A New Form Of Inequality

I promise not to turn this completely into an AI newsletter, but I care about you. So I want to let you know about the largest — yet unrealized — arbitrage opportunity of my lifetime: Multiplying your personal intelligence with compute. So expect AI to be an ongoing theme in my writing, alongside personal development and how they intertwine, for at least the next little while.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how, within the decade, AI will be able to generate an endless stream of everything we already love — new seasons of our favourite shows or hyper-personalized sequels to blockbusters that are indistinguishable from the originals.

It’s like the finale of WALL-E, but with 10 times the pandering and 100 times the bandwidth. All being delivered by an AI version of Cortana from Halo that looks like your wildest fantasy.

This new age of infinite on-demand entertainment will reward anyone who shows any creative drive but will capture those prone to passivity and dependence.

The real inequality will no longer be about wealth or social status. It’ll be about having the curiosity and confidence to build versus surrendering to an easy, never-ending stream of consumption.

In The Great Escape of the Mind, I talked about forms of escapism and how certain activities can enrich our lives. But, as soon as escapism becomes passive, we stop shaping our experiences and let them shape us.

When AI can churn out content that satisfies your unique desires like, “I want a crossover season of Friends where the gang goes to Bel-Air to hang out with the Fresh Prince”, it becomes that much harder to resist. If you’re not deliberate about what you build or do, passivity will tip you headlong into a bottomless AI rabbit hole.

Infinite personalized content is just the beginning. In an endgame scenario, AI solves everything.

AI, on top of being an endless content machine, will eventually handle every real problem for us — poverty, disease and even 2am ice cream cravings.

On the surface, that sounds amazing.

But, as Nick Bostrom points out in his vision of a “solved world,” once everything is done for you, there’s a giant question mark left in its place:

“What’s the point of human effort if no one actually needs it anymore?”

Let’s use that as an invitation to redefine drive and creativity on our own terms. People often talk about “drive” as if it’s only present in start-up founders or professional athletes.

Drive is simply the impulse to participate in the world around you.

If you put a little energy into using AI to create instead of consume you’ll see a huge pay off in the short to medium term — hence the arbitrage opportunity I mentioned before.

Before it solves all of our problems on autopilot there is a middle ground where it can solve most of your problems if you apply a little… drive.

• Want to get promoted faster? Increase your output at work by 10x.

• Never had time to start that side project? AI can save you 100’s of hours.

• Want to be more thoughtful or productive in your personal life? You have a co-pilot in your pocket.

AI as a Partner, Not a Pacifier: You can ask AI for brainstorming help or prototypes, but you stay the one making final decisions. It’s a bit like going to the gym with a super fit friend. They’ll push you, spot you and create your workout plan, but you still have to lift the weight.

What about passivity in the long term? How do we solve that problem?

Meaning Through Games: Bostrom points out we already do this. We play sports, video games, or chase after ambitious side projects — none of which are strictly “necessary.” In a future where no task is necessary, choosing a meaningful challenge becomes your core source of purpose.

Bonding Over Real Stakes: Another idea Bostrom highlights is that people can make each other’s participation meaningful. If your friend genuinely wants you, not an AI, to show up and paint a mural with them, that personal request creates real stakes. You’re not needed to pay the rent or hunt for dinner, but you can be needed for human connection, insight, and creativity.

So that’s your fork in the road:

Float in your hoverchair while AI spoon feeds you Friends crossovers, or harness AI to multiply your intelligence. Fair warning — from what I’ve been able to gather — the second road might be more addictive than the first.

In a ‘solved world’ we might not need to do anything at all — but that’s precisely why finding your drive matters more than ever. The decade ahead is our open invitation to create rather than consume… Let’s see who accepts it.

Words I Wish I Wrote

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