My 5-year-old tells people his mom works in “public relationships.” He has no idea what that means (I work in corporate communications). When I ask him what he wants to be, he says, “a bone doctor.” The other top two options are superhero or painter.
I love that he thinks you pick a thing, learn it, and become it. I’m not ready to tell him it’s more complicated than that.
Because the answer that I was raised to believe in—“work hard”—is incomplete. Hard work alone doesn’t win, and I’m not sure it ever did. Especially now, in the age of artificial intelligence, what wins is working smarter—letting go of what you think you know about the best way to work and building skills that compound instead of expire.
In other words, you may think the biggest threat to your career right now is artificial intelligence. It’s not. It’s that nobody is making you reckon with it.
I know this because my boss did make me reckon with AI, and it’s the best thing that’s happened to me in my career. In February, my boss forwarded us a message from our CEO mandating that every team rethink how work gets done in light of massive advancements in AI.
