Agency Is Eating the World

AI has eroded the value of specialization because, for many tasks, achieving the outcome of several years of experience now takes a $20 ChatGPT subscription.

If a decade ago it took me nine months to gain enough experience to ship a single prototype, now it takes just one week to build a state-of-the-art platform ready to be shipped — a project once... See more

When I founded my previous company a decade ago, it took me nine months to go from idea to working prototype — nine months spent essentially learning the basics required to build a digital product. And yet, this effort still didn’t put me anywhere near the proficiency of a professional software developer, designer, or marketer. Becoming an expert t... See more

True agency is an unruly psychological trait. It’s the willingness to act without explicit validation, instruction, or even permission. It’s the meme “you can just do things,” knowing that “you can poke life, and something will pop out the other side.” It’s a venture capitalist with no academic background founding the most important AI lab in histo... See more

The game has shifted, and the winning strategy with it. It’s no longer about understanding specialized details; it’s about grasping the high-level global picture. It’s less about knowing how to patch a system and more about knowing that it needs to be patched. It’s more about architecture, and less about implementation. Precisely where generalists ... See more

For years, we feared automation would replace humans. But as AI reshapes the economy, it’s becoming clear that far from replacing human ingenuity, AI has amplified it. The critical dividing line in our economy is no longer simply education or specialization, but rather agency itself: the raw determination to make things happen without waiting for p... See more