This article is for you.

When I started my career in tech, I felt burdened by this uncomfortable truth that I'd never really understand all of the work that went into bringing us from the then to the now. There were so many companies that had invested in massive projects to move to the cloud, to buy software that didn't actually get loaded via CD onto computers, to install wireless access points so you could work from anywhere in a building. All of these things were just a given to me when I entered the workplace… I didn't have an appreciation or an understanding of the infrastructure that got us here.

Luckily, I had amazingly patient teachers who drew pizza boxes and said, “This is a server," and mapped out the path radio waves took from my laptop to the WAP to the switch and so on.. most people didn't get that.    

Anyways, I quickly realized people just a decade older than me who had lived through these times had a leg up on understanding the new technology that was coming out. They could grasp why smaller chips helped with speeds. They understood why fiber is faster than… copper? See… I don't even know what came before fiber, and it's still in use today! My point is that experiencing change is an opportunity to absorb new information via osmosis and gives you an innate perspective on the value of each iterative innovation in the future. For example, I know why voice-to-text is cool because I lived in a time where you had to physically press the buttons… like from T9 to voice-to-text is a massive leap!

All this to say, I had this lightbulb moment recently where I realized I am insanely lucky to be living through the business world transition from digital to AI. A decade from now, people entering the workforce will not be able to comprehend all of the work we are putting in now to learn, build, understand, adapt, and ideate around AI. It won't even be cool. Or a buzzword. Sure, their lives will have been made easier by it all as a consumer, but we will understand how we got here. 

Hopefully, some of them will be wise enough to discover that same uncomfortable truth I felt.. and if they do, I want to be one of the patient teachers who remembers this time.. the time we're living through right now! I'll explain to them how we were once amazed that ChatGPT could write an email for us. Or a breakup text. (and then I'll also explain what a text was). I'll talk about how AI was the most annoying buzzword on the planet. I'll share how we felt excitement and fear and confusion… and how it all settled into whatever it's going to settle into. 

I'll get to be one of the lucky ones who lived through it.