"The Most Important Year": a startup's viral essay on how to save careers in the age of AI
Artificial intelligence is already writing code instead of programmers. How do people who don't understand technology keep their jobs?
A huge gulf lies between how society perceives AI and the current reality - and it's preventing people from preparing for change, Schuler writes / Photo: Shutterstock.com
Artificial intelligence will change the world far more than the coronavirus pandemic did, and people should already be preparing for it. This is stated in an essay published on February 9 by technology entrepreneur Matt Schuler. His text quickly went viral: in three days it garnered 70 million views and more than 32,000 reposts on social network X. The essay was praised by Alexis Ohanian, founder of Reddit, and Andrei Doronichev, a former top Google executive and co-founder of the startup Optic. David Haber, principal partner at venture capital fund A16z (Andreessen Horowitz), called it a great guide for those who want to advance their careers at any large company.
Schuler is 26 years old. In 2020, he co-founded the startup OthersideAI, which released HyperWrite, an AI-assisted writing tool (the startup admitted that it also used a neural network to create its acclaimed essay). Schuler's goal was to write an understandable text about the threat of AI for people who do not work in technology and do not follow its development - for example, like his father of pre-retirement age. Oninvest recounts the main point of his essay.
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The world now looks a lot like it did in February 2020, Schuler said. The stock market was going up, people were enjoying life: going out to restaurants and planning vacations, and only a few people were discussing a new virus spreading abroad. Things changed radically in just three weeks when everything shut down. Life reorganized in ways no one could have imagined just a month earlier.
"I think we're just in that phase now where everyone thinks, 'come on, that's some kind of exaggeration,' when in fact it's much, much more than a covid."
People need to realize that artificial intelligence is not a matter of the future, it is already changing the world, Schuler emphasizes. According to him, almost no one outside the tech industry realizes an important thing: there is a real reason why so many IT people are sounding the alarm about artificial intelligence. The reason is this: techies are the first to experience these changes firsthand. According to Schuler, his own tech work can now be done entirely by AI.
"I tell the AI what I need, walk away from the computer for four hours, and come back to see the work done. Done well - better than I would have done myself, without having to make edits. Until a couple months ago, I was constantly interacting with the AI model, guiding it, making changes. Now I just describe the result I want and walk away"
The entrepreneur calls February 5 the turning point - on that day, artificial intelligence labs Anthropic and OpenAI released powerful programming models Claude Opus 4.6 and GPT-5.3-Codex. OpenAI said that the GPT-5.3-Codex model was involved in its own creation.According to Schuler, everything that came before now feels like a different era: while back in 2022 artificial intelligence could make arithmetic errors, now it is smart enough to contribute meaningfully to its own improvement.
AI labs have consciously focused on teaching AI to code from the beginning: if artificial intelligence can write code, it will help create the next, smarter version of itself, which in turn will write even better code, Schuler explains. Programmers were not targeted, but became "collateral damage" of this process, he believes.
"We don't make predictions. We tell you what has already happened in our own work and warn you that you are next"
Now, in his opinion, AI is ready to take on other industries: law, finance, medicine, accounting, consulting, writing, design, analytics - all the intellectual work. And it won't happen in ten years, Schuler is confident: "The people building these systems give one to five years. Some say less. Given what I've seen in just the last couple months, I think 'less' is more likely." In time, robots will take over physical labor as well, he believes.
That said, there's a huge gulf between how society perceives AI and the current reality - and it's preventing people from being prepared, Schuler writes. Part of the problem, he sees, is that most are using free chatbots that are more than a year behind premium versions.
"Evaluating the state of artificial intelligence from the free ChatGPT is like evaluating modern smartphones using a cot"
At the current rate of development, AI capable of working autonomously all day long will appear as early as next year, Schuler believes. He recalls the prediction of Anthropic head Dario Amodei that in 2026 or 2027 there will be artificial intelligence models "significantly smarter than almost all humans in almost all tasks".
"Think about it. If artificial intelligence is smarter than most PhDs, do you really think it can't do most office jobs? Think about what that means for your job."
Importantly, AI adoption is also different from all previous waves of automation, the essay's author believes. When factories were automated, workers could retrain to become office workers. When the internet changed commerce, people went into other areas. But artificial intelligence doesn't replace one particular skill: it's better at everything at once and could become a universal replacement for cognitive labor, Schuler writes.
"I think the honest answer is that in the medium term, nothing you can do on a computer is protected. If your work is done on a screen, artificial intelligence will take a significant portion of it. And it's not "someday. It's already started."
What you need to do right now
The entrepreneur ends his essay with advice for people who want to protect their careers in an era of change.
- Start Early The biggest advantage you can gain now is figuring out AI before anyone else. "This year could be the most important year of your career," Schuler writes. For now, he says, most people in most companies are still ignoring what's going on. The person who says in a meeting that they used AI to do an analysis in an hour instead of three days "will become the most valuable person on the team." That window won't be open for long: once everyone has AI figured out, the advantage will disappear, Schuler emphasizes.
He advises using the most advanced version of Claude or ChatGPT, paying for the premium version. Do not use chatbots like Google, but load them with real work tasks - for example, ask them to find disputed clauses in a legal contract or build a table of numbers.
"Start with what you spend the most time on and see what happens. Your first attempt may not be perfect. That's okay. Reformulate the query. Give more context. Try it again. You may be amazed at how it works. Remember: if it works in any way today, it will almost certainly be near-perfect in six months"
- Get your finances in order. Basic financial stability is more important now than it was a year ago, the entrepreneur believes. We need to build up savings. Be careful with debts. Analyze expenses. You need a plan B in case things develop faster than expected.
- Look for the things that are harder for artificial intelligence to replace. Relationships and trust built over years. A job that requires physical presence. A responsible position where you have to sign documents or appear in court. It can't be a defense in perpetuity, but it will provide the most valuable thing - time to adapt.
- Rethink what you teach your children. People who stick to the same old script - high grades, good university, stable job - become the most vulnerable. The most important thing for the next generation, according to Schuler, will be the ability to work with AI tools and do things they are really interested in.
"No one knows exactly what the job market will be like ten years from now. But those most likely to succeed will be those who are deeply curious, adaptable, and effectively use AI for what they truly care about. Teach kids to be creators and learners, rather than optimizing themselves for a career path that may not exist by the time they graduate"
- Get involved in something you are really interested in. In addition to the threat, artificial intelligence has a beneficial effect - it can help make dreams come true, Schuler wrote. People who wanted to create an app but didn't have the technical skills or money to hire someone can now describe their product to artificial intelligence and get a working version in an hour.
"Anything you've been putting off because it seemed too difficult, too expensive, or too far from your expertise - try it. Get into something you're really interested in. You never know where it will lead."
- Get used to adapting. Artificial intelligence will continue to change - and fast, Schuler writes. That's why the ability to quickly learn new tools is critical.
"Make experimentation a habit. Try new things even when the current one works. Get used to being new again and again. This adaptability is the closest thing to a sustainable advantage that exists right now. Here's a simple commitment that will put you ahead of almost everyone else: spend one hour a day experimenting with artificial intelligence. Not passively reading about it. Using it. Every day, try to get it to do something new - something you haven't tried before, something you're not sure it can handle. Try a new tool. Give him a more challenging task. One hour a day, every day. If you do this for the next six months, you'll understand what's going on better than 99% of the people around you. That's not an exaggeration. Almost no one is doing it right now. The bar is lying on the Paul."
This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor
