Permission to Be Excited About AI

I’ve been giving myself permission to be excited about AI. It’s great. I feel like there’s an 11-year-old nerd in me that is giggling with glee every time I open my laptop these days.

When I’m in meetings I want to stand up and shout, “Computers can do incredible things right now!”

When I’m mindlessly scrolling on the subway, I want to log in to Twitter and post in all caps, “WHAT WAS IMPOSSIBLE 6 MONTHS AGO IS NOW POSSIBLE.”

When I’m walking home at night I want to go door to door in my neighborhood in Brooklyn, ring the doorbell, and ask the tired Park Slope parents, “Have you heard the good news?” When they say, “What good news?,” I want to shout, “Technology can inspire wonder again!”

They’ll think I’m a loony. But there is a joy to being a loony in this new world. 

The only problem is: AI is the Current Thing. It’s not normal for me to like the Current Thing. I generally attempt to be “thoughtful,” and balanced,™ and Appropriately Skeptical of new things that other people like. I want to drink a martini or a neat bourbon when I’m evaluating ideas, not Kool-Aid. 

Honestly, I’m usually annoyed when something gets trendy.

When social networks were trendy I was annoyed about it, and got into B2B SaaS. When crypto was trendy, I was annoyed about it and kept building my media business. 

So what is this about? Why am I usually annoyed by the Current Thing, where this time I’m shouting about it from the rooftops? I want to unpack why I’m usually annoyed, and why, this time I’m giving myself permission to be excited about AI. If I do that, then maybe you will too.

Why I am usually annoyed at the current thing

Here is the intellectual way to frame it: I am afraid of group think. 

I prefer value investing over momentum investing. Value investing seems like it’s about knowing how to be smart, and momentum investing seems like it’s about knowing how to be popular. I’m better at the first skill than the second.  

Here is the emotional way to the same thing: I am afraid of anything that feels like high school. When something gets hot it reminds me of the years I spent trying to say things that the cool kids would laugh at in the late 2000s so that they’d invite me to parties.