All Business Is Show Business

We are still waiting for our third child to arrive, hopefully this week. In the meantime, I chatted with Ollie Henderson, about how AI is affecting our careers and the way we work.

We explored an uncomfortable truth: the predictable career path is dead. What's replacing it looks more like show business — constant experimentation, uncertain outcomes, and the need to reinvent yourself every few years.

We discussed why AI might paradoxically push us back to valuing in-person connections, how energy constraints could be humanity's saving grace against automation, and why everyone needs to start thinking like a performer rather than an employee.

You can listen to our full conversation above or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

Other things I found interesting this week:

• The Japanese stock market finally reached a new all time high after peaking back in 1990. It's a reminder that when bubbles pop, markets can take a long time to retrace their path.
• Employers are increasingly suspicious of online interviews, given AI's ability to help candidates cheat. The corporate solution? Force more candidates to come for in-person interviews. The even better solution: Build yourself an online body of work and make your skills and style obvious to future employers and partners. Write, launch mini projects, have public conversations about things you know about.
• The best strategy is letting brilliant people work. Ben Thompson, the most brilliant tech analyst, meditated on his own failure to predict Google's continued success. The company's lack of a clear strategy frustrates analysts, but the results speak for themselves.
• AI is already good enough. Most of us argue about the timeline towards AGI or ASI, about whether some new AI would be invented to replace us, and whether these inventions would show up next week or in 20 years. But there is no need to speculate or guess the future. The AI we already have is already good enough. Even if we don't invent anything new, propagating and productizing existing capabilities will have a dramatic impact on jobs in the next twenty years.
• How to produce a simple music video with AI? I spent 45 seconds and used four different tools to write a song, produce the music, animate a charachter, and add captions. Links to the tools here.

That's it for now. Have a great week!

Best,

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