I’m an addict.
AI is here. You can’t escape it, so you have to accept it. The train is coming, get on or get run over. You can complain about it all you want. Talk about the environment, the lack of humanity, the copyright infringement, whatever. It’s not going to change the reality.
So what do we do? Adapt. Try. Fail. Learn.
I’m not going to let AI pass me by and make me less valuable. It’s a tool that makes me exponentially more valuable. I’m faster, more capable, and more flexible than ever before. I am braver and more willing to attempt things I just wouldn’t have before.
I am now also an addict. Once you embrace this new paradigm, you will be too. That next thing, that next step on in the process that used to feel like such a big effort to achieve is just not that hard anymore. And that is the addictive part.
I was sitting at my computer, looking over my bank accounts and trying to find a spending tracker that I liked. I’ve tried so many over the years and all had things I liked and things I hated. They all attempted to cover all the bases and appeal to the masses. I realized that I didn’t need to be stuffed into their box anymore. I can take on that challenge. I used AI to write my own. For me. Exactly what I needed it to do. That was my first taste of the narcotic.
Each feature I added or changed was so easy. My AI pair coding companion was encouraging. It was right there to help me talk through it and decide what I really needed. It never gives up. It will keep trudging away until it thinks it solved the problem. I’d think to myself, “That’s good enough for today.” But, if I just tweaked that one database call, it would be faster. And my boy could do it for me in a few seconds. All I had to do was tell it.
Some kind of dopamine hit took over. I built that. I made it what I wanted. It’s mine. Now, what else can I make?
It spirals. I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad spiral, but a spiral none the less. I could build my own anything. I now had the tools to plan it, design it, spec it, and build it. It is power.
That’s what this new world is for us: Power. See it as power, and you can control it. You set the rules. You direct the process. It’s your power to use. If you choose to ignore it, you’ll get run over.