At a Crossroad

Have you ever had a day where you just aren’t sure how you should feel? You look at everything you have going on and it seems both equal parts positive and negative. About a month ago I was thinking back to when I graduated high school. I’ve talked about this before, but I wasn’t great in high school from an academic standpoint. After graduating it hit me that I was going to have to go to college. The big issue for me and college was that I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. The time came for me to sign up for classes, I went to go see a guidance counselor with my parents and they all agreed on one thing I should do, I should take some computer programmer classes! Nothing sounded good to me, so the decision was made that I would take some general classes but also take a few classes to get started on computer programming, so I could make the switch if I liked it. Everyone was selling the idea of being a programmer. It was a steady job with an income where you could make fifty grand a year. That might not seem like a lot to everyone now, but back in the nineties, that meant you were well off and set for the future. I’m not sure how long I lasted in those programmer classes, but I am pretty sure it was only a few weeks. In the end, I stayed in college for a few years, did nothing but general classes and left with nothing. A friend of mine got me a job where he worked. Now here I am, twenty-eight years later today, still there. Yes, today is my twenty-eight-year anniversary at my job. I know what you are wondering, how does it feel to be at the same place for such a long time? If I’m being honest, it’s confusing. I feel like we have had a relationship that has worked. I come to work every day; they pay me a decent wage. I’m not rich, but I have a house and a car. What else do you need in life? I have food on the table. When I look back at when I graduated from high school, everyone said to be a programmer. They made it seem like it would be a job that would be around forever. It would be a steady job where I could make good money and retire one day. Here is where the story gets interesting to me. That conversation was a little over thirty years ago, AI is starting their takeover, and they are doing a lot of the programming. In a few years, will we need a computer programmer? I have no idea what the answer is, but I know a lot has changed in thirty years. We didn’t have Facebook, and if you wanted to listen to music you had to pay twenty dollars and go buy the CD. I feel like right now it is a lot like life back then, everything is about to change and you must choose, keep going exactly how you are, or see that the world is changing and get on board. I’ve spent the last few weeks doing nothing but learning more and more about AI. I fully understand that I could have had AI write this article for me and no one would know the difference. The last few weeks, the pictures at the top of your screen, that was done by AI. Right now, I think the world is in a spot where enough people know about AI, that they are making tons of money and using AI to organize their life. But you still have way more people who are afraid of AI and won’t touch it. I think that means that right now if you learn to use AI the right way, you can be ahead of everyone else. You can make money, and you help yourself to be prepared for the way the future is going to go. Thirty years ago, I didn’t care that the world was about to change. This time around, I want to take advantage!

Focus for the Week

If you have already done something with AI, go out and keep reading and watching. Ask AI how you can get better at your job. If you haven’t gotten started with AI yet, go out and download ChatGPT. Your main goal will be to ask three to four questions to help you out. Whatever your biggest struggle in life is right now, ask ChatGPT how to solve it. I bet that in the end you will be a whole closer to the answer.