It seems that not a day goes by without yet another doomsday headline about how AI is taking away jobs, making the rich richer, and ultimately contributing to a mental health crisis and mass unemployment.

But I don’t think this is necessarily a foregone conclusion. (At least, not yet.)

One thing is clear: AI is dramatically changing the way we work, how we work, and how we interact with other humans. Setting aside the fact that learning to work with machines is already driving the greatest collective upskilling of our time, the next question is: Once we’ve leveled up this learning curve, how will we choose to spend our time?

The reason I’m building as fast as I’m building, and the reason I’m sharing as much as I’m sharing, is because I want to invite others to build alongside me — especially people with big ideas who haven’t yet found a way to turn those ideas into real digital structures that ultimately shape the skyline of the internet.

AI gives us the agency to do just that. To command machines with natural language. To build software without code. To accelerate anyone’s big idea (and maybe even turn it into a real business). But with productivity gains reshaping the landscape of work, it’s not enough to simply learn the tools. We also need to learn how to adapt our lives to this new paradigm of work.

That’s why, before you get there, it first requires us to answer one big question: If you had all the power to build in the world, what would you create, and why?

Over the past several years, I’ve noticed more and more friends voluntarily “opting out” of the traditional 9–5. They aren’t opting out of work itself, but they’re opting into a different question: What do I actually want to spend my time on?

The rise of fractional work since the pandemic, combined with the 10x productivity gains unlocked by AI (a friend recently told me I’ve done four years’ worth of work in just nine months!), means we’re starting to gain real lift.

My friends aren’t abandoning the idea of paid work, but they are deliberately following the sparks, the projects that make them curious, energized, and eager to wake up in the morning. In other words, they are chasing their “twitchy interests.”

As for the future of work in the age of AI? Here’s my optimistic take: As AI frees us from rote, uninspiring work, it will push more of us to act like ourselves, to choose projects that align with who we really are.

I’ve certainly seen this play out in my own journey. In the four years since leaving full-time work, I’ve cycled through more than a dozen creative builds with nearly as many teams. (In other words, enough reps to spot some clear patterns.) Here’s what I’ve noticed:

• Youth and workforce projects always come first. For the past ten summers, I’ve launched or contributed to new initiatives that expand educational access.

• I’m drawn to diverse group dynamics. From choirs and marching bands to startups, DAOs, and grassroots efforts, I love moving between sandboxes to see how different systems work.

• Discomfort fuels breakthroughs. Confusion, frustration, even anger often spark the creative leaps I wouldn’t have made otherwise.

Now that I can see these patterns more clearly, my decisions feel less like guesswork and more like alignment. Last summer, I took the time to articulate these themes into a personal mission statement; I’ve spent the bulk of this year building that into existence.

To be fair, it’s not easy to make space to find these “twitchy interests.” Most of us (myself included!) can’t afford to take a year off to figure it all out.

But what I’ve noticed is — you can spot signals in small moments. Have you ever noticed the first ideas, hobbies, or projects you gravitate toward when no one is watching, nothing is expected of you, or you get the chance to start fresh?

Here are a few things to pay attention to

1. How you fill your free time
   When you get a break from work (even just a long weekend), what’s the first thing you make time for?

2. Where your interests cluster professionally
   As you move between jobs, industries, or teams, what themes do you keep gravitating toward? (Emerging tech? Sports? Education? Volunteering?)

3. Where you find belonging at home
   When you settle into a new neighborhood, what do you look for first to feel grounded? What people, clubs, or organizations give you a sense of belonging?

4. What you return to, time after time
   Looking back, what threads tie together the jobs you’ve taken, the roles you’ve wanted, or the people you admire? What’s the thing you always pick up again?

5. What affiliations still define your aspirational identity
   Was there a club in college, a first job, or a community that pulled on your heartstrings? When you think about the composite of your experiences, what 3–5 “eras” consistently rise to the top?

The reality is: Those who have the opportunity to electively change jobs in this age of AI will be (and already are) better off than those who will be forced into mass job displacements in the months and years to come. This is largely where the socio-economic lines are being drawn today, and I expect will continue to widen the disparity in the future. Those among us lucky enough to have “tinker time” now (before the bleak displacements take full force) will come out ahead in the next chapter of AI.

I’m writing this from a place of privilege; AI has dramatically changed my life and even saved my life. I know my perspective is shaped by being immersed in AI conversations and near-daily app builds. But it’s also from that vantage point, I feel confident suggesting a more optimistic possibility: That AI might actually empower more of us to feel more human (if we put in the work).

After all, it’s thanks to AI that I’ve been able to connect with people on my block association community (who I never would have had time to connect with otherwise), as well as get inside the head of my own daughters by inventing technology-powered games to play with them. Once I spent the time learning how to get computers to do more of what I want, then a funny thing started to happen: I started accomplishing more of my goals.

To be clear, the future is not all rosy and golden. The World Economic Forum anticipates that 92 million jobs will be displaced by 2030 as a result of rapid advances in AI. That’s an extraordinary rate of change, which will almost certainly leave millions of people scrambling to find work.

But I take some heart in this: We know the future of work will compel us all to get a little bit better at instructing machines to execute tasks for us. In many ways, this is a tale as old as time for the industrial revolution. Yes, today’s machines look different; we’re moving on from printing presses to laptops, from assembly lines to AI models. But the story is the same: Humans learning how to command machines. (We’ve seen this story before.)

The good news? Given the tools that exist today (with many free tiers of service), it’s easier than ever for anyone with a little motivation to start to learn how to build.

In that sense, we may be living in the golden age of AI. And if so, this is the golden age of human reinvention. When technology meets us where we are, helping us achieve our dreams and giving us back time for what matters most. This all makes me feel a lot more optimistic for what comes next.

So if you're in the middle of an elective career change or starting to hedge against the inevitable job market changes, the time is now. You need to build, and explore. When you find yourself gravitating toward your own nagging, persistent twitchy interests, don't ignore it or abandon that feeling. Pay attention. Channel it. Then ask yourself: How can AI serve as an accelerant toward those dreams?

After all, in 2025, nothing is off the table.