WorkLifeFuture
Guidance for parents supporting emerging adults in the age of AI & automation 

There's a logical fallacy we all make called the "appeal to tradition."

It sounds like this:

We've always done it this way, so it must be right.

Or its quieter cousin:

That kind of thing has never happened before, so it probably won't now.

It's how otherwise smart people end up on the wrong side of history.

Not because they're foolish — but because every real disruption looks like an overreaction at first. We are naturally averse to change.

Given your interest in this newsletter, I strongly suggest that you read a remarkable essay by Matt Shumer called Something Big Is Happening.

👉 Read it at shumer.dev (no account required)

It's 5,000 words. It doesn't pull punches. It hit 100 million views in days, and Shumer was on CNBC within the week, CBS Morning this week.

I'm not going to summarize it. You should read the whole thing. (But… you could paste it into an AI tool and ask for the highlights — that's the point.)

What I want to do is tell you why I think he's largely right — and what it means for parents trying to help their kids navigate what comes next.

When I entered high school, personal computers were just arriving in classrooms.

Most adults thought they were toys.

My dad — a high school teacher — got an Apple II at a discount and brought it home.

This primitive little computer changed my life… even without a mouse.

In college, the Macintosh showed up. I fell in love with the way it turbo-charged my creativity. That mattered. The knowledge got me my first corporate job, and I spent years traveling the world teaching it.

Then the internet arrived.

People said it was a fad. I didn't think so. I leaned in and changed careers — I could see the digital writing on the wall — that the newspaper industry was going to have real trouble.

And even the internet had serious detractors (for good reasons).

Each time, there were the tech naysayers. The instinct around me was the same:

This is probably just a phase.

It never was.

Those of us who adapted early had a durable advantage — every single time.

What's different right now is scale and speed. AI is improving faster than any prior general-purpose technology — and unlike the PC or the internet, it directly targets the core of knowledge work itself.

As Shumer describes, AI is now creating AI. When a technology accelerates its own improvement, the curve steepens. That's the unique thing about this revolution.

Shumer isn't predicting something abstract.

He's describing work that already changed for him.

He can outline a software product in plain English, walk away for hours, and return to a built, tested result — work that used to require teams of junior engineers.

I had my own version of this moment the first time I used ChatGPT. I built an educational course in about 20 minutes that had previously taken me six weeks. I wasn't the same after that.

Is his timeline exactly right? Maybe not. Software moved first — other fields will move at different speeds, and there are legitimate critics who point that out.

But here's the part that stopped me:

Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic — one of the most safety-focused AI executives on the planet — has publicly warned that AI could eliminate up to 50% of entry-level white-collar roles within one to five years.

That's not hype from a startup booster.

And we're already seeing early structural signals in the professions many high-achieving kids are told are "safe."

Law is a useful lens here — not because it's uniquely vulnerable, but because the data is clear and the people closest to it are already sounding the alarm.

AI tools are now drafting memos, summarizing depositions, and performing legal research — the tasks junior associates have historically used to learn the ropes. It's hard for me to imagine a lawyer who hasn't used AI in their field right now. It'd almost be malpractice. Surveys of large law firms show widespread and rapidly accelerating adoption.

But here's what's more striking than any hiring statistic:

The executive director of NALP — the organization that literally tracks all legal employment in the United States — recently warned that law schools are making "a big mistake" by continuing to admit large classes, because AI is already changing how many lawyers firms need.

Her specific warning: firms will soon expect first-year associates to perform like today's fourth-year associates — on a much shorter runway, with far less patience for the traditional learning curve.

That's not job elimination — not yet.

That's something more insidious:

The compression of the apprenticeship ladder.

When the bottom rungs compress, mobility compresses with it. That's a skill-formation issue. A confidence issue. A lifetime earnings issue.

And it's happening first in exactly the kinds of white-collar tracks many of our kids are aiming for.

I'll say something here I might not have said five years ago:

Unless your child is heading to a top-tier law school and is genuinely AI-savvy, I would be very reluctant to recommend taking on $200,000 in law school debt right now.

The calculus has changed. The entry-level pipeline is compressing. The return on that investment depends on a career trajectory that looks meaningfully different than it did even three years ago.

That's not defeatism. It's the conversation I'd want someone to have with me.

Every major technology shift destroyed roles.

Every one also created new leverage — often in ways nobody predicted.

The internet didn't just eliminate travel agents. It created entire categories of work that didn't exist before.

AI will do the same.

But here's the dividing line:

Will your child use AI — or compete against someone who does?

Curiosity and adaptability aren't "soft skills" anymore.

They're economic positioning tools.

You may be a parent thinking:

"My kid wants to be a firefighter. This doesn't apply to them."

Maybe not on the truck.

But AI can absolutely help them:

AI is becoming a universal cognitive amplifier.

The kids who treat it like electricity — just part of the environment — will have an edge everywhere.

🔧 1. Use the tools — seriously.

Not the free tier.

Spend the $20/month on the paid version of Anthropic Claude or OpenAI ChatGPT and give it actual work:

You cannot be a thinking partner to your child on this without firsthand experience.

💬 2. Open a curious conversation — not a lecture.

Your emerging adult is almost certainly already using these tools.

The conversation that lands isn't you should be paying attention to this. It's asking what they're already seeing.

Try:

"I read an essay about how AI is reshaping entry-level work. Have you seen it affecting your field yet?"

Or:

"If AI keeps improving this fast, how do you think that changes your path?"

You're not handing them a blueprint.

You're becoming a thinking partner — the way my non-tech dad was for me, the day he brought home that Apple II.

The appeal to tradition feels safe.

But every once in a while, something genuinely new arrives — and waiting to see becomes the thing you later wish you'd resisted.

This feels like one of those times.

The kids who engage early will shape the tools.

The ones who wait will adapt to someone else who did.

Accelerating into next week…

— Barry

WorkLifeFuture helps parents of emerging adults navigate the AI era together. If this resonated, forward it to someone who needs it. Subscribe here: www.worklifefuture.com/subscribe