Wow! I have re-read this three times and still get fresh ideas and thoughts. I have spent over 2,000 hours using AI since December 2022 and subscribe to over 40 newsletters/channels about AI and this by far is the best description of how AI will impact people and work. As the CHRO for a 700-person company, and who has spoken in front of over 7,000 HR professionals about AI in the past two years, the information in this article is truly invaluable. I cannot wait to read the full details in the book - just pre-ordered. 🚀
This is an incredibly insightful and illuminating post, completely brilliant. Very much look forward to the book and any other material regarding the real nexus of our medium term future and the history behind it.
This is one of those posts that stopped me in my tracks. Wow. I immediately went to Rick Rubin and his ability to Yoda out the blockers for performers to achieve their best work. That is a priceless value.
This is absolutely brilliant. The articulation of these ideas has brought me great clarity for such a large imposing topic. Masterclasses and TED talks and university courses need this to be brought forward to many more. Thank you so much. I will look forward to your book.
That's what I hope to achieve with my writing. It should be interesting enough to read end to end despite the length, yet layered enough for the reader to come back and revisit it.
Absolutely looovvvveee this piece :) (as first seen on Ai-led LinkedIn) - I think I'll come here more often in future lol. All good wishes. Di w. https://www.linkedin.com/in/diwheatley/
Loved the breakdown of curiosity, curation, and judgment as the new scarcities. I’d add that in many cases, the ability to build trusted relationships becomes the bridge that lets your curiosity, curation, and judgment actually command a premium. Even luxury goods — or luxury workers — only thrive when others trust not just what you know, but who you are. So the soft skills don’t disappear — they just shift from being 'the value' to being 'the trust infrastructure' around the real scarce value.
I mention trust as infrastructure towards the end of the judgment section but that again gets created through tight bundling with judgment, not just because of interpersonal skills. That's the distinction I wanted to make vs the 'people will always buy from people' argument.
I have a tech-only knowledge base, where we hand-curate tech information. We are struggling to monetize, but your thoughts gave me hope.
Loved it all. Copied these excerpts:
"As knowledge becomes cheap, a second constraint comes into play - relevance. Curiosity can help us compress the solution space. But even with compressed solution space, we still need to identify what’s most relevant. This is where curation comes in.
Most people think curation is just about organizing and categorizing; putting things in order so that they can easily be browsed.
But curation is really about deciding what to elevate and what to exclude.
Curation = power
In an attention-scarce world, curation is a way to exert power through narrative control.
Why does curation have power? Quite simply - because it works through elevating something and excluding something else.
Curators who develop reputations for selecting well - investors, critics, researchers, designers - gain influence not because of what they produce, but because of what they elevate and exclude.
Yes the ‘human touch’ matters.
But not because ‘people will always buy from people.’
It’s because curiosity, curation, and judgment based on evolutionary, inferential, divergent, and emotional knowledge holds value, and with improvements in AI that eat into expertise, these will only increase in both intrinsic and economic value."
What a commanding thesis! Question: if human skills "matter" but don't "command economic value", in an "algorithmically managed world" how do the people who suck at judging or curating, but might excel at crafting, nuturing or caring, manage to survive?
I think many of those jobs will exist but they will be stripped of differentiation as we've already seen in the gig economy. The way out is to combine it with something that's economically higher value. Like the Uber driver who also runs a cosmetics store in his car.
Interesting.... thought how realistic do you think that is in practice? Also Uber Driver Services Agreement currently prohibit drivers from selling products to passengers during rides.
It was such a good read. Unfortunately, the book cannot be pre-ordered from India. I wish the pre-order option (with the 70% discount) was available here.
People have bought it in India - it seems to be a mix of issues that show It for some and not for others. Can you try going to amazon.in and searching for it.
Thankful Substack has an audio reader. This is a really excellent read. I’m pretty excited about the importance and differentiation of curiosity and curation in the future. I excel in both areas, largely fueled by a fast moving ADHD brain. In the past I viewed that as a detriment, but with AI everywhere, I think it plays to my advantage.
Wow! I have re-read this three times and still get fresh ideas and thoughts. I have spent over 2,000 hours using AI since December 2022 and subscribe to over 40 newsletters/channels about AI and this by far is the best description of how AI will impact people and work. As the CHRO for a 700-person company, and who has spoken in front of over 7,000 HR professionals about AI in the past two years, the information in this article is truly invaluable. I cannot wait to read the full details in the book - just pre-ordered. 🚀
Thank you, Paul! Much appreciated!
This is an incredibly insightful and illuminating post, completely brilliant. Very much look forward to the book and any other material regarding the real nexus of our medium term future and the history behind it.
Thanks, great to hear that!
This is one of those posts that stopped me in my tracks. Wow. I immediately went to Rick Rubin and his ability to Yoda out the blockers for performers to achieve their best work. That is a priceless value.
This is absolutely brilliant. The articulation of these ideas has brought me great clarity for such a large imposing topic. Masterclasses and TED talks and university courses need this to be brought forward to many more. Thank you so much. I will look forward to your book.
Thank you, much appreciated, and please share it further!
Pure gold!
The best writing about AI on Substack (full stop), but remember it's not really about AI!
Like that fine wine, you need to savour it.
You need to roll it around your palette.
You should reflect on it, and ultimately, you need to share it with friends.
Loving the "true but utterly useless" catchphrase (TBUU)
Thanks Colin!
That's what I hope to achieve with my writing. It should be interesting enough to read end to end despite the length, yet layered enough for the reader to come back and revisit it.
Yes but sadly TBUU is not a great acronym! You need a better one
I'll let you keep that acronym.
I like the way the 4 words roll on the tongue. I'll stick to the full sentence. :)
Absolutely looovvvveee this piece :) (as first seen on Ai-led LinkedIn) - I think I'll come here more often in future lol. All good wishes. Di w. https://www.linkedin.com/in/diwheatley/
Loved the breakdown of curiosity, curation, and judgment as the new scarcities. I’d add that in many cases, the ability to build trusted relationships becomes the bridge that lets your curiosity, curation, and judgment actually command a premium. Even luxury goods — or luxury workers — only thrive when others trust not just what you know, but who you are. So the soft skills don’t disappear — they just shift from being 'the value' to being 'the trust infrastructure' around the real scarce value.
Yes, I agree.
I mention trust as infrastructure towards the end of the judgment section but that again gets created through tight bundling with judgment, not just because of interpersonal skills. That's the distinction I wanted to make vs the 'people will always buy from people' argument.
Sangeet: you're one of the best someliers right now in the market of AI analysis.
Thanks, love that!
Wow, this made my day.
I have a tech-only knowledge base, where we hand-curate tech information. We are struggling to monetize, but your thoughts gave me hope.
Loved it all. Copied these excerpts:
"As knowledge becomes cheap, a second constraint comes into play - relevance. Curiosity can help us compress the solution space. But even with compressed solution space, we still need to identify what’s most relevant. This is where curation comes in.
Most people think curation is just about organizing and categorizing; putting things in order so that they can easily be browsed.
But curation is really about deciding what to elevate and what to exclude.
Curation = power
In an attention-scarce world, curation is a way to exert power through narrative control.
Why does curation have power? Quite simply - because it works through elevating something and excluding something else.
Curators who develop reputations for selecting well - investors, critics, researchers, designers - gain influence not because of what they produce, but because of what they elevate and exclude.
Yes the ‘human touch’ matters.
But not because ‘people will always buy from people.’
It’s because curiosity, curation, and judgment based on evolutionary, inferential, divergent, and emotional knowledge holds value, and with improvements in AI that eat into expertise, these will only increase in both intrinsic and economic value."
Thank you.
What a commanding thesis! Question: if human skills "matter" but don't "command economic value", in an "algorithmically managed world" how do the people who suck at judging or curating, but might excel at crafting, nuturing or caring, manage to survive?
I think many of those jobs will exist but they will be stripped of differentiation as we've already seen in the gig economy. The way out is to combine it with something that's economically higher value. Like the Uber driver who also runs a cosmetics store in his car.
Interesting.... thought how realistic do you think that is in practice? Also Uber Driver Services Agreement currently prohibit drivers from selling products to passengers during rides.
👏👏
🤯
It was such a good read. Unfortunately, the book cannot be pre-ordered from India. I wish the pre-order option (with the 70% discount) was available here.
Thanks.
People have bought it in India - it seems to be a mix of issues that show It for some and not for others. Can you try going to amazon.in and searching for it.
It is working now. Thank you.
It is available now. I just checked.
Thankful Substack has an audio reader. This is a really excellent read. I’m pretty excited about the importance and differentiation of curiosity and curation in the future. I excel in both areas, largely fueled by a fast moving ADHD brain. In the past I viewed that as a detriment, but with AI everywhere, I think it plays to my advantage.
Interesting read. All the best, Sangeet!