How to Compete in the AI World
Update: Last week’s MonetizeSkills launch was a big success. I'm truly thankful for all your supportive comments. The Friday deep dive on Expert Witnessing (sent only to paid subscribers) was especially well received.
I'm now refining the entire program based on your feedback and will share updates soon.
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How to Compete in the AI World
This week, I want to talk about a surprising way you need to start thinking as AI becomes part of our everyday lives.
The worst thing formal education has done to us is it's made us perfectionists. The more educated you are, the worse this might be for you in the new world.
In school, we strive to be good students. A good student is one who gets high grades. Exceptional students are the ones who get top grades. What you want to be in that environment is the best. Be at the top of your class, and doors will open up for you.
"Be the best." That's a dangerous phrase because no matter how good you are, you're still human. No matter how much you know, AI will know more. No matter how thorough you are, AI will be more thorough.
We may not be there right now, but AI will be better than any human because the tech world is obsessed with reaching Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), meaning AI could perform any intellectual task that a human can. Depending on whom you ask, we're 2 to 10 years from that point.
So, what do you do in this world? Stop trying to be the best. Learn to be you.
My Personal Experience
In 2024, I published 52 newsletters about the lives of legendary artists. I'm not an artist or an art historian, but I love going to art museums. Many times when I stand in front of a painting, I get curious about the person who painted it. What was their inspiration? How did they decide on that medium or composition?
Every week last year, I'd spend several hours researching an artist's life, focusing especially on what made them unique. Then I'd publish a roughly 800-word newsletter. I started with zero subscribers. In a few months, I had hundreds of active subscribers who'd engage and comment on my posts.
But here's the surprising part. When I came up with this newsletter concept, I thought it would be for art beginners. People who didn't know much about art but wanted to learn in an easy way. What ended up happening is that most of my subscribers were artists, photographers, and people who already knew more about art than I did. They simply wanted a different perspective on the topic they loved.
When I published an article about Edward Hopper, my subscriber base doubled in days. My article on Wassily Kandinsky led to emotional responses expressing how much his work spoke to them.
All these people didn't subscribe to my newsletter because I was the best art writer or historian. They subscribed because I had a unique point of view.
That experience taught me something important: while AI can master any subject, it can't develop a distinctive voice. That's purely human.
Learning is easy. Unlearning is hard.
The education system made us think that to share anything, it needs to be perfect. But what if waiting for perfection means never finding your own way of seeing things?
I still struggle with this concept. For example, I spend 2-3 times more time editing my writing than actually writing. The biggest advice I've gotten from people who wanted to help me is to stop waiting until I'm 100% ready.
Colin Powell had a 40-70 rule. You need between 40 and 70% of the total information to make a decision. AI will have access to 100% of the information in any field. But if we wait for that much information, either AI has already solved the problem, or the opportunity has passed.
The difference between succeeding and failing in the AI world won't be how much we know. It'll be how we see things differently. It is not how we become the best at something, but how we develop our own perspective when everything around us changes.
So I ask myself these questions now:
What do I see differently because of my experiences?
What perspectives can I offer that nobody else can?
What am I afraid to share because it's not perfect enough?
Because the truth is, when AI can master any skill, our unique perspectives become our competitive advantage. AI can compile, regurgitate, and even analyze facts, but it can't generate the lens through which you see the world. That's yours alone, and it only develops when you're willing to share your thoughts before they're polished to perfection.