How To Not Feel Constantly Behind
When we focus on being smarter than AI, we fall behind. When we work to use AI to better those around us and humanity, we find the space to run at our own pace.
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Everyone I talk to these days tells me they feel behind.
The Head of AI at a Fortune 50 company is trying to get her 1000-person org to adopt AI tools that are constantly evolving. The Director at a growth-stage startup is caught between the SaaS apocalypse and board mandates to increase shipping velocity. The senior PM at Google is wondering whether the next step is still management.
Those working at the bleeding edge are no different. This week, I coached a researcher at one of the major AI companies. Her team builds tools for next-generation foundational models. She lives and breathes every day AI through demos, research, and working sessions with the brightest minds in tech. And she said this week: “I feel so behind even though I’m always working. There’s always a new eval to build, a new way to work, a new use case. What do I do?”
And the truth is, you are behind. We are behind. If it is a race about book smarts and logical reasoning, humanity is being beaten by AI at rocket speed.
Why This Transition Is Different
There was a time when working at a top-tier tech company meant you were at the frontier of innovation. Google, Meta, and Amazon are the places where ideas and businesses that had never existed are being invented. These companies set the pace. If you worked there, you knew where you stood relative to everyone else. If you stayed sharp enough and worked hard enough, you stayed ahead.
Now, with AI, the race has changed entirely.
Let’s take an analogy. Imagine an elite horse racing track. They’re chasing that little squirrel decoy that runs along the rail just ahead of the pack.
That squirrel is AI. It moves at a speed no horse was built to match.
The frontier of what’s possible with AI is now advancing faster than any individual can consciously integrate. The implications of each new release will take months to fully understand. The secondary effects on roles, on structures, and on geopolitics will take lifetimes to play out. Yet each release is weeks apart. This is why we all feel constantly behind.
Change The Measuring Stick
The shift I keep coming back to with clients is this: stop trying to keep up with the squirrel. Start asking what you can do well, regardless of where the squirrel is.
Here’s what it looks like in practice:
What are your leadership superpowers in the age of AI? The skills that compound over time in this environment are not related to book smarts. The ones that hold are: providing clarity in ambiguity, building trust with people, quick judgment during uncertainty, and the willingness to make a call when no one else will. (Read more on this here.) Invest in the skills that don’t depreciate when the next model drops. (Check out my accelerator program for this!)
Set a learning pace that works for you: We’re in a long haul here. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Create a schedule of learning that works for you on the order of months and years. The leaders I see thriving are the ones who’ve stopped trying to know everything and gotten disciplined about what matters to their specific context.
Change How You Measure Progress
At the end of the day, technology is built to better lives. If it is not bettering lives, then we are not running on the right track. Amidst the frantic need to “stay relevant” and “stay ahead”, it’s helpful to remember why we are here and why we build. And change our own measuring stick of progress. The broader mission of learning and building with AI is to enable humans to live more fulfilling lives. Any other Northstar, be it profitability, power, or simply keeping up with the Joneses, will lead us astray.
When there is a quiet moment, ask yourself: What do I hope AI will enable me to do to better those around me? My community? How do I want to use this technology to contribute to the well-being of the world?
And then, take action from there. When you broaden the lens of what matters, there’s suddenly room to breathe.
That’s all folks! See you next week at 3:14 pm.
Yue
Discover your durable leadership superpower and how to get noticed by joining the June cohort of my AI Amplified Leadership Accelerator. Stop feeling behind and start running your own race. Learn more.