AI FOMO

• Did you listen to Al Jazeera’s podcast episode about how AI is making us stupid?

• Is a university degree any good anymore in the age of AI? Have you tried out Perplexity Labs?

• Have you heard of agent washing?

• Aren’t you excited about Cursor’s browser-based interface to manage agents?

• Or about Replit’s new pricing model?

If any of those questions made you feel like you’re not “in the know”, I understand that feeling. It’s been 30 months since ChatGPT’s first release. Meanwhile, many of us have become self-proclaimed GenAI “experts”. But, doesn’t it take 10,000 hours to become an expert at anything? Well, who has that kind of time? Expertise is always relative, isn’t it? It may be enough to dabble in a new tool each week, share a variety of news with colleagues, and showcase a few cool demos. Enough to wear the “expert” hat, that is.

Meanwhile, some of us are just getting on with our work and our lives. GenAI tools cost money. Some of us prefer to wait for our employers to spend that money before we get bent out of shape, playing with new tools. Shouldn’t that be OK? Well, I think it should be.

There’s so much noise and news about AI that it’s natural to experience FOMO. But here’s the beauty of new technology. The learning curve is so short that you can get onto the train at a station of your choice. 

• Have you never tried the first generation of Midjourney? No worries! Jump straight to Firefly inside the Adobe suite. 

• Never tried the first generation of AI coding assistants? Leapfrog straight ahead to vibe-coding.

• Never built a GPT? Fear not - start building agents instead.

With every generation of AI models, the tools only get easier. You needn’t drink from the firehose. Instead, think of the flow of AI news as the flow of a river. Dip your toes in whenever you’re ready.

Of course, job losses and fear-mongering will remain rampant for the next few years. However, as an employee of an AI-first company, I realise that my most valuable colleagues still demonstrate the same fundamental characteristics.

1. They are critical thinkers and can learn fast whenever they encounter a new situation.

2. They break down complex problems into smaller, more manageable challenges.

3. And they’re skilful communicators with both humans and machines.

Mark Manson’s six “boring” habits

And don’t forget all those mundane, non-AI habits that profoundly impact our lives, as Mark Manson says. My list differs slightly from Mark’s, but the sentiment is similar.

• Reading

• Writing

• Exercise

• & spending time on:

• Family

• Friends 

• Hobbies

AI or no AI, I wager that it's more important to cultivate those characteristics and habits than to keep up with all the AI news. The “direction of AI travel” is quite evident. AI is already our coworker, and we’ll continue to collaborate with more capable AI in months and years to come. Daily headlines may add some colour to that awareness, but we won’t be any wiser about the general trend. So why stress?

Let’s take it easy. Let’s live our boring lives. Do the jobs that fund the activities we love. And when it’s time to leapfrog with AI, let’s make the jump.

And if you still experience FOMO, do what I do. Build an automated weekly newsletter that provides you with the week’s AI lowdown. Read that newsletter and stop worrying. The peace of mind you’ll gain back will be far more impactful than the stress of keeping up.

How I generate my weekly AI bulletin using a Glean agent