You're Gonna Need Some Bigger Balls
You are fucked. I'm fucked. We're all fucked..
We went from laughing at 5 seconds of a fever-dream Will Smith slurping down strange spaghetti to not knowing which bombing videos are real.
We went from not knowing what a ChatGPT is, to wondering if lawyers will be relevant next year.
You’d think the most personable of bartenders would be safe, but look at our buddy robo-bartender.
Either way, we’ve hit a point in tech that looks crazy. Here’s a pic from that article by Wait But Why that was written ELEVEN YEARS AGO.
Here we go, ladies and gents.
See, when I look at this, the idea of technology and AI isn’t what twists my balls the most — it’s what it means for our heads.
I don’t necessarily think of technology and AI when I see that green line. I think of that green line as anxiety, depression, and other fun experiences for the whole family.
So how the hell do we handle that? The entirety of human knowledge can be summoned by your choice of robot, and yet it can’t actually take our brains and make them feel alright?
It can’t force our hand to take the steps we oh so desperately need to take.
We can get every diet, every workout, every idea with a single prompt. And all that sweet, delicious, dopamine-spiking information is just water we drown in.
And we love the drowning.
We love to talk about how bad phones are, and yet the average screentime is longer than our sleep.
We love to talk about how shit our diets are, and yet we eat slop.
We know how bad loneliness is and feel a lack of connection to our fellow man. Yet we refuse to hold eye contact or invite Lindy to bowling.
We’re dead. Dead in a real way, but we’re still breathing.
We’ve drowned ourselves in a sea of Instagram reels, pretending not to care. Only caring enough for another scroll and another online argument.
Either way you slice it, our personal salvation is gonna require some drastic individual action. And a lotta prayer.
So what's the move?
So what’s the move to escape this hellish headspace? How can we be saved from the robots and the uncertainty?
Well, here’s where the commenters get all pissy and impossible on us.
Fact of the matter is, a lotta people are gonna have to start taking some drastic action.
Did you really like that one beach town you visited? GO THERE. Save your money and go there. Sell it all and save yourself.
Walk into every bar, restaurant, apply to every fucking job in person. Learn to build a table and sell them to rich cats. Learn to sharpen knives. Sell drugs. Go watch Marty Supreme. You’ll know what to do.
Get out there. Make it happen. Take big fucking swings.
“No matter how isolated you are and how lonely you feel, if you do your work truly and conscientiously, unknown friends will come and seek you.”
— Carl Jung
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”
— Proverbs 3:5-6
Have some balls and believe in yourself. Believe in Jung, God, or your mailman.
If you think your life will get easier to navigate as time goes on, you are sorely mistaken. Let’s make that clear as day. Shit is very close to getting silly.
A few trillion dollars are being invested in making the future even more incredible and unpredictable.
And by “future” I mean Amazon just read your brainwaves and placed an order for cricket-flavored Doritos you’re gonna start craving in three weeks. Delivered by drone. Covered in ads for the next Marvel reboot.
The Exercise
Look, I know it’s not possible for everyone, but do this exercise from The Magic of Thinking Big.
What if you had to? Gun to your head?
Write down everything you would HAVE to do. Then write all the bad things that would happen and everything you’d have to deal with.
See what comes up from that.
Anything is possible. Cavemen survived zillions of years damn near extinction and you can’t figure out how to live a fulfilling life?
Every ancestor you’ve ever had fought tooth and nail to get you here. And you can’t make some moves to do shit a little different from everyone else?
Start a business maybe. Start doing cool shit. Whatever comes to mind.
Drastic times call for drastic measures.
Make something fucking happen.
Or keep living like it’ll be alright.