I remember when we had to do this in grade school, when the teacher would ask us to mark our own work. Some would give themselves an A+. Others would be too hard on themselves, almost failing themselves. And some would give enough to say – “yeah, good start, but you have more to do.” The ones that didn’t give themselves an A+ are the ones that learned from an early age, it’s not the…
The best way to figure out how things work is to take it apart and see. Now, if it’s a $10,000 engine, you might want to start with a lawnmower (apply common sense). But the best way to see how code runs, to see how art is created, to see what it takes to finish a book… Has always been to take it apart and do it.
In school, this was the phrase you would hear from a teacher as they walked the room while you were doing “Independent” work – “Head Down, Do your own work.” You don’t need to check up on what everyone else is doing to see if you’re ahead or behind. You just need to keep your head down and do your own work.
Why am I writing more code than I have in the past year? It’s not dead, it’s evolving. Every job goes through the same thing. Doctors use way more robotics now than they did 15 years ago. But they are still saving lives. A fundamental shift is happening in the world of technology, but you’re not dead, unless you choose to be.
We’ve had copilots forever. They were called your team. But maybe you didn’t treat them as well as you do your agentic AI copilots. That’s not a technology problem. That’s a leadership problem. And AI will only be able to fix it for so long (or make it look like it’s fixing it).