About Living In The Future

We are living in the future now

Last month genuinely shocked me.

With all those new developments in artificial intelligence, this is the first time we can actually feel the exponential nature of technical progress.

This is absolutely exciting. It means that we are living in the future.

But it’s also rather creepy. It means that things will change – a lot.

And the rate of change will only increase*. We will make as much progress this year as in the last ten years combined.

I’ve been in a kind of stupor for the last few days after learning about the new AI stuff. It made me ponder over the implications this will have for me and my life.

My first response was primarily fear – I started fearing that my current career will be made obsolete, and thus rob me of the economic security I’m enjoying right now.

I find that very frightening.

But I had to realize that worrying is not the answer. If you think about it, the future was already highly uncertain anyway. So fundamentally, nothing has changed.

We cannot look into the future. But we can influence it by focussing on what we can do now.

To help us decide, we can look back and plan ahead. Those are the best tools to respond to uncertainty and our changing environment.

So how are you gonna respond – how will you spend your next month?

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✏️ Retro

(Like always, you can download the Notion template to take structured notes.)

What goals did you set for yourself last month, and how well did you achieve them?

Make a list of your goals (even if they were only implicit) and score them from 1 (low) to 10 (high). You are not allowed to pick a 7. Take notes as you go.

Is there something that is blocking you?

What held you back last month? What can you do to avoid this next month?

What did you learn?

Did you learn something about yourself, your environment, or about the work you do?

🔭 Planning

What are your top 3 priorities next month?

Why are they important to you?

What goals do you set for yourself in light of these priorities?

To beat procrastination, make sure to split every higher-level goal into small subgoals.

What are potential obstacles or challenges you may face?

How can you prepare for them?

🌈 Bonus

What potential impact might AI have on your job or business?

How can you use it to your advantage? If you are worried about something, how can you respond?

🙏 Thanks!

Thank you for being a part of Mental Garden. I sincerely hope you found this email useful.

On a much brighter side, here in Berlin the trees are currently blossoming in a kaleidoscope of colors. The birds have begun to sing their beautiful melodies, and are filling the air with music for anyone willing to listen. Life is so rich 🌱

With gratitude,
Marc

PS: I’ll be back in about two weeks with the next issue of Grow your Mind. Have a great weekend!

* Absolutely worthwhile classic by Ray Kurzweil called “The Law of Accelerating Returns”, published in 2001 (!!)