Today’s issue is going to be short.
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In fact, the next few issues of The Digital Contrarian might be a bit shorter than normal.
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Why?
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Because I’m under a tight deadline to finish my first draft manuscript of my forthcoming book, Return to Real.
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And with high summer upon us the farm in full swing…
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(Please admire the deep clean of the chicken coop that you see in the photo above, which took me more hours to complete than I care to admit…)
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For the next few weeks, the bulk of my writing time, effort, and energy will be focused on my book to get the first draft manuscript over the finish line.
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(BTW – My deepest apologies to everyone who has written in with a thoughtful reply to one of my newsletters over the past several weeks. I am woefully behind in my replies, and may be in that state for some time…)
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That being said…
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There’s a contrarian idea I want to leave you with in today’s issue to consider:
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Earlier this week, I was listening to the Lex Fridman interview with Sundar Pichai, Google & Alphabet CEO…
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And at the very very end of the interview, Lex articulated an idea that I myself have also been considering for the last several months:
“I think there also in the near term, much like with the industrial revolution that led to rapid specialization of skills of expertise, [with AI] there might be a great sort of de-specialization.ÂSo as the AI system become superhuman experts at particular fields, there might be greater and greater value to being the integrator of AI’s for humans to be generalists.ÂAnd so the great value of the human mind will come from the generalists, not the specialists. “
In other words:
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Perhaps the “Rise of the Generalist” may be one of the unexpected consequences of this AI Era…
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For example…
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On our farm, I can walk through the pastures, take a photo of any wildflower – and within seconds – with the help of AI, not only instantly identify the species – but also determine its medicinal uses and how to prepare the plant for practical application, step-by-step.
(Previously, this type of highly-specialized domain-specific knowledge would’ve taken a lifetime to acquire; today AI makes it available to anyone curious and crazy enough to learn.)
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But how about applying this knowledge in a completely unrelated field – like say, direct response marketing – in a new and novel way?
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Well…
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So far, AI is far less adept at making these types of less obvious cross-domain connections.
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So if the Old Economy paradigm forced us into becoming “Siloed Specialists” to be able to afford the quality of life we enjoy today…
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Perhaps the winners of the New Economy paradigm will be those of us who learn to thrive as “Cross-Domain Generalists”…
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Being able to spot non-obvious patterns, others completely miss…
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(Like we explored in [Issue #022] of The Digital Contrarian…)
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And connecting the dots across different verticals…
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BTW – If you want to dive deeper into this idea, David Epstein’s book Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World – is an excellent read (and one which I reference in one of the chapters of Return to Real.)
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So what does this all mean for YOU?
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Well, perhaps it’s one more reason to give yourself permission to live your Return to Real life…
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To spend time pursuing your physical and intellectual interests that are decidedly outside of your professional domain…
Because after all:
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The contrarian connections you may be able to make in the process…
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Might just set you up for success in this AI Era – in ways previously unimaginable.
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Okay, I’ll leave you with that for today.
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I need to get back to working on this darn book! :-)
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In the meantime…
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Have a great rest of your day…
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And remember to hug the ones you love.
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Until next week,
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Ryan :-)
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P.S. Speaking of making unique connections…
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I wanted to give you a quick heads up that today is the LAST DAY to register for the LIVE “Agentic AI Intensive” I’m hosting with Sam Woods on Thursday (July 24th) later this week.
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This link explains all the important details:
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Want to join my next virtual workshop?
Get notified about my upcoming free workshops, town halls, and special events before I announce them anywhere else.
As a reminder…
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This one day intensive will teach you how to make unique connections between the seemingly unrelated pieces of technology that touch various parts of your business using “Agentic AI” technology to communicate and integrate with one another.
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This in turn, enables you to get parts of your business to run 100% autonomously – without you having to get involved.
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This is one of the most powerful practical applications of AI that I’ve seen to date.
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Originally I was only making this hands-on, practical intensive available to members of my Strategic Advisory Group Mastermind…
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But because there has been so much interest around this topic…
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I’ve decided to open up a handful of “guest pass” tickets for those interested in joining the live “Agentic AI Intensive” as a paid guest.
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Here’s the link one more time with all the important details, in case you’re interested in getting access to the session before we close registration later today in the next few hours:
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