Stop Searching. Start Asking.

I used to enjoy building automations. The output. The learning. Figuring out how APIs connect, how data maps between systems, how to make the logic work.

That problem is solved now. AI builds the automation.

And I got bored. Because working on solved problems is boring.

The "How To" Era Is Over

For 20 years, value came from finding how to do something. You Googled "how to build a CRM integration," found a tutorial, followed the steps, you added value, you got paid. The advantage was in the searching, the learning and the specific application.

Even until recently, AI was just a better Google. You asked ChatGPT how to do something instead of searching for it. Faster answers, same paradigm. You still did the work.

That's not where we are now. AI doesn't give you instructions. It executes them. It went from a better search engine to a better everything. You don't search for how to do something. You ask for it to get done.

Not "how do I write a Python script to parse this CSV." Just "parse this CSV and show me the trends."

The skill isn't in discovering how to do something. It's in discovering how to ask to get it done. Different skill entirely. Harder than it sounds.

Judgment Is the New Skill

Twenty years of "Google it" trained everyone to seek instructions. But the instructions are worthless now. The machine has them. The machine is better than you at applying them.

What's left is judgment. Knowing what to ask for. Knowing whether the output is right. Knowing if it's even the right problem. That's taste. That's experience. That's the thing AI can execute around but can't replace. Yet.

You're Fired

This is how I think about every skill I develop: learn it, get good at it, then fire yourself from it the moment something or someone can do it cheaper. Don't mourn it. You just moved up. Back yourself.

The people clinging to execution skills that AI already handles are working on solved problems. The ones who keep firing themselves from the last level keep climbing.

Fire yourself early. Fire yourself often. Before somebody else does.