AI is changing what we can create, how much it costs, and which ideas are worth pursuing. Nobody knows exactly where this is heading. But I see four opportunities that go beyond the usual advice about using AI to get more done or make more money.
In this video, I share those four bets. I also introduce the Grateful App, something I’m building mainly because I think it ought to exist.
The four opportunities
- Remove the friction around work you love. Use AI to handle the annoying parts and fill gaps in your skills. Think of a great teacher who could spend less time wrestling with bookings and reminder emails, and more time teaching.
- Create something you believe ought to exist. Lower development costs mean an idea doesn’t have to become a massive business to be worth building. Creating something that is genuinely helpful for a very small crowd becomes worthwhile.
- Revisit the ideas that were too ambitious. Give AI tools difficult work. Not everything will succeed today, but a stalled prototype may become possible with the next generation of tools.
- Help people stay grounded. As technology accelerates, we still need connection, emotional skills, meaning, and time in the real world. There’s important work here and if you’re the kind of person who wants absolutely nothing to do with AI, we need you more than ever.
For a practical guide to that third opportunity, I recommend Felix Rieseberg’s How to Be More Ambitious: A Tutorial for Humans with Models. He goes beyond “use AI to work faster” and shows how to aim for bigger outcomes, go deeper into a problem, and draw on skills outside your own field. A really good read, go check it out.
What I’m building: Grateful
For well over ten years, I’ve been doing a gratitude practice that has helped me become less of a bitter cynic and more able to appreciate my life.
That is, to put it mildly, quite a significant life quality upgrade.
I’m building the Grateful app to make this practice as easy and enjoyable as possible.
It’s an example of the second opportunity: it’s something I believe should exist in the world and I’m pursuing it even though it will probably never be a huge financial success.
It’s also a bit of the fourth principle in action: it’s a tool to help you reconnect with yourself and cleanse your mind of modernity-induced craziness.
Related videos
If you’d like to explore these ideas further:
- Why You Shouldn’t Chat with ChatGPT — on moving beyond the chat box to put AI tools to work.
- The Future Will Be Weirder (and Better) Than Most People Expect — a wider look at where all of this might be heading.
What have you been wanting to create that you previously wrote off as too difficult, too expensive, or too niche? Let me know in the comments.