.