BowwBlog # 21: AI’s Great Paradox: Why Everyone Feels Behind (When No One Is Ahead)
How my AI obsession revealed the truth about human progress in the age of exponential change
WHAT: The Tsunami of Change
“Mama, you still up? It’s way past your bedtime! Are you training Claude or is it training you?
My daughter, surprised as I watch Tiago Forte of Anthropic set up context for his business operating system as I painstakingly follow on the tutorial with my mac.
Since OpenAI’s 2023 public launch, I’ve devoured everything AI—tools, ethics papers, prompt engineering tricks. Even started playing Go! My family calls it an “obsession." I call it prophetic urgency.
The numbers tell why:
💰 $471B global AI investment by 2025 (2025 AI Index Report)
🚀 40% of work tasks could be automated by 2030 (Brookings)
📱 100M+ ChatGPT users in 2 months—faster adoption than TikTok
Yet Jason Averbook’s viral article I subscribe to nails our shared anxiety:
“No one is behind. Everyone feels behind. Both are true... We’re not in a race — we’re in a reset.”
I feel this in my gut: Our world is rewiring itself in real time. But as new tools flood in daily (Mid Journey, Claude! Perplexity! Magic AI!), that excitement curdles into fear: “Did everyone get the memo except me?"
SO WHAT: The "Catch-Up Myth" Trap
There is something in me that senses so palpably the lie poisoning our progress.
Everywhere I look, from association conferences to podcasts and streaming talk shows on youtube, we are sold the idea that staying current equals staying valuable. A wave of “me too” wannabe. So we sprint. We scroll. We stack tools like trading cards...
My favorite historian whose bestsellers I have devoured -Yuval Noah Harari - warns that AI which he calls “Alien Intelligence” is moving faster than any society can adapt. He prophesies that by the time we've built laws, regulations, and frameworks, the AI has already evolved 10 times—and history shows that when change outruns our institutions the bill is paid in human suffering.
So speed is cheap. Depth is rare. Presence is power.
Here are three painful truths I am witnessing:
1. Leadership rooms echo this silent panic (I’ve coached a number of executives and teams this month who whisper: “Our shareholders are expecting us to have an AI strategy and roadmap and we’re not even close.”
2. We’re "doing digital, not being digital" - prioritizing tool-hoarding over embodied understanding.
3. The real crisis isn’t tech—it’s trust: When AI writes our emails, runs meetings, and hires staff, what then makes us human?
“Legacy mindsets are the heaviest tech debt." J. Averbook’s knife cuts deep into the heart of corporate inertia.
NOW WHAT: How to Leapfrog (Not Catch Up)
1. Trade "Mastery" for "Mindset Shifts"
We must ask Averbook’s pivotal question:
“What’s possible now that wasn’t possible before?"
(Example: Fed with the right data, I have seen AI simulate customer empathy gaps—not just write reports!)
2. Practice "Strategic Skipping"
Ditch: Hundreds of consulting hours of context discovery and design for minutes of powerful AI analysis and synthesis.
Do: Build an AI agent in 1 week (like the Nigerian entrepreneur who skipped banks and built a loan bot on WhatsApp)
(Photo from Coursiv)
3. Reclaim Your Human Edge
Daily ritual: For every hour with AI, spend 20 mins in undistracted human connection (coffee walks, handwritten notes).
Test by asking: Could this tool replace my humanity? If yes, redesign it. (My rule: AI drafts ideas; people infuse soul.)
CALL TO ACTION: Join the "Reset Rebellion"
For me (and you) this week:
1. Host a "Vulnerability Roundtable"
Gather your work team, friends or family: Ask: “Where do you feel ‘behind’?" (Watch relief flood the room as you realize you’re on the same boat.)
2. Run 1 leapfrog experiment
Skip 3 "traditional" steps in a project. (e.g., Use AI to prototype instead of PowerPoint or canva.)
3. Share your "Behind" Story
Post on LinkedIn: “I don’t know Youper or Dall-E 3. What have YOU skipped to leap forward?"
Progress isn't a path we walk—it's a lens we polish moment by moment. We're not behind—we're arriving differently. And every polished lens reveals new ground to co-create.
- Susan Grace Rivera
Posted: July 26, 2025
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