Scenic Route

Scenic Route

Whenever I make a wrong turn on the road, I’ve learned to say one line that reframes the circumstance instantly:

“Well, it looks like we’re taking the scenic route!”

While it sounds like a light-hearted way to make fun of the situation, there’s a lot of wisdom in being able to ‘reframe the brain’ as the late Scott Adams put it. Life is full of wrong turns and it isn’t a matter of if – but when – you’re going to make one.

Despite having a remarkable life, I’d be the first person to admit that life has rarely gone my way; in the sense that things have happened the way that I initially wanted them to. Rather, I’ve had a dramatic series of events that feel more like ‘falling forward’ than intentional success or winning moves.

Falling forward take a certain level of trust, knowing that as long as you’re moving forward, where you will land will be much better than the place you first took a stumble. That’s probably worth reading twice.

Recently, I stopped to chronicle my ‘career’ path, which led me to notice a particular trend during my younger years; I consistently felt like the rug was getting pulled out from under me.

With the advent of Aidvancements in the design/development industry, I felt a rumbling in the ground several years ago that prompted me to think about what to do when the rug got pulled for my industry. In the last few months, I’ve observed the rug start to get pulled a bit from several ends; reduced budgets, more clients using AI to accomplish their goals and a world where development teams are getting fired by the droves.

Thankfully, it wasn’t a surprise. When you see the ocean recede, it’s indication that a huge wave is coming. While some spend time boarding up their houses, others start paddling out to deeper waters because they know they’re going to have the ride of their life when they catch the big one and hang ten as it brings them to shore.

For the uneducated, Meta recently made headlines when it announced a 20+ percent reduction in their workforce. Many other ‘big tech’ companies are following suit. Unlike firing waves that have occurred in the past, this new crowd of unemployed, highly-capable individuals aren’t just going to land another job. Rather, they’re going to join the new pool of unemployed Master’s Degrees that are now interviewing with an AI recruiter – and struggling to get traction as they desperately hunt for a new role.

In this new economy, being stubborn won’t get you far. What I mean by that is clinging to the belief that somehow the tools, credentials and network that got you where you are won’t be there to hold out a new ladder rung when the one you’ve been climbing has broken in half. It isn’t just time to reach out – it’s time to jump into an elevator and take it to the top.

When I took accounting (twice) in college, I learned about ‘economies of scale’ – areas where a business, for example, would save money when it purchased large amounts of parts or other items. Said simply; the more you bought, the more you’d save.

Not all industries operate with economies of scale, as it pertains to time and revenue. For example, the fanciest lawn mower in the world can only cut one yard at a time, just as a hair stylist can only cut one head at a time.

AI doesn’t work that way, and lately I’ve been going full-force with how it can be used. In one night, I’m capable of doing a year’s worth of work in ‘human hours’. This afternoon, I trained four separate agents to work on four separate client projects – at the same time.

It’s a beautiful thing to look at a screen and see four separate windows, each with an independently-moving mouse cursor, performing highly adept development work…working faster than a human being could ever hope to.

The million dollar question is: “Well, what are you going to build with it?” and the multi-million dollar answer is:

Nothing.

I’m going to teach people how to build their own thing, then quietly tap-dance away while I spend the next years of my life with the people I love, doing the things we love to do, and living exactly the way we’ve dreamed of.