Doom or Optimism.

How you see technology depends on how the world is working for you right now.

There’s an article going around on X.

Something Big is Happening by Matt Schumer.

He’s a long-time developer and now builder, and speaks from the inside of the AI revolution.

It’s got tens of millions of views.

And it’s a test because you can see two things inside it.

One group of people are shouting doom.

Doomers are scared of change. Sharing it as proof of some AI apocalypse.

Builders are excited by it. And can barely contain themselves because the opportunity is so large.

Neither is wrong, and neither is right.

We don’t know the impacts of massive technology acceleration on labor, society, politics, and the future.

We’ve had plenty of previews, and all we know is that there are big winners and subtle losers.

I can see this split in the people that I work with and the markets I serve.

Some are energized in a way they haven’t been energized for a long time because they see the potential with their ideas, their IP, and the potential of the products that they can now build.

Some are exhausted because they associate change with the idea that you have to start from scratch.

For me, AI has enhanced everything that I create, build, teach and sell because I’ve bolted it on to things that already worked for me.

And this is the key distinction. If the world is working for you right now, then exploring these technologies is smart.

It doesn’t require wholesale change unless circumstances are obviously slipping away from you and you need to catch up.

If it’s not working for you right now, then diving headfirst into them is likely the smartest move.

Because great change offers great opportunity.

Only a small number can afford to do absolutely nothing about it.

Such is the reach of technology in our lives, income and ways of living these days.

Which way, modern man?