You can recover from a mistake.
Recovering from a damaged reputation is much harder.
Never treat your name as something disposable.
Law 5: So Much Depends on Reputation. Guard It with Your Life.
Let me be blunt. Those who are afraid of AI feel deep down that they are impostors & have no edge. If you have a 1) clear mind, 2) a deep, not just cosmetic, undertanding of your specialty, 3) and/or are original enough to reinvent yourself when needed, AI will be your friend.
Larry Ellison, the co founder of Oracle and one of the wealthiest people on earth, once described his friendship with Elon Musk in terms that revealed something nobody else in Elon's life has been willing to say publicly. He said Elon has almost no friends. And the few he has cannot reach him when it matters.
Ellison is one of the only billionaires who has maintained a genuine personal friendship with Elon over decades. He sits on the Tesla board. He invested early. He has described their relationship as one where he is frequently the person who calls Elon at 11pm not to discuss business but to ask if he's okay. The answer, according to Ellison, is usually some version of "I'm working." Not fine. Not good. Working.
Ellison has described the particular loneliness of being Elon's friend. The friendship is real but access is intermittent. Elon responds to texts about engineering problems within minutes. Texts about personal wellbeing can go unanswered for days. The prioritization is not conscious cruelty. It is the same architecture that every partner has described: the system processes mission critical inputs first. Personal inputs are queued.
The detail Ellison shared that cuts the deepest: he said there have been moments where he genuinely worried about Elon's mental state and could not get through. Not because Elon was ignoring him. Because Elon was in a state of focus so total that external inputs, including from the one person calling specifically to make sure he was alive, were not registering. The man who can process rocket physics and factory logistics simultaneously cannot always process a phone call from a friend who is worried about him.
Ellison is 82 years old. He has known Elon for over 20 years. He has watched every marriage end, every public crisis unfold, and every near bankruptcy threaten the empire. He remains. Not because the friendship is easy. Because the man he is friends with has almost nobody else who calls to ask if he's okay without wanting something in return.
The richest man alive has one friend who calls at 11pm to check on him. The friend is also one of the richest men alive. The friendship exists in a stratosphere where the normal support systems (family, community, coworkers who care) have been replaced by employees, investors, and partners who all need something. Ellison needs nothing from Elon. That is why the friendship works. And that is why it is almost alone.
AI could push back against public irrationality like conspiracy theories, fake news, & medical quackery. Whereas social media optimize for sheer engagement (clicks, likes, & reposts), AI is sold as a useful product that aids decision-making in the real world. For all the problems of LLMs, they're less likely to send users down a conspiratorial rabbit hole. This may restore the influence of epistemically responsible expertise. So argues the philosopher Dan Williams @danwilliamsphil https://t.co/hv0n5EzREq
One of the concepts I’ve been thinking a lot about lately is that AI dramatically changes the supply-side economics of creating content, software, games, etc., but doesn’t necessarily change consumer demand.
Consumers have always been interested in sex, money, and status at a base level. Perhaps a more generous view is self-expression, community, and experiences that move them forward on their personal hero’s journey.
I think a real challenge for consumer founders is connecting these supply-side miracles to latent consumer demand.
True customer empathy is very rare, and so much of software is an act of self-expression rather than an act of creating utility or joy for the customer. Founders love the software they make because it tells their story, but customers are interested in their own stories.