99% of People Are Asleep

I was at a party last night, and was talking with a friend that does AI integration at Google.

I asked him what he thought about AI agents like Openclaw.

He hadn’t heard of it.

How can this be?! How can someone at the cutting edge of tech, not have heard of the most viral AI agent framework!?

I think it’s simple, most people have no idea what AI is capable of.

Most people are just using Chatgpt like Google search engine.

Here’s where the opportunity is.

While most people are lagging behind, we can find great opportunities.

Imagine you could go back to 2010 and buy bitcoin?

Now that it’s popular and everyone knows about it, the opportunity is much lower.

If you where to buy bitcoin today, it would cost $69,000.

I feel like that’s where we’re at right now.

The people that learn to build with AI right now have a massive opportunity, but the window is closing.

Soon, everyone will understand the power and the advantage will be lost.

I’m not going to miss the opportunity.

I know it can be confusing.

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99% of people have NO IDEA THIS IS POSSIBLE.

This is where the advantage is.

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AI Layoffs Or Excuse?

Let’s walk through this, because people are saying different things and it sounds confusing if you don’t line it up properly.

So forget the headlines for a second.

Look at what’s happening inside these tech companies.

Let’s start with Oracle.

because this one is pretty clear when you slow it down.

They’re cutting thousands of roles.

Not small cuts. Engineers, product people, experienced teams.

And at the same time, they’re pouring money into AI. Data centers, compute, long-term infrastructure.

So just pause there for a second.

If you’re committing that level of capital, you have to free it up somewhere.

And where does that come from?

People.

Now go a layer deeper.

In Washington alone, they filed close to 500 cuts.

These aren’t entry-level roles. These are people building and running systems.

At the same time, internally, they’re already seeing that AI tools are letting smaller teams do the same work faster.

So once that becomes visible, the math changes.

You don’t rebuild teams the same way.

Now take that and move over to Meta.

They plan to layoff 20% of their staff.

Much like Oracle, it’s a massive move designed to free up capital for AI development.

They need cash for software, hardware, infrastructure, and even top talent.

So again, same pattern.

More output per team.

Fewer people needed over time.

Now here’s where it gets interesting.

Because Marc Andreessen comes in and basically says, this whole AI layoff story is being overstated.

His argument is that companies are overstaffed.

Not slightly. Significantly.

And AI becomes the explanation because it’s easy to point to. That’s his angle.

And look, there’s some truth there.

A lot of companies hired fast over the past few years.

Now capital is tighter.

So they pull back.

That part makes sense.

But here’s the part you can’t ignore.

The productivity change is already happening.

At Oracle, smaller engineering teams are delivering faster.

Across companies, internal tools are removing steps, reducing coordination, speeding up execution.

So even if layoffs start as correction, the work itself is changing.

And that affects what happens next.

Now there’s another part of this that doesn’t get enough attention.

A report came out about a tech worker who lost a US-based role tied to AI-related changes.

That loss created immediate financial pressure.

And it led to a tragic outcome involving him and his partner.

And this is where the conversation changes.

Because this stops being a strategy discussion.

This is where decisions show up in people’s lives.

So when you step back and look at all of this together, it’s actually pretty straightforward.

Companies are putting massive capital into AI.

They are reducing headcount where they can.

They are redesigning how work gets done.

Now here’s how I look at it.

There are roles today that are going to disappear.

You can already see it.

At the same time, new roles are forming.

Different tools, different responsibilities, different ways of working. So both things are happening together.

The question is not which side is right. The question is where you fit into this.

You have to look at your own work directly.

What parts of what you do can be handled today by AI?

Then look at what’s left.

Where do you actually add value?

Where do decisions depend on you?

Because that’s the part that holds up.

Some roles get smaller.

Some roles grow.

New ones show up.

He is risen - Happy Easter!

-Mark