WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.980 Okay, let's unpack this. Let's do it. Because 00:00:01.980 --> 00:00:05.960 there is a massive, silent, and frankly, awkward 00:00:05.960 --> 00:00:08.919 elephant in the room right now. And I don't mean 00:00:08.919 --> 00:00:11.080 a metaphorical elephant quietly standing in the 00:00:11.080 --> 00:00:13.300 corner of a boardroom. I mean an elephant that 00:00:13.300 --> 00:00:15.679 is sitting right there in your home office, right 00:00:15.679 --> 00:00:17.760 there in your cubicle, and definitely right there 00:00:17.760 --> 00:00:19.379 in the coffee shop where everyone is huddled 00:00:19.379 --> 00:00:21.739 over their laptops. It is the single biggest 00:00:21.739 --> 00:00:25.000 open secret of the modern workforce. Everyone 00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:27.440 knows it's there, but nobody is making eye contact 00:00:27.440 --> 00:00:30.390 with it. Exactly. Everyone is doing it, but no 00:00:30.390 --> 00:00:33.049 one wants to admit it. And we need to describe 00:00:33.049 --> 00:00:35.350 the scene because I think every single listener 00:00:35.350 --> 00:00:37.570 is going to recognize this moment. Oh, absolutely. 00:00:37.850 --> 00:00:40.429 You're at work. You're writing an email. Or maybe 00:00:40.429 --> 00:00:43.030 you're trying to debug some code. Or you're drafting 00:00:43.030 --> 00:00:46.770 a strategy document for the Q3 review. And you 00:00:46.770 --> 00:00:49.869 have a specific tab open. Yep. Maybe it's ChatGPT. 00:00:49.909 --> 00:00:52.369 Maybe it's Claude. Maybe it's Grok. You're in 00:00:52.369 --> 00:00:55.439 the flow. You type in a prompt, you get an answer, 00:00:55.539 --> 00:00:57.560 you copy, you paste, you tweak the language so 00:00:57.560 --> 00:01:00.179 it sounds a bit more like you. And then you hear 00:01:00.179 --> 00:01:02.799 footsteps. That's the moment. Someone walks by 00:01:02.799 --> 00:01:05.680 your desk or your boss comes up behind you. What 00:01:05.680 --> 00:01:09.900 do you do? Snap. Alt tab. Minimize window. Immediate 00:01:09.900 --> 00:01:12.299 reflex. The alt tab reflex. It is instantaneous. 00:01:12.439 --> 00:01:15.920 It's like we are all teenagers in the 90s hiding 00:01:15.920 --> 00:01:18.719 video games from our parents, except we are grown 00:01:18.719 --> 00:01:21.879 adults, professionals, hiding the most powerful 00:01:21.879 --> 00:01:25.159 tool in the history of human cognition. We're 00:01:25.159 --> 00:01:27.760 treating it like contraband. We're in this incredibly 00:01:27.760 --> 00:01:30.019 strange psychological state right now where we 00:01:30.019 --> 00:01:32.659 have access to the superpower and we are treating 00:01:32.659 --> 00:01:34.760 it like it's something shameful. It's the don't 00:01:34.760 --> 00:01:38.200 ask, don't tell. phase of technological adoption. 00:01:38.480 --> 00:01:41.239 It is a fascinating sociological phenomenon if 00:01:41.239 --> 00:01:43.159 you step back and look at it. It really is. We 00:01:43.159 --> 00:01:45.659 are seeing productivity gains across the economy 00:01:45.659 --> 00:01:48.099 that would have been unimaginable, literally 00:01:48.099 --> 00:01:50.939 science fiction five years ago. Yet the cultural 00:01:50.939 --> 00:01:53.659 narrative hasn't caught up. Not at all. There 00:01:53.659 --> 00:01:57.620 is this deep -seated fear that admitting to using 00:01:57.620 --> 00:02:00.760 AI is an admission of, well, cheating. That's 00:02:00.760 --> 00:02:03.200 the word that keeps popping up, cheating or laziness. 00:02:03.219 --> 00:02:05.760 Right. But there is a darker fear underneath 00:02:05.760 --> 00:02:08.560 cheating. The fear isn't just that you'll get 00:02:08.560 --> 00:02:11.000 a slap on the wrist. No, it's much deeper. The 00:02:11.000 --> 00:02:13.439 fear is that admitting you use AI is admitting 00:02:13.439 --> 00:02:16.259 that you, the human, are no longer necessary. 00:02:16.699 --> 00:02:19.099 That is the core tension. It's the nightmare 00:02:19.099 --> 00:02:22.680 scenario. If I say, hey, boss, the AI wrote 80 00:02:22.680 --> 00:02:25.800 % of this report, the fear is the boss says, 00:02:25.900 --> 00:02:29.219 great, the AI costs $20 a month and you cost 00:02:29.219 --> 00:02:32.259 a lot more than that. Why am I paying you? Precisely. 00:02:32.620 --> 00:02:35.039 And that fear is what we are going to dismantle 00:02:35.039 --> 00:02:37.479 today. Because if you remain in that state of 00:02:37.479 --> 00:02:40.280 hiding, of shame, of looking over your shoulder, 00:02:40.460 --> 00:02:42.560 you remain a victim of the technology. You're 00:02:42.560 --> 00:02:44.759 reactive. You're letting the tool happen to you. 00:02:45.620 --> 00:02:48.340 But there is another way. Welcome to the Read 00:02:48.340 --> 00:02:51.740 Multiplex podcast. Today, we are going back into 00:02:51.740 --> 00:02:54.199 the mind of the man who I think is seeing this 00:02:54.199 --> 00:02:56.780 clearer than anyone else. Brian Rimmel. Yeah. 00:02:57.050 --> 00:02:59.229 And I have to say, every time we dig into his 00:02:59.229 --> 00:03:01.270 work at Read Multiplex, I feel like my brain 00:03:01.270 --> 00:03:03.849 expands about three sizes. Brian really has no 00:03:03.849 --> 00:03:05.650 peer in this territory. And I don't say that 00:03:05.650 --> 00:03:07.930 lightly. You have plenty of analysts talking 00:03:07.930 --> 00:03:10.669 about stock prices or which chatbot has the best 00:03:10.669 --> 00:03:12.889 benchmarks this week or what the latest rumor 00:03:12.889 --> 00:03:16.370 is from Silicon Valley. But Brian is doing something 00:03:16.370 --> 00:03:18.389 completely different. He's on a different level. 00:03:18.530 --> 00:03:21.909 He is mapping the societal soul during this transition. 00:03:22.090 --> 00:03:23.990 He's looking at the anthropology of the future. 00:03:24.189 --> 00:03:25.849 He's not looking at the next quarter. He's looking 00:03:25.849 --> 00:03:30.210 at the next generation. And today, we are unpacking 00:03:30.210 --> 00:03:34.569 part 10 of his massive 5 ,000 Days series. A 00:03:34.569 --> 00:03:36.849 huge undertaking. Now, for anyone joining us 00:03:36.849 --> 00:03:38.430 who hasn't been following along with the Reed 00:03:38.430 --> 00:03:41.560 Multiplex deep dives, let's set the stage. What 00:03:41.560 --> 00:03:44.159 exactly are the 5 ,000 days? The 5 ,000 days 00:03:44.159 --> 00:03:46.780 is the specific timeline Brian has laid out, 00:03:46.840 --> 00:03:49.699 roughly spanning from late 2025 through to the 00:03:49.699 --> 00:03:52.960 late 2030s or early 2040s. So about 14, 15 years. 00:03:53.060 --> 00:03:55.659 Exactly. He calls this period the interregnum. 00:03:56.000 --> 00:03:58.219 Interregnum. That is such a heavy, evocative 00:03:58.219 --> 00:04:00.020 word. It sounds like something out of Game of 00:04:00.020 --> 00:04:02.520 Thrones or History of the Roman Empire. It is 00:04:02.520 --> 00:04:05.219 a historical term, and Brian uses it very deliberately. 00:04:05.500 --> 00:04:08.780 An interregnum refers to a pause or gap between 00:04:08.780 --> 00:04:11.750 two reigns. Between two kings. The old king is 00:04:11.750 --> 00:04:14.430 dead, the new king hasn't been crowned yet, and 00:04:14.430 --> 00:04:17.610 the laws are suspended. It's a time of chaos, 00:04:17.709 --> 00:04:20.889 but also a time of malleability. So in our case, 00:04:20.949 --> 00:04:22.629 who are the two kings? What are the two reigns? 00:04:22.970 --> 00:04:26.230 Brian argues we are leaving the reign of labor 00:04:26.230 --> 00:04:29.350 as identity, where who you are is defined by 00:04:29.350 --> 00:04:31.449 your nine -to -five job, and we are moving toward 00:04:31.449 --> 00:04:34.430 the reign of liberated potential. But we aren't 00:04:34.430 --> 00:04:37.350 there yet. We are in the messy, chaotic middle. 00:04:37.470 --> 00:04:40.600 We are in the gap between the trapeze bars. You've 00:04:40.600 --> 00:04:42.860 let go of the one behind you, the old economy, 00:04:43.120 --> 00:04:45.120 but you haven't quite caught the one in front 00:04:45.120 --> 00:04:47.879 of you. And that is a terrifying place to be. 00:04:47.939 --> 00:04:51.100 You're in midair. Exactly. And part 10 of this 00:04:51.100 --> 00:04:53.519 series is specifically designed to help us navigate 00:04:53.519 --> 00:04:56.459 that terror of being in midair. Okay, so what's 00:04:56.459 --> 00:04:58.459 the mission for today's deep dive? The mission 00:04:58.459 --> 00:05:00.699 for today is to flip the script on that secret 00:05:00.699 --> 00:05:04.040 AI user stigma we started with. We need to move 00:05:04.040 --> 00:05:06.339 from being victims of automation to becoming 00:05:06.339 --> 00:05:08.839 what Brian calls conductors of a new symphony. 00:05:08.959 --> 00:05:11.610 I love that image. The conductor. Because a conductor 00:05:11.610 --> 00:05:13.730 doesn't play every instrument, but the music 00:05:13.730 --> 00:05:15.870 doesn't happen without them. That's the goal. 00:05:16.050 --> 00:05:18.670 Brian introduces the concept of marshalling AI. 00:05:19.029 --> 00:05:21.790 It's not about checking a box or just using a 00:05:21.790 --> 00:05:25.810 tool. It's about existential amplification. Existential 00:05:25.810 --> 00:05:28.629 amplification. Wow. But before we get to the 00:05:28.629 --> 00:05:31.060 solution. We have to understand the journey we've 00:05:31.060 --> 00:05:34.540 been on because Brian frames this entire 14 -year 00:05:34.540 --> 00:05:37.639 transition using Joseph Campbell's hero's journey. 00:05:37.759 --> 00:05:40.120 Which is such a brilliant way to look at economics. 00:05:40.720 --> 00:05:43.019 It acknowledges that this isn't just a market 00:05:43.019 --> 00:05:46.100 shift. It's a mythology. It's an emotional narrative 00:05:46.100 --> 00:05:48.660 that we are all living through. Absolutely. So 00:05:48.660 --> 00:05:51.160 let's do a quick previously on for the listeners. 00:05:51.379 --> 00:05:53.399 Walk us through the hero's journey that has led 00:05:53.399 --> 00:05:56.139 us to part 10. So it begins with the ordinary 00:05:56.139 --> 00:05:58.779 world. That was part one of Brian's series. Our 00:05:58.779 --> 00:06:01.180 old normal. That's the world we are just starting 00:06:01.180 --> 00:06:04.000 to leave behind the evolutionary psychology of 00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:06.860 work as status. We are wired to work because 00:06:06.860 --> 00:06:08.740 for thousands of years, if you didn't work, you 00:06:08.740 --> 00:06:10.639 didn't eat and you didn't have status in the 00:06:10.639 --> 00:06:12.959 tribe. Right. Labor was synonymous with survival. 00:06:13.120 --> 00:06:16.139 Yeah. And status. Labor was identity. Right. 00:06:16.220 --> 00:06:19.060 And then comes the call to adventure, which in 00:06:19.060 --> 00:06:22.459 this story is the arrival of this high level 00:06:22.459 --> 00:06:25.220 generative AI. But what does the hero always 00:06:25.220 --> 00:06:28.759 do first? They refuse the call. Every time. That 00:06:28.759 --> 00:06:31.240 was parts two and three. The refusal and the 00:06:31.240 --> 00:06:34.560 grief. We saw denial. We saw anger. Brian referenced 00:06:34.560 --> 00:06:37.199 Elizabeth Kobler -Ross's stages of grief. And 00:06:37.199 --> 00:06:39.560 Kurt Vonnegut's novel, Play Her Piano. Exactly. 00:06:39.800 --> 00:06:42.300 It's that visceral reaction of, this machine 00:06:42.300 --> 00:06:44.560 is going to replace me and I hate it. I think 00:06:44.560 --> 00:06:46.540 a lot of people are still lingering in that phase, 00:06:46.639 --> 00:06:48.139 the rage against the machine phase. They are. 00:06:48.300 --> 00:06:51.139 And that's natural. It's a valid stage. But the 00:06:51.139 --> 00:06:54.360 journey pushes forward. We moved into the reframing 00:06:54.360 --> 00:06:56.720 phase in parts four through six. Okay, reframing. 00:06:56.839 --> 00:06:59.040 This was about using cognitive techniques like 00:06:59.040 --> 00:07:01.699 those from Scott Adams to reprogram your brain, 00:07:01.800 --> 00:07:04.019 to see the threat as an opportunity. This is 00:07:04.019 --> 00:07:05.699 where it got dark for a minute, though. It did. 00:07:05.939 --> 00:07:08.500 We faced the dark night of the soul, confronting 00:07:08.500 --> 00:07:11.079 the reality of zero human companies, companies 00:07:11.079 --> 00:07:13.980 that run entirely on code. That was the scary 00:07:13.980 --> 00:07:17.459 part, the belly of the whale. But then we hit 00:07:17.459 --> 00:07:19.360 a turning point in parts seven through nine. 00:07:19.579 --> 00:07:22.480 The reward and the road back. This is where we 00:07:22.480 --> 00:07:25.600 start to see the light. We looked at I &M Banks' 00:07:25.779 --> 00:07:29.199 culture series, envisioning a post -scarcity 00:07:29.199 --> 00:07:32.620 world. What could life be like without mandatory 00:07:32.620 --> 00:07:35.600 labor? And part nine had that fantastic twist, 00:07:35.920 --> 00:07:38.560 the artisan's awakening. Oh, that was such a 00:07:38.560 --> 00:07:41.220 great insight. Oh, right. That was the realization 00:07:41.220 --> 00:07:44.279 that blue -collar work plumbers, electricians, 00:07:44.279 --> 00:07:47.699 carpenters is actually safer from AI than white 00:07:47.699 --> 00:07:50.600 -collar work. Because of Moravec's paradox. Explain 00:07:50.600 --> 00:07:53.000 that one more time. It's the paradox that things 00:07:53.000 --> 00:07:56.060 humans find hard, like abstract reasoning or 00:07:56.060 --> 00:07:59.300 chess, are easy for computers. But things we 00:07:59.300 --> 00:08:02.420 find easy, like physical dexterity or navigating 00:08:02.420 --> 00:08:05.579 a cluttered room, are incredibly hard for computers. 00:08:05.899 --> 00:08:08.180 So a robot is great at passing the bar exam, 00:08:08.420 --> 00:08:10.879 but it's terrible at fixing a leaky sink in a 00:08:10.879 --> 00:08:13.339 tight cupboard. Exactly. So the hierarchy of 00:08:13.339 --> 00:08:16.040 work flipped on its head. The lawyer became more 00:08:16.040 --> 00:08:18.220 vulnerable than the plumber. So now here we are 00:08:18.220 --> 00:08:20.870 at part 10. We are on the road back. We've been 00:08:20.870 --> 00:08:23.009 through the underworld. We've seen the potential 00:08:23.009 --> 00:08:25.850 reward. We know AI is here. We know the economy 00:08:25.850 --> 00:08:28.350 is changing. We know we need to adapt. But we 00:08:28.350 --> 00:08:30.949 are stuck. We are stuck in a psychological trap. 00:08:31.470 --> 00:08:34.009 Brian calls it the pressure paradox. The pressure 00:08:34.009 --> 00:08:37.230 paradox. OK. That's such a profound insight from 00:08:37.230 --> 00:08:40.250 Brian. Let's unpack this paradox because it feels 00:08:40.250 --> 00:08:43.210 counterintuitive. Yeah. If we know we need to 00:08:43.210 --> 00:08:46.049 use AI to keep up, and if the market is putting 00:08:46.049 --> 00:08:48.669 pressure on us to be more productive, shouldn't 00:08:48.669 --> 00:08:51.230 that pressure make us better at it? Shouldn't 00:08:51.230 --> 00:08:54.129 it force us to master the tools? You think so. 00:08:54.730 --> 00:08:57.450 Logically, it makes sense. But Brian argues that 00:08:57.450 --> 00:08:59.909 when the pressure to use AI comes from the outside, 00:09:00.509 --> 00:09:03.250 from your boss, from the market, from society 00:09:03.250 --> 00:09:06.970 screaming adapt or die, it actually hinders true 00:09:06.970 --> 00:09:09.210 mastery. It backfires. It creates resistance. 00:09:09.590 --> 00:09:11.929 Because nobody likes being told what to do. It 00:09:11.929 --> 00:09:14.110 feels like a mandate. It goes deeper than just 00:09:14.110 --> 00:09:16.809 teenage rebellion. Brian invokes the philosopher 00:09:16.809 --> 00:09:19.669 Martin Heidegger here, specifically his concept 00:09:19.669 --> 00:09:22.889 of technology as Gestell or in framing. Okay, 00:09:22.950 --> 00:09:25.830 let's take a beat here. Yeah. Gestell, in framing. 00:09:26.240 --> 00:09:28.059 That sounds like a heavy German pastry, but I 00:09:28.059 --> 00:09:30.059 know it's deeper than that. Break it down for 00:09:30.059 --> 00:09:32.379 us. So Heidegger warned that technology isn't 00:09:32.379 --> 00:09:34.940 just a tool. It's a way of revealing the world. 00:09:35.120 --> 00:09:39.269 The lens. And when technology in frames us. It 00:09:39.269 --> 00:09:41.269 frames the world in a way that turns everything 00:09:41.269 --> 00:09:44.570 into a resource to be mined, a standing reserve. 00:09:44.950 --> 00:09:47.250 Give us an analogy. Think about a forest. If 00:09:47.250 --> 00:09:50.190 you look at a forest with a poetic mindset, you 00:09:50.190 --> 00:09:54.110 see an ecosystem, beauty, mystery. You see the 00:09:54.110 --> 00:09:56.309 forest as a forest. Right. But if you look at 00:09:56.309 --> 00:09:58.450 a forest through the lens of industrial technology, 00:09:58.570 --> 00:10:01.350 through Gestell, you don't see a forest. You 00:10:01.350 --> 00:10:04.210 see lumber. You see standing reserve waiting 00:10:04.210 --> 00:10:06.549 to be processed into paper or two -by -fours. 00:10:06.690 --> 00:10:08.649 Okay, I follow. You stop seeing. the thing itself 00:10:08.649 --> 00:10:11.730 and start seeing its utility, its resourceness. 00:10:11.830 --> 00:10:14.269 Exactly. And now apply that to yourself in AI. 00:10:14.949 --> 00:10:17.809 When you are forced to use AI by a corporation 00:10:17.809 --> 00:10:20.769 to hit a quota, you aren't engaging with it as 00:10:20.769 --> 00:10:22.450 a creative partner. You're just trying to get 00:10:22.450 --> 00:10:24.889 the job done. You are inframing yourself. You 00:10:24.889 --> 00:10:27.149 become the standing reserve. Your intelligence, 00:10:27.269 --> 00:10:30.389 your creativity, it's just a resource to be optimized 00:10:30.389 --> 00:10:32.750 by the algorithm. You become a cog in the machine 00:10:32.750 --> 00:10:35.350 trying to keep up. That makes total sense. If 00:10:35.350 --> 00:10:38.350 my boss says, use ChatGPT to write five blog 00:10:38.350 --> 00:10:41.610 posts by noon, I'm not exploring the tool's potential. 00:10:41.830 --> 00:10:44.779 I'm not playing. I'm not discovering. I'm just 00:10:44.779 --> 00:10:46.519 trying to get the task off my plate so I don't 00:10:46.519 --> 00:10:50.639 get fired. I'm treating the AI and myself as 00:10:50.639 --> 00:10:52.899 just a means to an end. Precisely. You become 00:10:52.899 --> 00:10:55.320 inauthentic. And this is where Brian connects 00:10:55.320 --> 00:10:57.700 Heidegger to the psychologist Carl Rogers. Okay. 00:10:57.940 --> 00:11:00.139 Rogers talked about the conflict between self 00:11:00.139 --> 00:11:03.100 -concept and organismic experience. Translate 00:11:03.100 --> 00:11:05.039 that for the non -psychologists among us. Your 00:11:05.039 --> 00:11:07.100 self -concept is the story you tell yourself. 00:11:07.769 --> 00:11:10.649 I am a skilled writer. I spent years honing my 00:11:10.649 --> 00:11:13.169 craft. I am thoughtful and articulate. It's your 00:11:13.169 --> 00:11:15.370 professional identity. Okay, got it. But your 00:11:15.370 --> 00:11:18.450 organismic experience, your reality in the moment 00:11:18.450 --> 00:11:21.629 at your desk is, this AI just wrote a generic 00:11:21.629 --> 00:11:23.909 but passable version of my article in four seconds. 00:11:24.230 --> 00:11:26.809 Ouch. Yeah, that creates some serious friction. 00:11:26.929 --> 00:11:29.909 A real gut punch to the ego. It's cognitive dissonance. 00:11:29.950 --> 00:11:32.450 It hurts. It's an attack on your very sense of 00:11:32.450 --> 00:11:34.990 self. And the result is a defensive mechanism. 00:11:35.470 --> 00:11:37.970 You put up a wall. You do. either reject the 00:11:37.970 --> 00:11:40.029 tool entirely. That's the Luddite response. This 00:11:40.029 --> 00:11:42.490 thing is garbage. It has no soul. I'm a real 00:11:42.490 --> 00:11:45.789 writer. Or we use it superficially and secretly. 00:11:46.389 --> 00:11:48.269 That's the cheating response we talked about. 00:11:48.389 --> 00:11:51.730 We use it to hide our perceived inadequacy rather 00:11:51.730 --> 00:11:55.090 than using it to expand our capacity. So how 00:11:55.090 --> 00:11:57.070 do we break out of that? Because we can't just 00:11:57.070 --> 00:11:59.789 quit our jobs. We have to use these tools. How 00:11:59.789 --> 00:12:04.590 do we move from cheating to, well, winning? The 00:12:04.590 --> 00:12:06.889 key word for part 10 is volitional integration. 00:12:07.629 --> 00:12:10.970 Volitional. Meaning, for my own will, I have 00:12:10.970 --> 00:12:13.490 to choose it. You must choose the tool. The tool 00:12:13.490 --> 00:12:16.250 cannot be forced upon you. This is where Brian 00:12:16.250 --> 00:12:19.210 brings in Jean -Paul Sartre. Existentialism. 00:12:19.450 --> 00:12:21.169 Wow, we're hitting all the big thinkers today. 00:12:21.370 --> 00:12:23.919 Brian pulls from everywhere. Sartre said we are 00:12:23.919 --> 00:12:26.460 condemned to be free. We must choose our own 00:12:26.460 --> 00:12:29.200 essence. If you let your boss or the market force 00:12:29.200 --> 00:12:31.620 AI on you, you are acting like what gamers would 00:12:31.620 --> 00:12:33.860 call an NPC. A non -player character. You're 00:12:33.860 --> 00:12:35.580 just following a script. You're an object in 00:12:35.580 --> 00:12:38.659 someone else's story. But if I decide on my own 00:12:38.659 --> 00:12:40.940 terms, I am going to master this thing because 00:12:40.940 --> 00:12:43.059 I am curious about what I can build with it, 00:12:43.120 --> 00:12:46.399 then I'm the protagonist again. Exactly. It shifts 00:12:46.399 --> 00:12:49.799 from I have to use this to I get to use this. 00:12:49.860 --> 00:12:53.200 And that shift in your internal posture changes 00:12:53.200 --> 00:12:55.320 everything about how your brain engages with 00:12:55.320 --> 00:12:57.720 the technology. It becomes play. It becomes discovery. 00:12:58.240 --> 00:13:00.940 It becomes authentic. You know what I love about 00:13:00.940 --> 00:13:03.299 read multiplex is that Brian doesn't just leave 00:13:03.299 --> 00:13:06.080 us with a philosophy. He grounds it in history. 00:13:06.200 --> 00:13:08.799 He's a master of historical analogy. It's comforting 00:13:08.799 --> 00:13:12.080 to know that this feeling of technological angst 00:13:12.080 --> 00:13:15.309 isn't new. He shows us that we've panicked about 00:13:15.309 --> 00:13:18.460 this before. Many, many times. He is brilliant 00:13:18.460 --> 00:13:21.240 at this. He outlines four specific instances 00:13:21.240 --> 00:13:24.139 where we freaked out about a new tool, only to 00:13:24.139 --> 00:13:26.639 realize later that it didn't replace us. It elevated 00:13:26.639 --> 00:13:28.519 us. Let's go through these because I think they 00:13:28.519 --> 00:13:30.399 really help ground the fear. The first one is 00:13:30.399 --> 00:13:32.919 the calculator in the 1970s. Oh, the panic was 00:13:32.919 --> 00:13:34.940 real. We forget this now, but when the pocket 00:13:34.940 --> 00:13:37.100 calculator arrived, educators were terrified. 00:13:37.379 --> 00:13:38.700 They thought it was the end of civilization. 00:13:39.120 --> 00:13:41.019 They thought it would rot children's brains. 00:13:41.620 --> 00:13:44.419 It was a modern version of Plato's fear of writing. 00:13:45.199 --> 00:13:47.159 Plato thought if we wrote things down, we'd lose 00:13:47.159 --> 00:13:49.840 our memory. Teachers thought if we used calculators, 00:13:49.940 --> 00:13:52.419 we'd lose our ability to do math. And to be fair, 00:13:52.580 --> 00:13:55.399 I can't do long division in my head to save my 00:13:55.399 --> 00:13:59.860 life. Yeah. So were they right? Did it rot our 00:13:59.860 --> 00:14:03.519 brains? In a narrow sense, yes. We did de -skill 00:14:03.519 --> 00:14:06.039 in mental arithmetic. Most of us can't do complex 00:14:06.039 --> 00:14:08.820 calculations without a machine. Right. But Brian 00:14:08.820 --> 00:14:11.340 points out that we re -skilled in something far 00:14:11.340 --> 00:14:15.100 more valuable. Modeling and complex problem solving. 00:14:15.279 --> 00:14:17.259 Right. We stopped spending three hours doing 00:14:17.259 --> 00:14:19.620 the division and started spending that time figuring 00:14:19.620 --> 00:14:21.720 out what to divide to build a bridge that doesn't 00:14:21.720 --> 00:14:24.240 collapse. Exactly. You offloaded the low -level 00:14:24.240 --> 00:14:27.159 cognitive task to the machine, which freed up 00:14:27.159 --> 00:14:29.279 your brain for higher -level strategic thinking. 00:14:29.559 --> 00:14:31.200 So what was the lesson from that transition? 00:14:31.559 --> 00:14:35.059 The lesson is... Those who refused the calculator, 00:14:35.460 --> 00:14:38.120 the engineers who insisted on using slide rules 00:14:38.120 --> 00:14:41.740 because it was pure or the real way, became obsolete. 00:14:41.899 --> 00:14:43.539 They couldn't keep up. They couldn't keep up 00:14:43.539 --> 00:14:45.679 with the speed of calculation required for modern 00:14:45.679 --> 00:14:48.159 engineering. Those who mastered the calculator 00:14:48.159 --> 00:14:51.340 became the architects of the modern world. Okay, 00:14:51.419 --> 00:14:57.759 analogy number two. The spreadsheet. 1980s. VisiCalc. 00:14:57.820 --> 00:15:00.679 This one is fascinating for the financial world. 00:15:01.469 --> 00:15:04.269 Before VisiCalc and Lotus 1 -2 -3, banking was 00:15:04.269 --> 00:15:07.690 done on paper ledgers. It was slow, meticulous, 00:15:07.710 --> 00:15:09.990 artisan work. You had to be incredibly careful. 00:15:10.149 --> 00:15:12.110 One wrong number and the whole thing was off. 00:15:12.269 --> 00:15:15.370 Exactly. And the Wall Street bankers feared the 00:15:15.370 --> 00:15:17.350 spreadsheet. They called it a black box. They 00:15:17.350 --> 00:15:19.230 were afraid of errors they couldn't see. And 00:15:19.230 --> 00:15:21.210 there was another fear too, wasn't there? Something 00:15:21.210 --> 00:15:24.379 more... intuitive yes they felt they were losing 00:15:24.379 --> 00:15:27.059 financial intuition the greek concept of phrenesis 00:15:27.059 --> 00:15:29.860 or practical wisdom i can imagine the old school 00:15:29.860 --> 00:15:32.379 banker saying you don't feel the numbers if you 00:15:32.379 --> 00:15:34.600 don't write them that was precisely the argument 00:15:34.600 --> 00:15:37.100 that the physical act of writing connected them 00:15:37.100 --> 00:15:40.720 to the flow of capital and yet and yet The spreadsheet 00:15:40.720 --> 00:15:43.720 created the entire fintech industry. It allowed 00:15:43.720 --> 00:15:46.320 for what -if scenarios. What if interest rates 00:15:46.320 --> 00:15:48.740 go up? What if the market crashes? You could 00:15:48.740 --> 00:15:50.940 run a thousand models in an afternoon. It was 00:15:50.940 --> 00:15:53.480 a superpower. But Brian does add a warning here. 00:15:53.759 --> 00:15:56.240 Right. It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. No. 00:15:56.399 --> 00:15:58.519 And this is a crucial point for our current moment 00:15:58.519 --> 00:16:01.440 with AI. He points out that the 2008 financial 00:16:01.440 --> 00:16:03.879 crash happened in part because people trusted 00:16:03.879 --> 00:16:05.500 the black box without understanding it. They 00:16:05.500 --> 00:16:07.580 were using the tool but not marshalling it. Exactly. 00:16:07.860 --> 00:16:10.720 They let the tool lead them. They ran complex 00:16:10.720 --> 00:16:13.480 models on mortgage -backed securities without 00:16:13.480 --> 00:16:16.259 having the phronesis to ask, wait, does this 00:16:16.259 --> 00:16:18.159 actually make sense in the real world? We need 00:16:18.159 --> 00:16:20.779 the human in the loop. The most effective bankers 00:16:20.779 --> 00:16:22.759 were those who combined their human intuition 00:16:22.759 --> 00:16:25.519 with the spreadsheet's power. Nietzsche's will 00:16:25.519 --> 00:16:28.279 to power, augmented by Excel. That's the hybrid 00:16:28.279 --> 00:16:31.360 model. Got it. Analogy number three, the dictaphone 00:16:31.360 --> 00:16:33.519 versus stenography. This goes back to the early 00:16:33.519 --> 00:16:36.840 1900s. Stenographers, people who wrote shorthand, 00:16:36.840 --> 00:16:39.220 were artists. It was a highly skilled profession. 00:16:39.600 --> 00:16:42.480 You had to train for years. A real craft. Then 00:16:42.480 --> 00:16:45.679 comes the dictaphone. You speak, it records on 00:16:45.679 --> 00:16:49.019 a wax cylinder. And the fear was the dehumanization 00:16:49.019 --> 00:16:52.779 of language, the loss of the art of shorthand. 00:16:52.820 --> 00:16:54.779 That sounds very familiar to the complaints about 00:16:54.779 --> 00:16:58.740 AI writing today. It has no soul. Exactly. But 00:16:58.740 --> 00:17:02.440 the dictaphone exploded productivity. And Brian 00:17:02.440 --> 00:17:06.079 makes the direct comparison to Otter .ai or AI 00:17:06.079 --> 00:17:08.220 transcription today. So what happened to the 00:17:08.220 --> 00:17:10.200 stenographers? Did they all lose their jobs? 00:17:10.440 --> 00:17:13.259 The role evolved. We aren't listening less. We 00:17:13.259 --> 00:17:15.990 are synthesizing more. The sonographer didn't 00:17:15.990 --> 00:17:18.569 disappear. They evolved into the executive assistant, 00:17:18.829 --> 00:17:21.289 the editor, the strategist who could take the 00:17:21.289 --> 00:17:23.930 raw transcript and turn it into actionable intelligence. 00:17:24.109 --> 00:17:26.349 Again, moving up the value chain. Okay, and the 00:17:26.349 --> 00:17:28.690 final analogy which feels the most direct, spell 00:17:28.690 --> 00:17:30.950 check. The fear that we would forget how to spell 00:17:30.950 --> 00:17:33.769 and lose our vocabulary. Which, again, kind of 00:17:33.769 --> 00:17:35.890 happened. My spelling is atrocious without red 00:17:35.890 --> 00:17:38.289 squiggly lines. Mine too. But did literature 00:17:38.289 --> 00:17:40.990 die? Did content disappear? No, it exploded. 00:17:41.450 --> 00:17:43.609 Blogging, social media, self -publishing, everyone 00:17:43.609 --> 00:17:46.119 became a writer. It allowed for a content explosion 00:17:46.119 --> 00:17:48.960 because it lowered the barrier to entry. And 00:17:48.960 --> 00:17:50.980 this is where Brian delivers such a powerful 00:17:50.980 --> 00:17:54.519 line. He argues that generative AI LLMs like 00:17:54.519 --> 00:17:57.920 ChatGPT are just spill check for ideas. That 00:17:57.920 --> 00:18:00.859 is a sticky phrase. Spill check for ideas. It 00:18:00.859 --> 00:18:03.720 is. It's not generating the core idea for you. 00:18:03.759 --> 00:18:05.619 You still have to have the insight, the vision. 00:18:05.920 --> 00:18:08.240 But it helps you check your structure, your logic, 00:18:08.319 --> 00:18:10.779 your clarity. It helps you articulate the idea 00:18:10.779 --> 00:18:13.440 better. It doesn't provide the soul. It polishes 00:18:13.440 --> 00:18:15.809 the vessel. Beautifully put. So we've looked 00:18:15.809 --> 00:18:17.829 at the history. We know that resisting the tool 00:18:17.829 --> 00:18:20.710 leads to obsolescence. We know that forced adoption 00:18:20.710 --> 00:18:24.130 leads to resentment and inauthenticity. So how 00:18:24.130 --> 00:18:26.990 do we actively take control? This brings us to 00:18:26.990 --> 00:18:29.730 the core solution of part 10, marshalling AI. 00:18:30.069 --> 00:18:32.950 My marshal. It's such a deliberate word choice 00:18:32.950 --> 00:18:35.809 by Brian. Think about what a marshal does. A 00:18:35.809 --> 00:18:38.490 field marshal in an army. They command. They 00:18:38.490 --> 00:18:40.970 arrange the troops. They have a strategy. Exactly. 00:18:40.970 --> 00:18:44.000 It implies order, command, arrangement. A marshal 00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:45.940 isn't a passenger. They are an authority figure. 00:18:46.079 --> 00:18:49.160 It is active, not passive. It's the antidote 00:18:49.160 --> 00:18:52.299 to that secret AI user stigma. You aren't hiding 00:18:52.299 --> 00:18:54.680 the tool. You are orchestrating it. You're proud 00:18:54.680 --> 00:18:57.940 of it. And Brian leans on Marshall McLuhan here, 00:18:58.059 --> 00:19:01.539 the famous media theorist. McLuhan famously said 00:19:01.539 --> 00:19:03.740 that all technologies are extensions of man. 00:19:03.980 --> 00:19:07.160 The wheel is an extension of the foot. Glasses 00:19:07.160 --> 00:19:09.430 are an extension of the eye. A hammer is an extension 00:19:09.430 --> 00:19:12.650 of the fist. Brian views AI as an extension of 00:19:12.650 --> 00:19:14.630 the central nervous system. That's a big leap. 00:19:14.769 --> 00:19:17.170 The wheel extending the foot makes sense. It 00:19:17.170 --> 00:19:19.990 helps me move. But an extension of the nervous 00:19:19.990 --> 00:19:24.369 system, that sounds almost biological, a cyborg 00:19:24.369 --> 00:19:26.190 concept. Think about what your nervous system 00:19:26.190 --> 00:19:28.650 does. It processes signals from the world. It 00:19:28.650 --> 00:19:30.910 senses patterns. It coordinates responses. It 00:19:30.910 --> 00:19:33.950 learns. Okay. Brian argues that AI magnifies 00:19:33.950 --> 00:19:36.529 your existing cognitive strengths. This is crucial. 00:19:37.079 --> 00:19:40.259 AI is not a replacement for you. It is an amplifier 00:19:40.259 --> 00:19:42.779 of you. Can you give a concrete example? How 00:19:42.779 --> 00:19:45.160 does it amplify me? Sure. Let's say you are naturally 00:19:45.160 --> 00:19:47.380 a very empathetic person. You're a teacher or 00:19:47.380 --> 00:19:49.759 a therapist. You might fear AI because it seems 00:19:49.759 --> 00:19:52.380 cold and calculating. A common fear. But if you 00:19:52.380 --> 00:19:54.539 marshal it, you can use AI to scale your empathy. 00:19:54.900 --> 00:19:58.380 How does a machine scale empathy? That feels 00:19:58.380 --> 00:20:00.420 like a contradiction. Imagine you have a class 00:20:00.420 --> 00:20:03.750 of 30 students. You know, from your human empathy 00:20:03.750 --> 00:20:06.670 that Johnny needs visual metaphors to understand 00:20:06.670 --> 00:20:09.450 history and Sarah needs strict logical bullet 00:20:09.450 --> 00:20:11.750 points and Michael learns best through stories. 00:20:11.930 --> 00:20:14.089 Right. But I only have so many hours in the day. 00:20:14.170 --> 00:20:16.309 I can't write 30 different lesson plans. But 00:20:16.309 --> 00:20:19.890 the A .I. has infinite time. So you, the marshal, 00:20:19.970 --> 00:20:23.150 the conductor, tell the A .I. Take this core 00:20:23.150 --> 00:20:25.529 lesson on the American Revolution. Now create 00:20:25.529 --> 00:20:27.670 a version for Johnny that uses metaphors about 00:20:27.670 --> 00:20:30.369 sports teams. Create a version for Sarah that 00:20:30.369 --> 00:20:33.099 is a logical outline. And create a narrative 00:20:33.099 --> 00:20:35.839 version for Michael. Wow. The AI handles the 00:20:35.839 --> 00:20:38.319 data processing, the grunt work of writing. You 00:20:38.319 --> 00:20:40.700 provide the empathetic direction. You've used 00:20:40.700 --> 00:20:42.720 the machine to extend your human care to more 00:20:42.720 --> 00:20:44.559 people more effectively. And if you're on the 00:20:44.559 --> 00:20:46.819 other end of the spectrum, if you're highly analytical. 00:20:47.160 --> 00:20:49.839 Then it scales your data processing. You can 00:20:49.839 --> 00:20:52.019 feed it a million rows of sales data and say, 00:20:52.099 --> 00:20:54.900 find the three most counterintuitive correlations. 00:20:55.160 --> 00:20:57.859 You become a super analyst. Your unique human 00:20:57.859 --> 00:21:01.359 ability to ask good questions is amplified. The 00:21:01.359 --> 00:21:03.720 practical skill here, the thing we actually need 00:21:03.720 --> 00:21:06.519 to learn to be a marshal, is prompt engineering. 00:21:06.880 --> 00:21:09.980 Right. But I feel like that term has gotten a 00:21:09.980 --> 00:21:12.500 bad rap lately. It sounds like learning cheat 00:21:12.500 --> 00:21:15.640 codes or just trying to trick the bot. Brian 00:21:15.640 --> 00:21:17.740 says it's more than that. He argues that prompt 00:21:17.740 --> 00:21:20.759 engineering is a core competency, not a fad. 00:21:20.960 --> 00:21:23.980 And he reframes it. He says it's about metacognition. 00:21:24.519 --> 00:21:26.240 Metacognition. Thinking about how you think. 00:21:26.460 --> 00:21:29.380 Whoa. Yeah. That sounds like Inception, but it's 00:21:29.380 --> 00:21:32.480 true. Explain that. How is writing a prompt thinking 00:21:32.480 --> 00:21:36.059 about thinking? Most people use AI lazily. They 00:21:36.059 --> 00:21:38.460 type in, write an email to my team about the 00:21:38.460 --> 00:21:40.539 new project. That's low metacognition. That's 00:21:40.539 --> 00:21:42.799 the victim mindset. You're asking the AI to do 00:21:42.799 --> 00:21:44.880 the thinking for you. Exactly. You're abdicating 00:21:44.880 --> 00:21:47.420 responsibility. And the marshal, the conductor. 00:21:47.440 --> 00:21:49.259 The marshal has already thought about the strategy. 00:21:49.559 --> 00:21:52.759 Their prompt sounds like this. Act as a project 00:21:52.759 --> 00:21:55.759 lead. Draft an email to a team of engineers who 00:21:55.759 --> 00:21:58.240 are feeling burnt out. The tone should be inspiring, 00:21:58.339 --> 00:22:00.839 but also acknowledge their hard work. The goal 00:22:00.839 --> 00:22:02.539 is to get them excited about Project Phoenix 00:22:02.539 --> 00:22:05.140 without minimizing the challenges. Reference 00:22:05.140 --> 00:22:08.220 our past success on Project Eagle. Generate three 00:22:08.220 --> 00:22:11.640 variations, one concise, one detailed, and one 00:22:11.640 --> 00:22:14.559 more informal. I see the difference. To write 00:22:14.559 --> 00:22:16.430 that prompt... I have to know what the strategy 00:22:16.430 --> 00:22:18.869 is in the first place. I have to understand my 00:22:18.869 --> 00:22:21.609 team's emotional state, our history, the project 00:22:21.609 --> 00:22:24.549 goals. Exactly. You have to be the expert to 00:22:24.549 --> 00:22:26.750 guide the AI. It pushes you to be clearer, smarter, 00:22:27.049 --> 00:22:30.390 and more intentional. Paradoxically, to use AI 00:22:30.390 --> 00:22:33.569 well, you have to be more human, not less. And 00:22:33.569 --> 00:22:35.369 it's not just text anymore. This is evolving 00:22:35.369 --> 00:22:37.630 so fast. We're talking about multimodal integration. 00:22:38.240 --> 00:22:40.220 This is where the conductor metaphor really sings. 00:22:40.380 --> 00:22:42.480 We have text, we have images with tools like 00:22:42.480 --> 00:22:44.740 Midjourney, we have code, we have voice. And 00:22:44.740 --> 00:22:47.039 a whole orchestra. A whole digital orchestra. 00:22:47.599 --> 00:22:50.619 And the AI symphonist is a new archetype Brian 00:22:50.619 --> 00:22:53.299 talks about. It's someone who can weave all these 00:22:53.299 --> 00:22:55.319 streams together to create something holistic. 00:22:56.160 --> 00:22:58.640 Brian references Kant's aesthetics here, which 00:22:58.640 --> 00:23:00.980 is not what I expected in an essay about AI. 00:23:01.240 --> 00:23:03.900 He does. The idea of blending human creativity 00:23:03.900 --> 00:23:07.720 with algorithmic serendipity. Serendipity. That's 00:23:07.720 --> 00:23:09.839 a beautiful word for software. I usually use 00:23:09.839 --> 00:23:11.480 other words. Well, think about it. It's when 00:23:11.480 --> 00:23:13.779 the AI gives you something weird, something you 00:23:13.779 --> 00:23:15.900 didn't expect. Maybe a phrase you wouldn't have 00:23:15.900 --> 00:23:17.960 chosen or an image that's slightly off kilter, 00:23:18.059 --> 00:23:20.059 a happy accident. Right. It makes a mistake, 00:23:20.279 --> 00:23:22.259 but it's an interesting mistake. The amateur 00:23:22.259 --> 00:23:25.240 rejects it because it's wrong. The artist, the 00:23:25.240 --> 00:23:27.779 master. Marshall uses it. They jam with it. It 00:23:27.779 --> 00:23:30.119 creates something neither the human or the machine 00:23:30.119 --> 00:23:32.299 could have created alone. I love that. It's like 00:23:32.299 --> 00:23:34.259 jazz. You're riffing with the machine. That's 00:23:34.259 --> 00:23:37.140 the highest level of marshalling. It's co -creation. 00:23:37.359 --> 00:23:40.019 So if we embrace this, if we become Marshalls, 00:23:40.019 --> 00:23:42.859 what does the future of work actually look like? 00:23:42.960 --> 00:23:45.900 Because let's be honest, the job as we know it 00:23:45.900 --> 00:23:48.400 is dying, isn't it? The job is evolving into 00:23:48.400 --> 00:23:51.079 the portfolio career. Brian predicts a shift 00:23:51.079 --> 00:23:55.769 from labor. To leverage. Labor to leverage. That's 00:23:55.769 --> 00:23:57.890 the bumper sticker for the next decade. We have 00:23:57.890 --> 00:24:00.190 data from McKinsey suggesting that centaurs, 00:24:00.190 --> 00:24:03.690 humans plus AI are 20 to 30 percent more productive 00:24:03.690 --> 00:24:07.019 than humans alone. The centaur, half human, half 00:24:07.019 --> 00:24:09.960 machine. But it's not just doing the same old 00:24:09.960 --> 00:24:13.599 job faster. It's about entirely new vocations, 00:24:13.599 --> 00:24:16.500 new ways of creating value. Let's speculate on 00:24:16.500 --> 00:24:18.759 some of these new roles based on Brian's analysis. 00:24:19.259 --> 00:24:22.559 What are the jobs of the interregnum? One major 00:24:22.559 --> 00:24:25.880 one is the AI curator. Curator, like in a museum. 00:24:26.250 --> 00:24:29.349 Similar concept. As AI generates infinite content, 00:24:29.430 --> 00:24:32.009 infinite art, infinite text, infinite code, the 00:24:32.009 --> 00:24:34.509 cost of creation drops to zero. Right. Supply 00:24:34.509 --> 00:24:36.690 becomes infinite. And when creation is free, 00:24:36.829 --> 00:24:39.930 what becomes valuable? Discernment. Knowing what's 00:24:39.930 --> 00:24:43.450 good. Curation. The ability to look at 100 AI 00:24:43.450 --> 00:24:46.069 -generated options and say, that one, that's 00:24:46.069 --> 00:24:47.430 the one that resonates. That's the one that tells 00:24:47.430 --> 00:24:49.289 the truth. That's the one with taste. So taste 00:24:49.289 --> 00:24:51.769 becomes a marketable skill. The ultimate human 00:24:51.769 --> 00:24:54.670 skill. Taste is the ultimate skill in a post 00:24:54.670 --> 00:24:57.470 -scarcity creation economy. If you have good 00:24:57.470 --> 00:25:00.710 taste, you can wield armies of AI to execute 00:25:00.710 --> 00:25:04.589 your vision. Then you have AI ethicists or auditors. 00:25:04.769 --> 00:25:08.509 The watchdogs. The referees. As models hallucinate 00:25:08.509 --> 00:25:11.710 or show bias, we need the human in the loop to 00:25:11.710 --> 00:25:13.509 be the moral arbiter. To make sure the machines 00:25:13.509 --> 00:25:16.390 are fair. Brian references John Rawls' veil of 00:25:16.390 --> 00:25:19.539 ignorance. We need humans to check the code and 00:25:19.539 --> 00:25:21.960 ensure it treats everyone fairly to audit the 00:25:21.960 --> 00:25:24.680 black box. We can't just trust it blindly. That's 00:25:24.680 --> 00:25:27.380 a crucial role. What about something more personal? 00:25:27.559 --> 00:25:29.779 The personal AI trainer. Like a gym trainer, 00:25:29.920 --> 00:25:33.500 but for your bot. In a way, it's about data sovereignty. 00:25:34.240 --> 00:25:36.940 This is a big theme for Brian. Right now, we 00:25:36.940 --> 00:25:39.079 feed our data to big companies like Google and 00:25:39.079 --> 00:25:41.299 OpenAI. We're making their models smarter with 00:25:41.299 --> 00:25:43.740 our lives. Exactly. But in the future, you will 00:25:43.740 --> 00:25:45.500 want to train models on your own proprietary 00:25:45.500 --> 00:25:48.319 data, your emails, your journals, your body of 00:25:48.319 --> 00:25:50.259 work, your private thoughts. You need someone 00:25:50.259 --> 00:25:52.779 who can help you build a digital you that stays 00:25:52.779 --> 00:25:54.920 under your control. So I can have an AI that 00:25:54.920 --> 00:25:57.480 thinks like me, that can draft responses in my 00:25:57.480 --> 00:26:00.019 voice, but works while I'm sleeping. And that 00:26:00.019 --> 00:26:03.740 you own completely. That's the goal. And finally, 00:26:03.880 --> 00:26:07.099 the narrative architect. That sounds grand. What 00:26:07.099 --> 00:26:09.680 does a narrative architect do? It is. It's using 00:26:09.680 --> 00:26:13.299 AI to build worlds, not just paragraphs. Because 00:26:13.299 --> 00:26:15.859 you can generate code, art, and text simultaneously, 00:26:16.160 --> 00:26:19.460 a single person can now build a video game or 00:26:19.460 --> 00:26:22.279 a movie or an interactive novel. The barrier 00:26:22.279 --> 00:26:24.940 to entry for world building has collapsed. You 00:26:24.940 --> 00:26:26.880 don't need a whole studio anymore. You can be 00:26:26.880 --> 00:26:29.660 a studio of one. It's exciting, but it's also 00:26:29.660 --> 00:26:32.460 daunting. We are moving from a world where we 00:26:32.460 --> 00:26:34.779 work for survival to eventually a world where 00:26:34.779 --> 00:26:38.599 we work for meaning. But we are in the interregnum. 00:26:38.720 --> 00:26:41.079 The messy middle. And the interregnum requires 00:26:41.079 --> 00:26:43.579 hustle, requires adaptation. And Brian is clear. 00:26:43.839 --> 00:26:46.599 This isn't a utopia yet. It's a transition. It's 00:26:46.599 --> 00:26:48.480 going to be bumpy. There will be winners and 00:26:48.480 --> 00:26:50.619 losers. So as we wrap up, let's bring it back 00:26:50.619 --> 00:26:52.240 to the listener. The person standing at their 00:26:52.240 --> 00:26:54.140 desk right now, maybe listening to this on headphones, 00:26:54.359 --> 00:26:56.839 ready to alt -tab away from chat GPT if their 00:26:56.839 --> 00:26:59.400 manager walks by. What is the final provocation? 00:26:59.710 --> 00:27:02.710 The provocation is stop hiding. Say it louder 00:27:02.710 --> 00:27:06.549 for the people in the back. Stop hiding. Admit 00:27:06.549 --> 00:27:09.230 you are using these tools, but, and this is critical, 00:27:09.329 --> 00:27:12.430 frame it as mastery. Don't say, yeah, I used 00:27:12.430 --> 00:27:15.789 AI because I was stuck. Say, I used AI to explore 00:27:15.789 --> 00:27:18.390 10 different strategic angles and synthesize 00:27:18.390 --> 00:27:20.650 the best one in half the time. Change the narrative. 00:27:21.420 --> 00:27:23.640 You aren't cheating. You're conducting. You aren't 00:27:23.640 --> 00:27:26.019 lazy. You're leveraging. Don't let your company 00:27:26.019 --> 00:27:29.160 dictate how you use AI. Don't let society shame 00:27:29.160 --> 00:27:31.640 you. Because here is the brutal truth of the 00:27:31.640 --> 00:27:34.299 5 ,000 days. The compound interest of wisdom 00:27:34.299 --> 00:27:37.420 is real. Explain that. Compound interest of wisdom. 00:27:37.599 --> 00:27:39.559 Those who start marshalling AI now, figuring 00:27:39.559 --> 00:27:42.140 out the prompts, the workflows, the synthesis, 00:27:42.400 --> 00:27:44.640 the co -creation will be so far ahead in five 00:27:44.640 --> 00:27:46.759 years it won't even be funny. Their skills will 00:27:46.759 --> 00:27:49.079 compound. And those who resist. They are the 00:27:49.079 --> 00:27:50.920 engineers cleaning to their slide rules while 00:27:50.920 --> 00:27:53.160 the calculator users are building skyscrapers. 00:27:53.259 --> 00:27:55.460 They will fall off the curve. It's not a threat. 00:27:55.599 --> 00:27:57.640 It's just historical gravity. It has happened 00:27:57.640 --> 00:28:00.319 with every major technological shift. Brian leaves 00:28:00.319 --> 00:28:02.380 us with a beautiful thought to close out. Part 00:28:02.380 --> 00:28:07.099 10. He says, this is the interregnum, but it 00:28:07.099 --> 00:28:09.640 is not purgatory. It is your time to transition 00:28:09.640 --> 00:28:12.920 from moment to moment ahead with grace. That's 00:28:12.920 --> 00:28:16.380 the goal. Grace, not panic, not denial. but a 00:28:16.380 --> 00:28:19.579 graceful, active participation in our own evolution. 00:28:20.059 --> 00:28:22.640 We have to be the architects of destiny, not 00:28:22.640 --> 00:28:25.180 the victims of the algorithm. Well said. And 00:28:25.180 --> 00:28:27.980 remember, this is only part 10. The journey continues. 00:28:28.319 --> 00:28:30.720 There are still thousands of days left in the 00:28:30.720 --> 00:28:33.759 interregnum. Plenty of time to learn and to start 00:28:33.759 --> 00:28:35.660 marshalling. Thanks for diving deep with us. 00:28:35.779 --> 00:28:37.900 Go open that tab and don't close it when someone 00:28:37.900 --> 00:28:39.539 walks by. Show them what you're building. We'll 00:28:39.539 --> 00:28:41.319 see you in the next deep dive. Keep conducting.