Bleeding Edge

For the last few weeks, I’ve been spiraling down a bit of a rabbit hole. In the past, I’d go on ‘deep dives’ about different topics or subject matters, until I reached a point where I felt like I had learned enough to satiate my curiosity. This trend started at a very young age, as I discovered different things that intrigued me.

For example, when I was 11 years-old, I became obsessed with becoming PADI certified and taking scuba courses. At that time, Ohio required you to be 12 years-old to get your certification. Not wanting to miss out on the opportunity, I called every scuba training facility and requested information packets about their courses, while dreaming of the day I’d take my first breath underwater.

My parents made every effort to support my childhood obsession; going so far as to buy me a wetsuit with money that should have been used for groceries. At the time, I didn’t fully comprehend the sacrifices they made to support the ambitions of their kids. Thanks, Mom.

As I grew older, I found other things to obsess over. From laser pointers to airsoft guns – neither of which my parents bought for me. However, I learned an important lesson during the days of airsoft obsession; one that would last with me for many years.

On a daily basis, I’d browse through different airsoft websites. A1Airsoft.com and airsoftatlanta.com were two of my favorites. One day, while browsing A1airsoft, I noticed a small banner ad on their website, announcing they were looking for help marketing their business.

Naturally, I submited an application. Nowhere on the application did it ask for the applicant’s name (I was 13) so I went ahead and filled it out and waited to hear back from them. A few days later, I received an email letting me know my application was approved and I was cleared to begin my new job.

The task? Publish information about A1airsoft to forums, while keeping records to show I had actually completed the work.

The compensation? $.50 per website link posted, paid out as store credit.

I got off to a slow start, realizing that most online forums required me to register before posting on the message board. However, I quickly discovered a breakthrough that would pay off:

A global forum website, with millions of forums accessible with a single registration. Instantly, I was in business.

That week, I earned over $5,000 of store credit. A1airsoft was astonished when they saw the spreadsheet I carefully put together, showing proof-of-work in the form of links to every single message I had posted on the forum network.

My parents never bought me a single airsoft gun. They didn’t need to. Within weeks, I had a pegboard wall-mounted and filled with every airsoft gun I could have dreamed of. In some cases, several of each gun. My friends were also beneficiaries of the efforts, each receiving whatever airsoft guns they wanted – much to their parents dismay.

At that time, I figured something out that was really important; if I can do things differently, faster and better than the average worker, I could obtain all of the things I wanted. That theme has been with me to this day as I’ve worked in the web industry for over 20 years.

When I lived in Mexico, I had my heart set on obtaining a motorcycle – despite never actually learning how to ride one properly. For several weeks, I scouted out different motorcycles that were for sale before finding the right one – a Suzuki M50.

When the seller arrived to drop it off, I had no idea how to ride it – let alone, how to fire up the engine. After watching about three hours of Youtube videos, I grabbed the key, threw on a leather jacket and donned my helmet.

Repeating all of the steps I had learned in the video, I pulled in the clutch, dropped it into neutral and turned the key as I pushed on the brakes.

It roared to life.

At that moment, I was scared out of my mind. That’s putting it nicely.

I had a choice to make. I could sit on the bike and listen to it roar, or I could kick it into gear and let it pull me away. I chose the latter, taking my first-ever ride on a motorcycle. If I was scared when I turned it on, I was even more scared as I took off and pulled onto the quiet road. Fear mixes really well with adrenaline, and I had poured myself a triple.

It didn’t take long for me to get the hang of riding and finally scratch the itch I’d dreamed of since I was a little boy…roaring down the road on a badass motorcycle. It felt incredible.

Fast-forward a few years to the present moment, and I now find myself on the back of a new ride. This time, it doesn’t have an exhaust pipe or two wheels. Rather, it’s the joy and thrill of leaning into my occupation. Why? Because it changes every single day due to the industry being in a state of rapid, perpetual improvement.

Three years ago, I took one of my ‘dates’ with AI and was delighted to discover that AI could create spreadsheets, rather than simple text responses.

Today, I’m sitting at my computer watching 4 autonomous agents take complex actions of four separate projects; each window has a moving mouse cursor, a panel showing the action(s) being performed (as well as the logic/reasoning) and a full audit trail of each task.

Said differently, it was like watching four people work at a very high level on incredibly tasks – while I drank my coffee.

There’s a bold new horizon for the world ahead, and it’s largely due to the advancements that AI is taking. The general population is completely unaware of the capabilities AI now has. The bad news for the uninformed is that the lack of awareness will have incredibly costly ramifications.

With the capability AI now is, especially with agentic capabilities, a lion’s share of employement tasks can now be fully automated and work faster, better, longer and more accurately than human operators.

What a time to be alive.