the age of execution is ending
what does AI mean for your professional future?
Become unpromptable.
That’s my advice for what it will take to succeed in an AI world.
How did I arrive at that conclusion, and what does it mean? And what should you be doing to prepare?
Let’s discuss. In ten short chapters.
The TL;DR:
We are obsessed with execution. People mostly get paid today for their ability to execute.
AI will change this.
To understand how, we need to go deeper than the “AI will automate stuff” narrative, which is overly simplistic and not useful.
AI will make certain (promptable) human skills obsolete, because it can replace them. AI will make other (unpromptable) human skills more critical, because it amplifies them.
How do you become unpromptable? I’ll share my top five specific suggestions, and they are very different than what everyone else is telling you.
I. What do knowledge workers actually do?
Our workplans and dashboards and job descriptions make it all sound very complicated.
But the vast majority of “what knowledge workers do” can be broken down into three activities:
II. In today’s world, execution is what gets you paid.
Imagination certainly isn’t a liability in today’s workplace. Neither is persuasiveness.
But they are add-ons, supplements.
Performance reviews and promotions tend to hinge upon “getting things done.”
At all levels, we like:
“deliverable mindset”
“action-orientation”
“close-the-loop discipline”
“a strong operator”
III. And it’s not just about the money. Execution makes you a “good” and “serious” person in our society.
IV. This is not (completely) a criticism.
We can complain about hustle culture and execution mania. I often do.
But they served a purpose.
A LOT OF STUFF GOT DONE.
Previously, there was no magic.
You couldn’t wish a deliverable into existence merely by describing it in words.
Now you can.
And that changes everything.
