The current state of AI and the creative job marketing has me thinking this a lot.
(parts of ) My job may be obsolete in about 5 years
The bottom end of the market will fall out and only the established experts will continue to earn
I know they’ll have a lot of learning to do.
The future will belong to those that can wrangle AI better than others,
and that can combine multiple skills into one package which sells
As someone who spent most of their life playing learning, creating selling and exploring in an online virtual environment,
I’m particularly worried about adaption.
I know I have a lot of cross-transferable skills
I know I can pick up new skills easily.
And I have the skills that I need to sell new skills
The question is not:
“How do I adapt?”
but
“do I even want to adapt?”
For the last 3 years, I’ve been accurately tracking my emotions throughout the day as well as getting more serious about journalling.
Using AI to analyse my journals
And analytics through my emotional tracking
There’s a pretty clear theme emerging…
I’m much happier when I’m building things in the physical world.
I generally find the internet is an exhausting place to be in recently.
Content and the internet in general in a broader sense is becoming more generic.
Short form content that rules on social media is like sweeties for children.
First, the online creator economy has flooded the market with shallow content.
Now AI is supercharging that deluge,
and social algorithms seem to be doubling down, speeding their own eventual demise.
It’s getting harder and harder find good content
And for my own content to get found,
Under an avalanche of over optimized engagement schlopp.
I can see two paths ahead of me:
1
I can permit my skills on my knowledge and authority in the design/ marketing strategy space into something that will still leave give me leverage and profit in the virtual world, probably something related to or aided by AI.
Or 2
I can pivot into some my physical skills, building things designing things, creating things in the real world
The latter is probably less scalable but more satisfying.
I would have to sacrifice the level of free time right now.
And probably a lot of the money that I make right now.
I wouldnt have as much time with Fin and Immy either.
In exchange for alignment, better physical health,
satisfaction
Have to also be aware that the grass is always greener on the other side
I could pivot into something new and end up hating it or getting bored.
This requires some hammock time to figure out…
Basic AI survival skills
On social there is a strange glee from the “you’re going to lose your job” mob.
I’m in the bracket of “at risk from ai”.
And I would say it’s a big IF.
You’re going to lose your job IF…
IF you don’t adapt.
There are two main camps when it comes to AI adoption in the creative industry …
The overnight experts
These gleeful adapters believe they bebefit from AI because they probably had little original content in the first place. They have probably already changed their li description to “ai expert” and are selling their half backed digital products for £12 a pop.
The optimistsic ostriches
They are “human first” and think naively that everyone will band together to shun ai.
They seem to think if they ignore it long enough, everything will be fine.
I’m in a 3rd camp:
The pessimistic realist
Ai is not a replacement for my thinking but it is an ideation and labour tool to multiply my own human thinking.
When computers entered the workplace, it changed the game.
Previous jobs like “typist” became obsolete quickly.
Pretending that isn’t the case doesn’t help anyone.
When I used to be an architect, computers were already commonplace for a long time, yet we still received CVs and applications which would list “Microsoft Word and excel” under skills.
These aren’t skills, they are basic tool requirements to be able to work.
You wouldn’t see a joiner listing “saw” under their skills.
The ones who learn and adapt to the new tools will thrive.
AI is ALREADY a basic every day tool for all admin jobs and many knowledge workers (for some parts of the job).
Businesses will hire people who develop leveraged skills they haven’t had time to pick up.
Or that continue to deliver value that’s worth paying for.
On that front nothing has changed.
Remember: AI is a multipler: If you deliver 💩, using AI will only create more 💩
