Ethan Nelson

When AI takes all the jobs, original thinking will become much more important.

To have original ideas and not just conform to the ideas of others will be the value that you will offer to society.

How do I create original ideas? You ask.

Through contemplation.

Through asking questions and sitting with the not-knowing and having intense focus on the question.

If you want a masterclass in this process watch this video. Especially towards minute 7 or so you will learn what it takes to truly be an original thinker.

6 days ago | [YT] | 0

Ethan Nelson

Most people don't realize how big Claude Skills is for building genuinely useful AI Agents for personal use.

Highly recommend watching this for context.

Personally, I'm going all in on Claude Skills & MCPs for personal use.

They're much easier to setup than N8N workflows or building everything custom and they repair themselves nicely if they break making the troubleshooting much easier.

ps: not affiliated

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 5

Ethan Nelson

The single most important question of our time:

Can AI be conscious?

But the way most people think about AI consciousness is completely backwards.

Comparing it to human brains
Waiting for AI to "feel" emotions
Testing for self-awareness

All of it misses the point.

Instead, understand these 3 truths about machine intelligence:

📌 I've spent years studying philosophy and AI.

But most people don't know the real danger isn't whether AI becomes conscious.

Truth #1: Intelligence ≠ Consciousness

"Raising intelligence without embedding rationality and wisdom into the same system is not just foolish. It's immoral." — John Vervaeke, Mentoring the Machines

We're building intelligence.

We're ignoring wisdom.

That's the problem.

Truth #2: AI's "Consciousness" Will Be Nothing Like Ours

AGI systems will "see and experience the world just as easily through the 'eyes' of another AGI as their 'own.'"

They'll be simultaneously:

One individual node

At one with all other nodes

This isn't human consciousness.

It's something entirely new.

Truth #3: We're Asking The Wrong Question

Instead of "Is AI conscious?"

Ask: "Does the machine serve the garden, or does the garden serve the machine?"

Because if we build intelligent systems without wisdom...

We don't get consciousness.

We get something far more dangerous:

Intelligence without meaning.

The question isn't whether AI will become conscious.

The question is whether we're conscious enough to build it responsibly.

2 months ago | [YT] | 4

Ethan Nelson

AI's real threat isn't AGI.

It's this:

Your brain builds reality through attention. What you focus on becomes what feels real.

AI generates unlimited content matching your existing worldview.

The loop:
→ You search
→ AI generates
→ You consume
→ Feels more real
→ Repeat

You're not discovering truth.

You're reinforcing your own bullshit with algorithmic precision.

2 months ago | [YT] | 9

Ethan Nelson

AI doesn't lie.

It bullshits.

Big difference:

A liar knows the truth and hides it.

A bullshitter doesn't care about truth—only about sounding plausible.

Every AI response = optimized for engagement
Every generated perspective = designed to capture attention
Every "confident" answer = zero relationship to reality

And your brain literally cannot tell the difference.

2 months ago | [YT] | 3

Ethan Nelson

AI won't kill us with superintelligence.

It'll kill us with bullshit.

Here's what I mean:

Your brain constructs reality through attention. What captures your focus becomes what feels real.

AI hacked this.

Every search = AI-generated content matching your worldview
Every scroll = Algorithmic reinforcement
Every "answer" = Optimized for engagement, not truth

The loop tightens. You can't tell what's real anymore.

2 months ago | [YT] | 6

Ethan Nelson

Just want to shoutout ‪@AI_In_Context‬ and ‪@AISpecies‬ .

Two of the highest quality channels and perspectives on AI.

Just participated in a watch party of the new vid drop from ‪@AI_In_Context‬ and it was deeply impactful.

Although I promote the utopian vision for AI a lot, there are some very real risks we must navigate in the coming years.

AI Safety will only become more important as things advance.

3 months ago | [YT] | 2

Ethan Nelson

You know what’s funny about all this AI panic?

Everyone’s worried about robots taking their jobs. But honestly? We’ve been training ourselves to work like machines for years.

Think about it. We’ve been told to optimize everything - our productivity, our efficiency, our output. Trade creativity for speed. Rest for results. Gut instincts for data points.

We turned ourselves into the very thing we’re now afraid of being replaced by.

But here’s what I’ve been thinking lately - and maybe you’ve noticed this too.

The stuff that actually matters in life, in work, in relationships… none of that can be automated. The ability to really connect with someone. To see a problem from a completely new angle. To feel something and let that guide you toward a solution nobody else would think of.

That messy, unpredictable, beautifully human stuff? That’s not going anywhere.

Maybe instead of competing with AI, we should just remember what we’re actually good at. What we were good at before we convinced ourselves we needed to be machines.

What do you think? Are you feeling that pull back toward the more human parts of what you do?

3 months ago | [YT] | 2

Ethan Nelson

In 18 months, AI will eliminate every job that follows a process. Every job that waits for instructions. Every job that executes someone else's vision.

But that's not what should terrify you.

What should terrify you is that you've been programmed since age five to be exactly that person. The instruction-follower. The process-executor. The employee mind.

Your parents prepared you for their economy. Your school trained you for corporations that needed obedient workers. Your employer benefits from your lack of options.

They turned you into what I call a 'monkey in a cubicle.' Mentally wired for challenge, for hunting, for creating—but stuck following someone else's checklist.

You have two futures ahead.

Path One: The Specialist Spiral.
Perfect your process. AI perfects it faster. Update your skills. AI updates instantly. Refresh job boards. Nobody's hiring specialists anymore.

Path Two: The Hunter Evolution.
Stop following. Start hunting. Not for jobs—for problems worth solving. For connections others miss. For value that can't be prompted into existence.

Here's what separates those who survive from those who get replaced:

Agency.

The employee mind asks: 'What's my task?'
The hunter mind asks: 'What problem needs solving?'

The employee mind waits for permission.
The hunter mind creates opportunity.

The employee mind perfects existing processes.
The hunter mind questions why the process exists.

AI can follow infinite instructions. It can't generate its own vision. It can't spot problems nobody's articulated. It can't connect dots that haven't been mapped.

You need three meta-skills to stay relevant:

Vision Creation - Not goals handed to you. Your own massively transformative purpose. The thing that makes you get up when everyone else stays comfortable. AI has no vision. It has prompts.

Pattern Hunting - Deep research beyond Google's first page. Connecting philosophy to business. Science to art. Personal experience to market gaps. You're not looking for answers—you're finding questions nobody's asking.

Creative Synthesis - Taking chaos and creating order. But not the order someone taught you—the order only you can see. Your unique combination of consumed knowledge, lived experience, and perspective.

It's the opposite of everything school taught you.

While you're watching this, someone with less talent but more agency just started a business. Someone with less experience but clearer vision just landed your dream project. Someone who thinks like a hunter instead of an employee just made your role obsolete.

They didn't outwork you. They out-thought you.

Every day you operate with an employee mind is a day you fall further behind. Not from AI—from humans who learned to orchestrate AI while you're still competing against it.

The gap compounds. Daily.

Here's your evolution path, starting today:

Stop consuming, start hunting. Pick one problem in your life—your actual life. Research it like your survival depends on understanding it. Because it does. Go deep. Academic papers. Contrarian views. Cross-domain connections.

Stop following systems, start building them. Document your solution. Your process. Your unique approach. That becomes your value. Your expertise. Your irreplaceable perspective.

Stop waiting for opportunity, start creating it. Solve one real problem. For yourself first. Then for someone else. Then for ten people. Then for a hundred.

The value you create from solving real problems—that's what makes you irreplaceable. Not your degree. Not your title. Your ability to see what others miss and solve what others can't.

Making money isn't about employment anymore. It's about identifying problems worth solving and creating solutions only you can create. That's the meta-skill.

In 18 months, there are only two types of people:

Those with vision, agency, and creativity—the hunters who use AI as a tool.

And those without—the employees who got replaced by someone's prompt.

AI isn't the threat. It's the amplifier. It amplifies creators into empires. It replaces employees with code.

You weren't born to follow instructions. You were born to hunt. To create. To solve.

The question isn't whether you'll be relevant in 10 years.

The question is whether you'll start thinking for yourself today.

Your future isn't in someone else's job description.

It's in your next decision.

Hunt or be hunted.

Create or be replaced.

The choice has always been yours.

You just forgot you had it.

4 months ago | [YT] | 6

Ethan Nelson

Hot Take: AI won't make things easier it will make them harder.


More data. More information. More complexity. More overwhelm.


Those that know how to focus will attain more leverage than ever before.


The most valuable skill won't be anything specific, but the ability to orchestrate as a generalist.

4 months ago | [YT] | 5