How to Stay Valuable in the Age of AI: Packy McCormick on Why the Most Human Wins

AI can now produce text, images, analysis and software at low cost. That weakens the value of work built around repeatable processes, standard templates and easily replicated outputs. In his latest Not Boring essay Packy McCormick argues that people will remain valuable by developing qualities that are harder to automate: judgement, originality, humour, emotional intelligence, physical experience and a distinct point of view.In this episode, we discuss:How to stay relevant in an AI-driven economyWhy prompt engineering is unlikely to provide a lasting advantageWhich jobs and tasks are most exposed to AI automationWhy abstraction and first-principles thinking are becoming more importantHow originality and specificity create value when generic output is abundantWhy founders should think more like comedians than consultantsWhat emotional intelligence and embodied experience contribute to workHow to raise children in a world of unlimited AI-generated contentHow people can evaluate truth when synthetic media becomes commonplaceWhy being recognisably human may become an economic advantageThe argument isn’t that humans can compete with AI by producing more work or completing it faster. It’s that value shifts when competent output becomes widely available.This conversation examines what people, founders and creators can offer when execution is cheap, templates are everywhere and machines can reproduce the average.--SHOW LINKS:Download the Not Boring strategy guide - https://www.notboring.co/ Join your people: www.thinkingonpaper.xyzInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thinkingonpaperpodcast/Watch On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPEusidDNO4&t=645s&ab_channel=ThinkingOnPaper--Timestamps(00:00) Disruptors And Curious Minds(00:43) Not Boring Newsletter(02:00) Is AI Really Taking Our Jobs? (03:07) Commoditization Of Human Skills(05:12) The Ingredients Of Outputs Are Changing(07:39) Abstraction: Aim Higher(09:29) Be A Business, Man(10:24) Advice For Parents(11:00) AI Collateral Damage(12:52) The Value Of Ideas(13:54) Know Yourself(14:38) Differentiation And Michael Porter's Competitive Strategy(17:00) Will We Be More Human?(18:10) Hot Buttons(20:13) When Resources Are Scarce: Move Up The Stack(21:22) Who Turned Off The Funny Button?(23:10) How Do You Find Scarce?(27:19) Creativity For Everyone(29:15) I Hate Perfect(32:55) The US V UK AI Comparison(35:24) The Energy Cost--#ai #notboring #packymccormick