Everyone Has a Crucible Now

So many articles say if you’re not using some AI tool, you’re already behind. The focus is always on producing more in less time. More blog posts written by ChatGPT, AI video and image generation, agentic process automation. All incredible and life-changing for the business people writing about them.

I see less about people using AI to improve their thinking. To ask better questions. To explore ideas we haven’t even thought to think yet.

Thinking about AI as a crucible—where you throw in cheap metals and pull out gold—is useful. But it also feels spammy. Likely all the blogging and marketing content I’ve read lately is clearly written by AI. And while these entrepreneurs talk about how much AI helps them, they seem totally consumed by speed.

I see two main problems with this.

First, it creates a feedback loop. Everyone asks the same generic questions, the AI gives the same generic answers. The more frequently those questions are asked, the more the AI tunes toward them.

Second, if you’re not starting a business or in school, where do you even get practice using AI? Where do you learn how to communicate with it? How to apply it to your real life?

Maybe the crucible metaphor does hold up—but only if we recognize what Paulo Coelho was getting at in The Alchemist: true transformation requires mastery. The difference now is that everyone’s got a crucible. And many are pulling out what looks like gold and there's a lot of it and that combination feels sufficient.

And maybe it is—if you’re a fisherman trying to cover every inch of water with lures. But soon the fish will catch on. There are ten times as many shiny lures in the water now, and they all move the same, even if they’re painted differently.

Maybe AI isn’t just useful for fishing (a.k.a. marketing in case I’m totally missing in driving this analogy). Maybe there are whole categories of things we haven’t even tried it for. Maybe it's capable of telling us what those things are—if people are willing to dive into it. I keep coming back to the coming need for “Trailblazers” and not just because I’m from Portland.

I don’t think we have to wait for brain-computer interfaces or artificial general intelligence. In a manual way, both are already here. With saved memory becoming standard in these models, they can now collaborate with us on anything that requires forethought—from home improvement projects to preparing for tough conversations with people we care about.

That excites me.

But I’m also worried.

The ramp time for this transition is nothing like previous ones. Electricity. The internet. Smartphones. Those all gave people time to adapt. This? It’s fast. And the motivated are sprinting ahead. The rest could be left in the dust—and not even realize it until years later.

Maybe AI gives more people a piece of the pie. But maybe it also leaves many with less than they had before.

The best way to fight that? Open-source best practices.

People using AI for music, hobbies, parenting, design, trades—anything really—then sharing their learnings so others can build off them. Trailblazers putting their blueprints out in the open, not for clout, but to help others keep pace in a world that isn’t slowing down.