@levie: There tends to be a debate between being an expert or generalist in the era of AI. So far, the experts appear to have t…
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The post discusses how AI amplifies the advantages of experts over generalists by increasing leverage, while emphasizing the need for judgment and domain skills in various fields.
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There tends to be a debate between being an expert or generalist in the era of AI. So far, the experts appear to have the upper hand, and that’s not slowing down.
AI makes it 10X easier to get started with any kind of task. Coding, legal work, research, financial analysis, and so on. But having the right judgment for how to direct the agent onto the right work, how to veer it to course correct it, being able to review or test the output, and having the right sense of what “good” looks like all requires a high degree of skill depending on the field.
That skill can be developed far faster due to AI for anyone interested, which is amazing for uplifting anyone in their career. But there’s no replacement to needing judgment and many of the core skills that go into most domains of work.
And if anything, AI will be a technology that exacerbates differences in skill levels because the experts have far more leverage than ever before. Net net: don’t give up on being an expert at something.
Uncle Bob Martin (@unclebobmartin): It is amazing how much work it is to wrestle these agents to my will.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s crazy productive. But it’s also a lot of hard, focussed work. All my software engineering and problem solving skills are brought into play – even though I barely look at the code.
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