Hello Friends,
I believe it happens to all of us who reach a certain age—we start thinking about retirement.
There are cautionary tales: I knew a guy who retired and was so bored he just died.
I'm pretty sure that wouldn't be me: I have wanted to retire since I found out it was a thing. My grandfather retired when I was a kid, and to me, he was pretty much the happiest man I knew because of it.
About 10 years ago I left a job, telling people I was retiring. It was very premature, because in reality, I just wanted to leave that job and I didn't want to work in that profession any more. Who knew that it was the only profession I could do where I could actually find a decent-paying job?
So here I am years later working in the profession I had supposedly retired from (the joke was on me!), dealing with the grim reality that I will probably have to work another 10 years to be able to afford retirement, if even. Shed no tears—it's all on me and the choices I have made in my life. Like the grown-up I pretend to be, I own that.
I read this week that there is a growing group of people who believe AI will destroy the world before they get their chance to retire, and so they have just given up saving for retirement. The funny thing is that these people are the "experts" who are creating the AI that will actually destroy the world.
Talk about insider trading!
I know saving is hard, and the up-and-down corrections of the economy are scary and frustrating, but it sort of seems like these folks are stacking the deck, so to speak, so they don't have to put money in their 401Ks.
Doom and gloom, glass-half-empty, sensationalized, click-bait sentiments may sound prophetic, but really are just stupid and lazy. Suck it up, buttercup, and keep carrying on.
I agree with Bernie—AI represents an opportunity for us all to retire (or slow down) into a life worth living. A life filled with contemplation and community, where no one gets rich through the exploitation of others.
A life as amazing as we can dream.
Unfortunately, the AI promise is thin.
Even one of its chief architects, Sam Altan, the CEO of OpenAI (the company that created ChatGPT) suggests as much.
Here are two things I know:
It's just not that good, yet. Look at these images from Will Smith's current concert tour.
It can save some people some time. I use it, but it's just another resource. And it has a high risk (and a high cost) to it, because its output is often incomplete and inaccurate, so while it might save time, it doesn't really save any effort or money. Smart processes beat smart tools every day.
And guess what:
Humans can destroy the world before we all have an opportunity to retire. Conversely, humans can give us a safe and sustaining society. We just have to stop looking for answers outside of ourselves.
We have to work together, stop being distracted by garbage, and give less credence to the self-serving idiots who seek to control the narrative.
Or, as my favorite author, Kurt Vonnegut, writes in his book Timequake:
“You were sick, but now you're well again, and there's work to do.”
Happy reading and happy writing,
David