Friday Forward - The Talk (#473)
Parents must prepare their kids for the AI-dominated future
Most people are familiar with “The Talk,” when parents carefully explain the birds and bees to teenagers. Of course, that’s just one of a few adult conversations parents must have with their kids to prepare them for the real world. Another example involves helping kids understand what leads to both success and fulfillment.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, this talk was a reassuring message. Kids in towns like Gary, Indiana, Flint, Michigan and Youngstown, Ohio, heard comforting assurances from their parents: "Study hard, graduate, and you'll land a good job at the factory. You’ll be set for life."
This promise had held true for decades. Jobs at General Motors, U.S. Steel, and other manufacturing giants offered steady incomes, reliable pensions, and a path to a middle-class life for people in working class towns everywhere.
But it only took a handful of years for that promise to shatter.
By the 1970s and 1980s, automation and globalization ravaged these industrial towns. Factories either replaced workers with automated machinery or shut down entirely, eliminating thousands of jobs almost overnight and shipping many more overseas. This steady decline has continued, largely unabated, ever since.
The effect of that transformational shift is all too visible today. Once thriving manufacturing hubs saw jobs vanish, communities unravel, and prosperity turn into despair. Millions pursued the factory worker path they were promised, only to see their seemingly guaranteed security vanish. The resulting hopelessness and resentment still lingers in many communities.
There’s ample reason to believe we’re on the cusp of a similar watershed change in life and work. Parents must have a very serious conversation with their children. This time, it’ll be about AI.
For the past few decades, parents have assured children that if they excel academically, attend prestigious universities, and secure stable white-collar jobs in fields like accounting, law, or software development, they’ll enjoy prosperity and security.
Just as factory automation and globalization gutted industrial towns a generation ago, artificial intelligence may soon fundamentally reshape traditionally high-powered and prestigious professions. The coming information revolution might be even more painful than the industrial one that preceded it. AI can and will handle countless white-collar tasks faster, cheaper, and without breaks or burnout, and many formerly high-paying jobs will vanish as a result.
I’m neither an AI maximalist nor a pessimist. But I have used it nearly every day for over two years now; seeing its rapid evolution firsthand, I can more clearly visualize the disruptions it will soon bring. AI won’t eliminate every job, but it will profoundly redefine the nature of work and what it means to build a meaningful career.
Teenagers today deserve honesty and clear guidance about what they must do to adapt to the world they're entering. Parents urgently need to help their children understand the skills they’ll need in an AI-driven workforce.
I can’t predict the future, but I have some beliefs about what some of the biggest changes will be:
Jobs reliant on basic research, rudimentary data processing, or repetitive digital tasks are particularly vulnerable.
People who show willingness and ability to learn how AI can augment their work will fare far better than people who dismiss its capabilities altogether
Human interpersonal skills will become more valuable, especially leadership, empathy, creativity, and pattern recognition. People who naturally have those skills and invest in developing them will stand out considering that AI reliance will lead to fewer opportunities for people to train those interpersonal muscles.
Personal experiences and human connections—which AI cannot replicate—will gain significant value. Travel, adventure, community-building, and service-driven roles will thrive.
There will be increased distrust in video and audio communications, which can be altered by AI in real time. Authenticity will command a premium, which will require more in-person communication and connection.
Physical, location-dependent trades such as food services, plumbing, electrical repair, and similar hands-on businesses will remain robust, though increasingly augmented by technology. With many small business founders nearing retirement, these firms offer prime opportunities for entrepreneurs to acquire or to apprentice and potentially provide a successor.
We already have generations carrying deep resentment for promises that were broken by automation and globalization in the 1970s and 80s. If we fail to start “The Talk 2.0” now, we risk subjecting another generation to the sting of unfulfilled promises and may even deepen social unrest and strife.
AI offers incredible opportunities and will bring drastic changes. Those disruptions must be met with honesty, adaptability, intentional preparation, and an understanding that we may soon see a significant shift in our livelihoods and those of our children.
I urge people to consider their place in a workforce that shifts away from the digital and informational roles of the past few decades toward a more physical, hands-on, trade-dominant, and community-oriented future.
Quote of The Week
"Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change." - Stephen Hawking
Have a great weekend!
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I love this. Thanks for creating this piece - which I hope you created with the help of AI ;)
I’m curious about your thoughts on how the Talk 2.0 gains traction. Parents talking to children may be the “blind leading the blind” in most households. The massive juggernaut that is most school systems are typically laggards not early adopters of change.
Thoughts?
Spot on Robert! That was really good! This is why I homestead and will be teaching my kids basics to survival, building, etc....