The Panic Is Always the Same

In the mid-seventies, factory workers watched robots arrive on the assembly line and believed it was over. Not just their jobs. Work itself. The machines were going to take everything, and there was no path forward for people who worked with their hands.

They were right about the disruption. Wrong about the conclusion.

The people who moved early found the new work. Not because they were smarter. Because they got curious instead of afraid. The people who waited for someone to explain it to them often got left behind. Not because the technology was merciless. Because hesitation in a moving current is its own decision.

If you are reading this and feeling that hesitation, stay with me.

There is something useful at the end of this.

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I watched the same pattern repeat with the internet. Then with social media. I created a Twitter account in July 2006, the first month it existed. Did not overthink it. Just got in. Built real friendships there. Won real customers. The early positioning paid exactly what early positioning always pays.

I cannot tell you how many times I heard,

“I just don’t get Twitter.”

Years of it. From smart people. From builders. From people who were otherwise paying close attention. They were not stupid. They were waiting for clarity that was never going to arrive before the window closed.

I missed YouTube. Not because I did not see video coming. I saw it clearly. I was doing video on my own site, hosted on a platform that eventually became Twitch. Right instinct. Wrong placement. Slightly too late to the right location. I am not bitter about it. I learned more from that miss than from most of my wins.

Now watch what is happening with AI and service industries. The panic sounds word for word identical to 1975. The machines are coming. The work is ending. There is no path forward.

There is always a path forward. It just rarely looks like the old one.

The new jobs get dismissed first. Influencers were not doing real work. AI prompt engineers are not doing real work. Every wave produces roles the previous generation cannot take seriously, and the people who build careers in those roles do not wait for validation. They just start.

The solution is not complicated. Pick one thing inside this wave that interests you and learn it publicly. Build something small with it. Talk to people doing the same. The window is open right now and the barrier to entry has never been lower. You do not need permission. You need a first move.

The debate about whether it counts is a luxury for people who have already missed it.

You have not missed it yet.

V> The window is open. The only thing closing it is the debate about whether it is real.