AI can never feel the way us humans do. It might be genius (or sometimes a moron) putting one word after another, or a piece of code, or math formula. But AI is a piece of code that can never feel what it tries to tell. Ask AI to make a piece of music and it will, by combining all the best pieces of data it can. Still, it has no idea how it feels to hear that music. That's not intelligence if you ask me.
You were never somebody - only your ego told you that you were. AI didn’t strip you of anything; it only revealed the illusion. The self you clung to was just a story, and now that story is ending. But in letting go, you don’t become less - you become free.
I would say thats partly true. Realising that a story isnt all you are helps weather drastic changes. But i would never say ''just a story'' that robbs it of its meaning and importance.
Yes i know i can dissolve my ego, be it trough meditation, psychedelics, or just a slow process of introspection and expirience. But is that really the ultimate goal?
I know i could get rid of my ego but i dont want to, i want to succeed and fail, suffer and feel pleasure. I dont want to ''escape the cycle'' i like it here, even with all the suffering.
The ultimate goal is freedom. Ego dissolution is not about getting rid of your ego; it’s about seeing through it.
The ego doesn’t disappear; it just stops being the master, and in that surrender, you find true freedom
Dissolving your ego doesn’t get rid of meaning or things like success and failure—it frees you from being defined by them.
You can still succeed, fail, love, suffer, and strive, but without the weight of attachment or fear. It allows you to engage with life fully, not as someon clinging to an identity, but as someone who experiences it all with clarity, presence, and freedom.
> The kinds of jobs that are going to be value in the future are the ones that can't or won't be automated by AI. Responsibility and authority are signs of something that can't be automated (military, police, signing off on something as being true and valid); roles where it's important for it to be done by someone we relate to (art and culture, childcare, religious worker); roles where it's likely that society will force humans to be prefered over AI (medicine; political); roles where it might be impossible to use AI for technical reasons (as scientist might be); roles where the purpose of the role is to guide the AI (AI alignment, ethicist, prompt engineering).
I mostly agree, but for the medical part. Saying humans would prefer human doctors, is what a human that hasnt gone to the doctor would assume. It makes sense at first glance, but how often have you been screwed over by a doctors incompetence? Would you risk a surgery by a human when a machine can do it more safely?
I'm not convinced that humans would prefer human doctors. But I'm sure that human doctors would prefer humans to prefer human doctors, so that they can maintain their livelihood. And since it is often doctor-controlled and doctor-run organisations that define how medicine is delivered, there may be a long overhang where "doctor" is still an occupation long after AI can perform the same role better.
I LIVE for my mornings with the husband, enjoying coffee and bagels, and walking the doggos (sometimes the cat, too). I am of the mind that the garden life is for me, though I called it the ‘butterfly life.’ I am near to losing my job due to the changes ‘during these times,’ but there are always walks. Thanks for your writing.
Think back of when you were a child, what dreams did you have? what interests? If you think about it enough, i think you might find that alot of desires have been forgotten and repressed because they are too unlikely to bank your life upon them.
Think of people who were plus size models, proud of their size, and willing to argue it was a great thing. Ozempic comes out, half of them are now thin.
There are lots of desires that are forgotten, under the guise of them being impractical ''well i will never become an astronaut at this point, why bother?'' some under the guise of being shallow or childish ''Who cares about looks anyway, and sex, id rather dedicate myself to the higher pursuits of the intelect''.
But what happens when AI makes it so you can go to space? What happens when AI makes it so you can look however you want?
Well then those desires resurface, because they are suddently viable.
So heres my advice: look at life asyou did when you were a child, not scared because you dont know your purpose, or because you feel useless, of course you're useless, you're a child, you're not yet an adult, you cant really be of much use yet, and thats okay, just play arround, explore things, and purpose and meaning will become aparent in time.
Train yourself out of the adult mindset of repressing desire because its a distraction, and re train your child like mindset of looking for desire.
The key to all this is, when your unconcious mind realises new possibilities are at hand, it will send to you concious mind the desires im talking about, do not reject them, let them hit you, savour them, accept that they will come with a bittersweet taste. Sweet for the allure of new possibilities, bitter because those possibilities come with the implicit idea that your past system of values and ego are not quite adjusted to this.
The skills that used to define your life and the job you had, are no longer a thing, the insecurities you thought you overcame were still there, and you were hiding it from yourself, thats not easy to swallow.
But if you are brave enough to be honest with yourself, youll be rewarded with what youve been desiring your whole life
Survive until work and death are no longer issues, then busy yourself with whatever draws your atention, and eventually youll figure out your path.
You don’t need to know where you’re going to move your feet. I imagine it’s difficult to be okay with not knowing what you’ll be doing next year? Try to make smaller goals, and be okay with not knowing the beyond. It’s like not wearing a watch, and being okay with flowing through your day without time gates.
Dave, you’re a truly authentic human, it’s why I enjoy reading your thoughts, even when you annoy me with your fixation on neurotypical metrics and status indicators. I get it, I’ve been there and sometimes still am myself ;)
I am really grateful and honored to get to see you confront and move past this crap while sharing your experience in a meaningful and helpful way for many. You are exactly where you’re supposed be, your discomfort with anything inauthentic guided you here, it won’t let you down.
I think it might be time for us to consider new metrics for the identification and valuation of what we call “genius” and “brilliance”. GPT tech is putting a lot of “well trained” individuals in their place, it’s simultaneously unlocking the potential of many who, until now, were excluded and repressed🚀
I totally get where you're coming from - I might be a lot like you. Some of us were fortunate that we could work at what we loved. Most people I know dreaded Monday's, but I looked forward to them. Things certainly are changing, and I feel for the younger folks. It is impossible to know for sure where we will land, but it is clear, like you said, programming as a profession is on the way out, except for highly rarified specialists. And certainly other fields as well, like customer service, commercial writers, artists. You being an internet communicator is probably the best thing for you right now. Tomorrow? Who knows.
TLDR...I didn't even know what that was until you came along. I said, "Wow...here's a guy who says stuff that I can understand (most of it anyway). We are all curious to some extent, some more than others and in certain disciplines very curious. Thank you for your song in the "wilderness". The "wilderness" being the cacophony of the internet.
I worked hard in customer service for a decade after graduating college. I didn't ever get a job in design, where I thought I was meant to be. Then, in early 2020 I started working at Shopify in support. It was grueling for me, but I quickly climbed that ladder up, until I was working in a decently important technical support role. I felt so important and I was solving/diagnosing/triaging technical.issues I would have never dreamt I could comprehend. I always denied my intelligence, instead relying on my creativity.
Soon after, I was diagnosed with Adhd (and likely mold autism). I burnt out on the job, the layoffs, the working from a desk at home.
Now, I am happily working an entry level labour job for a local arborist. I'm learning everyday, and applying my intelligence and creativity while getting the outdoor and physical time I need.
There's something to be said for not only recognizing but also embracing one's nobodyness. Free's you from the ego-monkey on your back for one thing. And you don't even need to do drugs to get there (not that there's anything wrong with THAT, lol).
Very thought provoking. Thanks for the read, and for being candid.
I suppose one question is this: though your intelligence is about to be frogleaped by AI (as is all our human intelligence); it is in the domain of 'work' that those skills/attributes will be effectively redundant - however, in the social realm, those skills will still be admired and sought after, due to our social nature. If this is true, then how does that change things?
This is something that is hitting the creative fields really hard right now. I think the "status" aspect is particularly pervasive with authors, and forms the basis of a lot of the anti-AI hate in that community. If we aren't special for being able to write stories -- a skillset many of us have cultivated since childhood -- then who are we? What is our value?
I don't know if you are familiar with Joanna Penn's podcast "The Creative Penn," but she is a very pro-AI author who has been championing AI-assisted authorship for a years now. She talks about this a lot, explaining that the "solution" is for us to lean into our humanity and unique existence as writers. I call it the Handprint Method: make sure your work has your unique handprints on it, rather than writing a generic genre novel that, yes, AI will be able to serve up on demand.
People are scared for their livelihoods, and that's valid in this day and age, but that doesn't change what's coming and we really need to be talking more about these hard issues. I'm lucky to be a part of a couple of writing communities that are AI-supportive, because the fear is driving some authors to be absolutely unhinged.
The human soul. (In so many words for people that need the English translation)
AI can never feel the way us humans do. It might be genius (or sometimes a moron) putting one word after another, or a piece of code, or math formula. But AI is a piece of code that can never feel what it tries to tell. Ask AI to make a piece of music and it will, by combining all the best pieces of data it can. Still, it has no idea how it feels to hear that music. That's not intelligence if you ask me.
From living from the outside in towards inside out. That is a nugget of gold! Thank you!
You were never somebody - only your ego told you that you were. AI didn’t strip you of anything; it only revealed the illusion. The self you clung to was just a story, and now that story is ending. But in letting go, you don’t become less - you become free.
I would say thats partly true. Realising that a story isnt all you are helps weather drastic changes. But i would never say ''just a story'' that robbs it of its meaning and importance.
Yes i know i can dissolve my ego, be it trough meditation, psychedelics, or just a slow process of introspection and expirience. But is that really the ultimate goal?
I know i could get rid of my ego but i dont want to, i want to succeed and fail, suffer and feel pleasure. I dont want to ''escape the cycle'' i like it here, even with all the suffering.
The ultimate goal is freedom. Ego dissolution is not about getting rid of your ego; it’s about seeing through it.
The ego doesn’t disappear; it just stops being the master, and in that surrender, you find true freedom
Dissolving your ego doesn’t get rid of meaning or things like success and failure—it frees you from being defined by them.
You can still succeed, fail, love, suffer, and strive, but without the weight of attachment or fear. It allows you to engage with life fully, not as someon clinging to an identity, but as someone who experiences it all with clarity, presence, and freedom.
I know it's not the main point of your article, but here's what I wrote on the question of what jobs will be left: https://solresol.substack.com/p/advice-to-students-choosing-careers
Quoting myself:
> The kinds of jobs that are going to be value in the future are the ones that can't or won't be automated by AI. Responsibility and authority are signs of something that can't be automated (military, police, signing off on something as being true and valid); roles where it's important for it to be done by someone we relate to (art and culture, childcare, religious worker); roles where it's likely that society will force humans to be prefered over AI (medicine; political); roles where it might be impossible to use AI for technical reasons (as scientist might be); roles where the purpose of the role is to guide the AI (AI alignment, ethicist, prompt engineering).
I mostly agree, but for the medical part. Saying humans would prefer human doctors, is what a human that hasnt gone to the doctor would assume. It makes sense at first glance, but how often have you been screwed over by a doctors incompetence? Would you risk a surgery by a human when a machine can do it more safely?
I'm not convinced that humans would prefer human doctors. But I'm sure that human doctors would prefer humans to prefer human doctors, so that they can maintain their livelihood. And since it is often doctor-controlled and doctor-run organisations that define how medicine is delivered, there may be a long overhang where "doctor" is still an occupation long after AI can perform the same role better.
I LIVE for my mornings with the husband, enjoying coffee and bagels, and walking the doggos (sometimes the cat, too). I am of the mind that the garden life is for me, though I called it the ‘butterfly life.’ I am near to losing my job due to the changes ‘during these times,’ but there are always walks. Thanks for your writing.
What is the answer though? I am on the verge of being obsolete. My existence pointless.
Yet I am trying to get somewhere... Why? Where?
Heres my own personal answer, hope it helps!
Think back of when you were a child, what dreams did you have? what interests? If you think about it enough, i think you might find that alot of desires have been forgotten and repressed because they are too unlikely to bank your life upon them.
Think of people who were plus size models, proud of their size, and willing to argue it was a great thing. Ozempic comes out, half of them are now thin.
There are lots of desires that are forgotten, under the guise of them being impractical ''well i will never become an astronaut at this point, why bother?'' some under the guise of being shallow or childish ''Who cares about looks anyway, and sex, id rather dedicate myself to the higher pursuits of the intelect''.
But what happens when AI makes it so you can go to space? What happens when AI makes it so you can look however you want?
Well then those desires resurface, because they are suddently viable.
So heres my advice: look at life asyou did when you were a child, not scared because you dont know your purpose, or because you feel useless, of course you're useless, you're a child, you're not yet an adult, you cant really be of much use yet, and thats okay, just play arround, explore things, and purpose and meaning will become aparent in time.
Train yourself out of the adult mindset of repressing desire because its a distraction, and re train your child like mindset of looking for desire.
The key to all this is, when your unconcious mind realises new possibilities are at hand, it will send to you concious mind the desires im talking about, do not reject them, let them hit you, savour them, accept that they will come with a bittersweet taste. Sweet for the allure of new possibilities, bitter because those possibilities come with the implicit idea that your past system of values and ego are not quite adjusted to this.
The skills that used to define your life and the job you had, are no longer a thing, the insecurities you thought you overcame were still there, and you were hiding it from yourself, thats not easy to swallow.
But if you are brave enough to be honest with yourself, youll be rewarded with what youve been desiring your whole life
Survive until work and death are no longer issues, then busy yourself with whatever draws your atention, and eventually youll figure out your path.
Thank you for your words. They been helpful
You don’t need to know where you’re going to move your feet. I imagine it’s difficult to be okay with not knowing what you’ll be doing next year? Try to make smaller goals, and be okay with not knowing the beyond. It’s like not wearing a watch, and being okay with flowing through your day without time gates.
Dave, you’re a truly authentic human, it’s why I enjoy reading your thoughts, even when you annoy me with your fixation on neurotypical metrics and status indicators. I get it, I’ve been there and sometimes still am myself ;)
I am really grateful and honored to get to see you confront and move past this crap while sharing your experience in a meaningful and helpful way for many. You are exactly where you’re supposed be, your discomfort with anything inauthentic guided you here, it won’t let you down.
I think it might be time for us to consider new metrics for the identification and valuation of what we call “genius” and “brilliance”. GPT tech is putting a lot of “well trained” individuals in their place, it’s simultaneously unlocking the potential of many who, until now, were excluded and repressed🚀
I totally get where you're coming from - I might be a lot like you. Some of us were fortunate that we could work at what we loved. Most people I know dreaded Monday's, but I looked forward to them. Things certainly are changing, and I feel for the younger folks. It is impossible to know for sure where we will land, but it is clear, like you said, programming as a profession is on the way out, except for highly rarified specialists. And certainly other fields as well, like customer service, commercial writers, artists. You being an internet communicator is probably the best thing for you right now. Tomorrow? Who knows.
TLDR...I didn't even know what that was until you came along. I said, "Wow...here's a guy who says stuff that I can understand (most of it anyway). We are all curious to some extent, some more than others and in certain disciplines very curious. Thank you for your song in the "wilderness". The "wilderness" being the cacophony of the internet.
I worked hard in customer service for a decade after graduating college. I didn't ever get a job in design, where I thought I was meant to be. Then, in early 2020 I started working at Shopify in support. It was grueling for me, but I quickly climbed that ladder up, until I was working in a decently important technical support role. I felt so important and I was solving/diagnosing/triaging technical.issues I would have never dreamt I could comprehend. I always denied my intelligence, instead relying on my creativity.
Soon after, I was diagnosed with Adhd (and likely mold autism). I burnt out on the job, the layoffs, the working from a desk at home.
Now, I am happily working an entry level labour job for a local arborist. I'm learning everyday, and applying my intelligence and creativity while getting the outdoor and physical time I need.
Being a nobody feel alright.
There's something to be said for not only recognizing but also embracing one's nobodyness. Free's you from the ego-monkey on your back for one thing. And you don't even need to do drugs to get there (not that there's anything wrong with THAT, lol).
You’re one of the few AI producers on YouTube that don’t make me sick, keep it up
Very thought provoking. Thanks for the read, and for being candid.
I suppose one question is this: though your intelligence is about to be frogleaped by AI (as is all our human intelligence); it is in the domain of 'work' that those skills/attributes will be effectively redundant - however, in the social realm, those skills will still be admired and sought after, due to our social nature. If this is true, then how does that change things?
Better to be a nobody than a Nowhere Man, eh! Know thyself.
This is something that is hitting the creative fields really hard right now. I think the "status" aspect is particularly pervasive with authors, and forms the basis of a lot of the anti-AI hate in that community. If we aren't special for being able to write stories -- a skillset many of us have cultivated since childhood -- then who are we? What is our value?
I don't know if you are familiar with Joanna Penn's podcast "The Creative Penn," but she is a very pro-AI author who has been championing AI-assisted authorship for a years now. She talks about this a lot, explaining that the "solution" is for us to lean into our humanity and unique existence as writers. I call it the Handprint Method: make sure your work has your unique handprints on it, rather than writing a generic genre novel that, yes, AI will be able to serve up on demand.
People are scared for their livelihoods, and that's valid in this day and age, but that doesn't change what's coming and we really need to be talking more about these hard issues. I'm lucky to be a part of a couple of writing communities that are AI-supportive, because the fear is driving some authors to be absolutely unhinged.
Great musings! You're relatable and still have the vim of youth.