I learned coding on my dad’s lap.
Not in some “future CEO origin story” way — more like: a kid staring at a blinking cursor, typing BASIC commands I didn’t fully understand… changing one tiny thing… and watching the computer do something different.
Immediate feedback.
Pure magic.
And then: navigation.
I still remember the holiday road trips. Paper maps, wrong exits, a tired father insisting he was right, my mom being very sure he wasn’t. GPS didn’t just improve routes — it removed a whole category of stress. It quietly rewired our expectations:
“Of course we’ll find it.”
“Of course it’ll adapt.”
That’s why I’m trying to be gentle with people who feel AI anxiety right now.
Because AI isn’t only “a tool”.
It pokes at identity.
And yes — it pokes at mine too.
Over the years I learned a whole collection of “serious” skills that felt like hard-won competence: coding BASIC, learning how MS-DOS worked, getting decent at Photoshop, figuring out audio/video editing, knowing the shortcuts, the formats, the little rituals that made you the person who can do it.
And now?
A lot of that is no longer a skill. It’s a button. A prompt. A checkbox.
That doesn’t just change workflows — it changes the story you tell yourself about your value.
If you’ve built your confidence on being the person who knows the system, the process, the shortcuts, the right words — and suddenly a machine can draft, summarize, code, design, or research… it can feel like someone moved the floor while you were standing on it.
What helps me is remembering: we’ve been here before.
New tech arrives → people panic → society adapts → we forget we ever panicked. And with AI, the emotional cycle is familiar too: denial, anger, bargaining, that tired “what’s the point?” phase… and eventually some version of acceptance. Not linear. More like weather than a staircase.
Here’s the part I think we’re missing in many workplaces:
People aren’t resisting AI because they’re stubborn or lazy.
Often they’re grieving.
Not “sad for the robot” — but mourning a version of themselves: competent, needed, respected.
So if you’re feeling it: you’re not broken. You’re human.
My tiny suggestion (non-paternalistic, promise): don’t start with “be productive”. Start with “be safe”.
Pick one harmless thing. Something private. Something small. Let yourself play. No performance. No public demo. Just you and a little experiment — like changing one BASIC line and seeing what happens.
And one optimistic angle I’m holding onto: AI makes interfaces thinner. It makes “having the best device” less important than “having a decent question.” That could matter a lot for mobile-first worlds — and for people who didn’t grow up with access, time, or fancy hardware.
Not utopian, not dystopian — just forward-looking. 🌈
Where do you see AI anxiety showing up most — fear of job loss, fear of looking stupid, or fear of losing what made you you?
PASS IT ON.