TOO FAST TO FIRE: AI & Experience for the 55/35 Professional

I’m 55.

In the traditional marketing playbook, I am supposed to be looking for comfortable shoes, reliable mutual funds, and articles about “easing into retirement.”

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But here is the reality: I don’t feel like easing into anything.

I have a theory that the most dangerous person in the modern economy isn’t the 20-year-old tech whiz who can code in Python while sleepwalking. It’s the 55-year-old who has 30 years of wisdom and decides to adopt the execution speed of a 35-year-old.

I call it the 55/35 Protocol.

  • Be 55: Keep the strategy, the network, the skepticism, and the “pattern recognition” that only comes from decades in the game.

  • Act 35: Use the tools, the hustle, and the speed to execute on those ideas immediately.

The Problem with “Being 55”

The problem with our age bracket isn’t a lack of ideas. It’s a lack of energy for the grunt work. We know what to write, but we don’t want to type it. We understand the assignment and see what the contract should look like, but we don’t want to draft it from scratch. We have the map, but we’re tired of driving.

Enter the Black Box

This is where AI actually kicks off for us. I’m not talking about generating funny pictures of cats. I’m referring to using AI as an exoskeleton for enhancing experience.

If I can use ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude to handle the “35-year-old” work i.e. drafting, summarizing, coding, and formatting, then it frees me up to do the “55-year-old” work: strategy and Decision-Making that leverages my wisdom.

The Experiment

So, I’m trying something new here.

I am going to start exploring this intersection of Gray Hair (Wisdom) and the Black Box (AI). I want to figure out how we can use these tools not just to “keep up,” but to compete. To build things faster than we did when we were actually 35.

Full Disclosure: I used an AI agent to help structure this very post.

I fed it my philosophy, I told it my age, and I told it I wanted to hustle.

It did the heavy lifting, I did the directing.

That is the future I want to explore.

If you’re interested in this, if you want to know how to use these tools to “reload” rather than “retire”, hit reply or like this post.

You got the memo, now let’s see if you’re up for the assignment.

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I’ll be back… Mark