Over the past six months—but especially in the last six weeks—I’ve had more people reach out to talk about their use of AI. Or, to be more on the nose, about their lack of regular AI use, and what they need to do to “get there.”
While I don’t usually get super existential in these blog posts (I save those thoughts for inside my own head…), today feels like the right time to riff on something I’ve been sensing more and more: the unspoken fears lurking beneath this moment.
It seems that this individual, self-imposed pressure to “learn the new scary thing” seems to have reached a tipping point.
People have moved beyond asking, “Do we really need this AI thing”
To asking: “What do I need to know about this AI thing?”
Or even: “Shoot, shoot, I’m so far behind on AI. How can I possibly catch up?”
I can tell that this desire to “catch up” isn’t just casual curiosity. It’s coming from a place of pressure—sometimes even panic. Some people have been displaced from jobs and are scrambling to upskill, hoping to boost their market value. Others are watching peers get increasingly fluent in AI and feel a creeping sense of FOMO (“fear of missing out”) set into place, like they’re falling behind in a race they didn’t even know had started.
There are those who want to learn “just because” and those who do it because they feel they must. Those who feel young enough to learn anything with ease and those who feel old enough to ask any silly questions without care or consequence.
I can tell because I’ve felt it, too. And let’s not kid ourselves. It is scary.
In a way, it’s as if everyone is arriving at their own version of the same conclusion, each in their own time. You could argue that what we’re witnessing is a natural, organic unfolding of human curiosity in real time. And honestly? It’s pretty special.
So if you need someone to tell you this today, I’ll just say it: It’s okay to be scared.
It all comes down to what you do next.
Before we dive into the crippling fear side of this equation—the “How can I possibly catch up?” panic—let’s pause for a moment.
Take a beat. Sit with whatever state you find yourself in today.
I’m talking specifically about how you feel in the face of rapidly accelerating technology trends like AI, but feel free to fill in the blank with anything that’s stirring up your low-level anxiety or uncertainty right now.
Sit with it. And allow yourself to wonder: Why am I feeling this way? What’s at the root of this feeling?
Here's a shortlist of potentially really triggering things about what AI might bring up for you. Which one is the most powerful or prevailing emotion? Is it:
A worry about security? Are you wondering how you’ll support yourself, your partner, or your family in a future where work, as we know it, could be upended?
A perceived loss of status? Are you anxious about losing credibility or industry reputation in a space where fluency in AI is becoming a marker of expertise?
A cognitive self-bias at play? Do you feel like you’re not smart enough to take on this new paradigm—and that you have something to prove?
A fear of an impending threat? Have you read one too many dystopian tech novels and now you’re half-convinced the robot uprising is imminent?
A fear of missing economic upside? Do you feel like you’re watching an enormous financial shift unfold and wondering if you’re placing your bets in the right places?
A fear of irrelevance? Maybe you’re afraid you won’t matter anymore when technology takes hold.
An existential worry about impact? If the work you care most about becomes automated away, are you afraid your deeper purpose won’t matter anymore?
While these may not be the emotions we’re most eager to showcase to the world, I’ve noticed firsthand that they can be incredibly powerful motivators.
So instead of dismissing these fears outright, what if you harnessed them—used them as fuel to drive your learning journey?
Try taking the thing that you're most afraid of and turn that into a motivator to drive your learning journey. For instance:
If you’re worried about missing financial upside, you could focus your learning on understanding which AI companies are getting the most funding—and how that could shape investment opportunities.
If you’re worried about a perceived loss of status, you might track the habits and steps of near-peers who are slightly ahead of you in AI fluency and mirror the ones that align with your personal brand.
If you’re worried about an existential loss of impact, you could dive into the biggest, thorniest questions AI might finally help answer—the ones that have been left unresolved for decades.
In other words, use your particular flavor of fear to guide your learning journey toward the scary thing.
As I’ve written about before (and will likely write about again), there’s no one shot panacea for learning a new technological framework like artificial intelligence.
That’s because it’s a lot less like learning how to use a new tool and a lot more like learning a new language.
Learning a language requires a multi-hyphenate approach. You need:
Theory (What are the rules? The structures? Think: parts of speech, verb conjugations.)
Individual practice (How do I engage with this on my own? Think: reading a book, writing an essay.)
Real-world application (How do I put this into practice with others? Think: having a conversation, immersing yourself in a foreign country.)
If you want to truly commit to learning AI, I’d argue that you need to engage with all three:
Build a baseline understanding of the technology and how it works
Tinker with projects on your own to experiment and apply what you’ve learned
Engage with peers to discuss, test, and refine your understanding together
There are a lot of places to find a much stronger baseline level of understanding about how the technology works. (You might start here, here, and here.)
And if you’re looking for ways to conceptualize and iterate on personal projects that propel your practical learning journey, well—that’s exactly what I’m using this blog for.
So, if you’re feeling behind? Start where you are. Get curious. Play. Learn.
Because “catching up” isn’t about reaching a finish line. It’s about staying in the game.
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Feeling overwhelmed by the rapid advancements in AI? @bethanymarz explores the collective anxieties around falling behind and how to embrace this journey together. Instead of battling fear, why not use it to fuel your learning path? Jump-start your curiosity and embrace the chaos while gaining fluency.