The AI Question Nobody's Asking
Will you help look at Capability Building? More like experiential learning—applying concepts in real-world scenarios while balancing (AI-saturated) results-driven efficiency with human sense-making.
This blog series delves deeper into the intersection of technology and human development, highlighting how you can build your resilient adaptiveness to thrive in this modern age.
Everyone's seems to be asking if AI will replace them… FOGO - fear of getting obsolete.
Wrong question.
A more powerful question is: What happens when you stop asking?
Here's what I believe is really happening.
You're experiencing what neuroscientists call a SCARF response. Your brain is scanning for five threats: Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, and Fairness. AI triggers all five at once. That's not a bug. It's a feature.
Your status feels threatened?
Good. Status based on doing repetitive tasks was never going to last anyway. The humans who thrive alongside AI won't be the ones who compete with it. They'll be the ones who dance with it. Creativity, empathy, judgment—these aren't consolation prizes. They're the main event.
Certainty feels impossible?
Even better. Certainty is overrated. The people who built the most resilient careers never had certainty. They had curiosity. They had the willingness to learn, unlearn, and relearn. AI literacy isn't a destination—it's a practice.
Autonomy feels lost?
Here's the thing about autonomy: it was never about doing everything yourself. It was about making meaningful choices. Choose to master the tools. Choose to direct their impact. Choose to be the human in the loop, not the human replaced by the loop.
Relatedness feels strained?
This is where most people get it backwards. They think AI creates distance. But the organizations that thrive with AI are the ones that get more human, not less. They share the uncertainty. They learn together. They build communities around the change instead of walls against it.
Fairness feels absent?
Of course it does. Change is never fair. But fair and inevitable aren't the same thing. The question isn't whether AI is fair. The question is whether you're going to help make its implementation more fair, or whether you're going to complain about its unfairness.
Here's what the scared people don't understand: AI isn't happening to you. It's happening around you. And you get to choose how to respond. You might fly high AND stay grounded :)
The people who will struggle aren't the ones without technical skills. They're the ones who refuse to see AI as a dance partner. They're the ones who insist on competing instead of complementing. They're the ones who mistake motion for progress and anxiety for insight.
The people who will thrive are different. They're the ones who remember that every tool amplifies human intent. They're the ones who focus on becoming more human, not more machine-like.
The robots aren't coming for your job. They're coming for your excuses.
What you do with that information—that's entirely up to you.
The question isn't whether AI will change everything. It already has.
The question is: What are you going to do about it?
How I Adapt
Here's how I try to stay human while the machines get smarter.
I keep my confidence bucket topped up.
Not the fake-it-till-you-make-it kind. The real kind. The kind that comes from knowing what drains me and what fills me. I track the patterns. Which meetings leave me second-guessing? Which conversations energize me? I spend more time in spaces that help me thrive, less time pretending I'm someone else.
I control my inner critic.
That voice telling me I'm behind, I'm irrelevant, I'm not keeping up? It's not always right. I swap "I'm terrible at this" with "I'm still learning." Small shift. Big difference.
I collect evidence.
Not of my failures—those are loud enough already. Evidence of what I've done well. The problem I solved. The teammate I supported. The question I asked that changed everything. I keep a running list. It's proof of what I can do next.
I embrace uncertainty like a dance partner.
Everyone's rushing to have answers. I'm learning to love the questions. The ones that help me grow. The ones that align with who I'm becoming. When uncertainty arises, let curiosity activate. I dare and urge you to embrace uncertainty with curiosity, letting questions—not answers—guide you toward a more meaningful, self-actualised life.
I design work around my energy, not the clock.
The old logic says time in equals value out. Wrong. Energy in equals impact out. I notice when concentration comes naturally. When ideas flow freely. I put my hardest thinking during peak focus hours, not after back-to-back meetings.
I say no without guilt.
This one's hard. I'm a natural yes person. But saying yes to everything means saying no to what matters most. I use the Thoughts-Action-Learning plan: imagine consequences, take action, reflect on outcomes. Each no gets easier.
I borrow confidence from others.
Sometimes I need to lean on someone else's belief in me. A mentor's feedback. A teammate's encouragement. Just as others fill my bucket, my encouragement fills theirs.
I move my body.
Sounds simple. It is. A short walk before a tough call. Standing up to speak. Shaking my shoulders loose when I'm feeling frozen. The body tricks the mind into feeling more present.
The people who thrive alongside AI aren't the ones with the best technical skills.
They're the ones who remember that being human is a practice, not a given.
They're the ones who know that confidence isn't fixed—it's filled, daily, intentionally.
They're the ones who design their days around energy, not expectations.
The machines are getting smarter.
The question is: Are you getting more human?
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