May 10, 2023

Should I be nervous about losing my job to AI?

I’d be a lot more nervous about AI if I were an employee.

Why?

Because employees generally don’t have experience running a business.

Running a business gives you a different perspective on the world of commerce.

Yes, most freelancers and consultants I work with tend to be overly focused on the craft of their business (e.g., dev, design, copywriting, illustration, SEO, etc)...

BUT they have at least been exposed to the concepts of marketing, innovation, and sales (even if they wouldn’t use those exact labels).

They know what it feels like to have to drum up leads or write a sales page or describe a service offering or conduct a sales call or negotiate a deal or control scope creep or mitigate risk

As they evolve past the early stages of running a solo service business, some become conscious of the fact that they have started climbing up the learning curve of a whole new craft, namely entrepreneurship.

Once they realize they are really a business person and not a “web developer” or whatever, the current wave of AI starts to look like “comically inexpensive employees” instead of “unstoppable robot competitors.”

So my advice to any nervous employees out there would be to start experimenting with an AI-enabled side hustle.

It could give you a soft landing if your current job disappears.

Yours,

—J

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