Innovation is a key part of human existence.
Things are bound to change... whether you want it to or not. Those who are immersed in the flux will succeed. Those who avoid it will be left behind.
The polymathic principle is that of curiosity and adaptation.
Check out a related video to this post:
The Rise of the Generalists
After a century of being squandered, and pushed into Specialism. The generalists will get to thrive in this new world being built.
Whether you're in the AI camp like Liam Ottley thinks, or in the creative camp like I think. Or both.
This digital renaissance of sorts happening right now, is upon us, and it is up to people like us to adapt/learn/evolve.
That way the people around us can learn too, and hopefully we can come together for change making.
Adapting to the Changes from AI
This is twofold: one aspect is the fact that a lot of jobs WILL be replaced with AI. No getting around that, but that just means they weren't meant to last. No use getting upset over it, and in fact you should spend your energy on what the next job is for that field.
The other aspect, of which might be that "next job", is the humans USING AI. For example if it used to take 10-20 animators for a movie studio to do 3D rendering, it may only take 2-3 AI generalists now. Who know how do to the job, but use AI to speed up the process.
Some people might say that takes the creativity out of it, and in some very specific circumstances maybe. However in reality, in most cases, it is simply taking the tediousness out of the jobs.
Avoiding AI is not going to help you or anyone for that matter, it is only going to set you backwards. Adopt and adapt to the new AI landscape, and start to learn which AI models are good for this or that.
Find ways of incorporating AI into your life, from knowledge management, to creative endeavors, etc.
Specialists are still necessary, but not all fields...
The rise in AI makes things very murky when it comes to predicting which specialties are going to stick around. Even some like Law and Medicine, that were always perceived to be immovable, as they are always needed. Are ripe for disruption if the right AI innovation comes along.
Pharmacists are going to have a massive change for example, as their position is that of the calculus of how different medicines interact. A human can only process so many medicines at once, and remember a limited amount. An AI can remember any and all, and compare and contrast all of them at once.
The role of the pharmacist is going to change from the calculation angle, to the quality checking angle. Making sure the AI is right, rather than figuring it out themselves.
Which to be honest may be a hard pill for some pharmacists to swallow, but the ones that realize that it is a good thing. More people are going to survive, thanks to less faulty combinations, and their jobs are going to easier at the same time too. Those will be the ones sticking around.
Other fields will be impacted in the exact same way, but change the pharmaceuticals to whatever skill your field entails. Such as programming languages, creative marketing, etc.
Peak skill knowledge is not truly needed
For most fields you do not need to become a hyper-specialist to make a difference in that area of knowledge. In fact in most cases just having 70-80% knowledge of a certain field is more than enough to make an impact.
AI generalists are going to be able to adapt to new skills ever faster, due to learning methodologies AI now gives to us.
An example graph from the video:
It is going to come down to now, not the depth of one field, but rather what unique COMBINATION of fields do YOU encompass.
Some people might even dare to say that the people who are using AI are cheating, or don't deserve to call themselves proficient in a certain field. As they didn't earn the knowledge the old fashioned way.
To that I say: stop being stuck in the past.
Just because you had to learn via a textbook and lecturer, in a slow paced, and honestly inefficient manner. Does not mean that modern learners need to follow your path the same way you did. If they can learn it faster, then they should.
