Don't be an avatar. Be Human. Show the f*ck up.

My unsolicited advice for how the next generation can beat AI and turbocharge their careers

My apologies if you received more than one of these. Substack seems to have had sending issues earlier today.
I had originally planned to come at you with another case study on regulatory powers, but one theme kept popping up throughout the week in disparate conversations, meetings, planning sessions, and social interactions, that I couldn’t shake it loose. As a form of cognitive offloading, I put my thoughts on paper and share them with you in case it is helpful to you, a friend, or a colleague.

The question: Are young people about to get screwed over by AI?

The answer: Yes. You’re f*cked. Unless you take charge now.

How do I know this? Because I’m leading an effort to make my business more efficient. I see what’s coming next. And if you’re starting your career in professional services, you’re going to have quickly prove that you provide a hell of a lot more value than AI.

Because here’s the cold truth: Even if AI isn’t as beautiful as your brain, and has no personality, it gets close enough for most of the work that you would otherwise cut your teeth on early in your career. And it does so instantly, without fuss, while learning from me. Heck, often I learn from it. Plus, it’s incredibly easy to work with and makes me more efficient than I’ve ever been. In the agency world, that means I can serve my clients better, with smaller teams while creating higher value to my clients. Guess who gets cut out of these teams? People who do work that AI can now do faster, and often, better.

And that’s a problem.

Because here’s the difference between me and the colleague just starting out: I have 20+ years of mental models, pattern recognition, and experience that lets me work with AI in a corrective way. I don’t have a dependency on AI. I tell it to do better when it produces shit work. I know what to tell it to produce that better work. And I know how to take that work and make it even better. Because I was once the junior person on the team who had to do this grunt work. And it’s by doing the grunt work that I acquired the mental models and pattern recognition needed to become better at my craft.

But it wasn’t just the grunt work that taught me. It was the feedback loop I got by working in an open pit surrounded by colleagues who I collaborated with, had lunch with, enjoyed cocktails with, spent my weekends with. Every spontaneous interaction, whether obvious or subtle, created opportunities for me to learn, absorb, and adapt. I can’t precisely quantify how all of this social time turbocharged my career. But the specific number doesn’t matter. Because what I know is this: it made all the difference.

Had I worked from home for the first five years of my career, I’d not have been able to unlock the incredible opportunities I’ve had. My promotions would have been delayed. Career-changing opportunities would have slipped me by. My growth would have been stunted. I’d be stuck.

And I didn't even have to compete with super machines like you do.

Every single opportunity I got in my career, I got because I did one thing no AI can do: I was human.

I was human, at work.

I didn't take my colleagues for granted. In fact, every single one of them offered me a chance to learn. Most gave me a chance to laugh. They nearly all gave me fresh perspectives, challenged me, and hell, sometimes almost brought me to tears. To laugh, to cry, to learn, is to be human.

Being human is still your super power.

But it’s only a super power if you put it to use.

When you work from home 3-4 days/week, you’re just an avatar. You know who else is just an avatar? My AI sidekick. If you’re both the same, who am I going to turn to for help? Not you. I’ve got so many avatars to choose from behind the screen. Avatars are a dime a dozen.

But what if you’re not just avatar?

What if I get to know you, the human.

What if I get to see how your beautiful brain works?

What if I want a splash of your personality?

What if I enjoy your unique perspective?

What if we share a laugh?

What if we challenge each other?

Well, then you’re no longer an avatar. You’re human. You’re real. You’re you.

You’re only you if I see you — not on screen, but in real life.

This only happens through repeated and sustained exposure. It doesn’t happen over the occasionally scheduled coffee chat. It doesn’t happen over small talk on our fifth virtual meeting of the week. It’s done in the micro moments between these forced interactions. It happens without us even realizing it. It compounds over time. But it only happens if we spend those in between moments together. Because who knows what spontaneous conversation we’ll get into. Or what random question a colleague has for which you have a point of view I can learn from. Or vice versa. We can’t plan for these moments. They happen naturally when humans spend time together.

So yes, you cannot manufacture these moments or hop to tick some boxes in your personal growth plan by hitting clear KPIs.

But you can show up.

If you want to get onto the next exciting project, take on more challenging work, and become a better version of yourself, I want that for you too. If you’re top-of-mind. If we’re connected. If you’re impossible to ignore. Then you’ll gave the edge over AI. Because you know what else is human? The joy of helping each other. Of seeing the next generation do things I never thought possible. I want that for you, so I want to pick you over the AI.

But only if you show up.

Work from home, crank out product, show up to the office occasionally, and you will fail to differentiate yourself. You’ll be another avatar.

Which is to say, in case I haven’t belaboured the point, show the f*ck up.

You need to do so more than I ever did. Which means you need to over-index on this. If there was such thing as working from the office 10 days/week, I’d take that if I was starting out. But that’s only the half of it.

You need to combine your super power to be human, with your brain’s amazing power to develop whole new neural pathways and show me a totally different and creative way to put AI to use.

I’m spending every day trying to think through totally different use cases for how to use AI. But I’m slightly constrained. I have an understanding of technology that has been shaped by the early Internet. I remember life before email. I have spent most of my Internet life engaging with rudimentary tools—consume information, ask Google questions, smash like buttons on social media. While I’m intent looking at AI from a fresh perspective, I’ll never be able to start with a clean slate.

You? Well, your brain is still young. Incredibly malleable. And that’s an opportunity of a liftetime. You can think of inventive new ways to use this technology. What if you can unlock value from AI that I couldn’t possible do myself? I’m not talking about being able to get AI to produce a better product than me. That’s table stakes.

Instead, can you create something we’ve never thought to create? Something that was impossible until you came along? Can you let your imagination run loose and challenge the old way of doing things? Because you know who doesn’t have an imagination? AI.

Be social. Be imaginative. Being human is still your superpower.