TL;DR: The world is splitting into two distinct paths: consuming and creating. To make you consume (spend money), products are designed with fewer "buttons" and less friction. To create (earn money), the path is intentionally designed with more buttons and more friction to filter people out. AI accelerates this divide. It automates the "easy button" jobs, removing the traditional training ground for new professionals. The future belongs to those who possess the patience and grit to master the "complex remote control" of high-value, multi-step problem-solving.
James here, CEO of Mercury Technology Solution.
I need to be very clear about a structural change that is happening right now. The AI-driven tech boom, this massive "seafood feast" that represents a huge and growing slice of the global economy, is not a party for everyone. The architects of this feast—the employees of the "Magnificent Seven" tech giants—make up a tiny fraction of the global workforce. And even they are being culled as AI increases their own internal efficiency.
Many people feel a growing sense of anxiety, a feeling of being threatened rather than included. Your feeling is correct.
- If you are in the top 0.1%, you are at the feast.
- If you are in the top 1%, perhaps as an entrepreneur, you are leveraging AI to cut costs and increase profits.
- If you are in the top 10%, you might be using AI to generate and sell digital products, becoming a high-end "creator."
These groups are all actively pulling wealth upward. But what about everyone else? What is AI's true impact on the average professional?
To answer this, we must first understand a fundamental law of product and system design.
The Two Remote Controls: A Parable of Friction
As someone who managed product divisions for years, I taught every new product manager a critical industry secret: "For every additional step you add, you lose 50% of your customers."
If you don't believe me, go find two remote controls in your home. Find the old, 50-button remote for your cable box, and then find your Apple TV or Xiaomi remote.
The old remote is a minefield of tiny buttons, each labeled with an obscure function. The Apple remote has seven buttons, most with no text at all. The design is so ruthlessly simple that there is nothing left to remove.
Here is the paradox: The 50-button remote, despite its explicit instructions, is baffling to most users. The 7-button remote is mastered in seconds.
Why do companies like Apple spend billions engineering this simplicity? Because it's not a cost; it's an investment. That design cost is earned back a thousand times over in market share. More friction means fewer customers.
From this, we derive a fundamental law of two "usabilities":
- To Make You Spend Money (Consume): The path must be frictionless. The number of steps, or "buttons," must be ruthlessly minimized.
- To Make You Earn Money (Create): The path must be complex. The number of steps and "buttons" must be intentionally maximized to create a high barrier to entry.
Think of an airplane cockpit. It's an overwhelming array of switches and dials. Could it be simplified to look like an Apple remote? Of course. But it never will be.
Why? Because a pilot is not a consumer; they are a high-value professional. The complexity is the point. The high barrier to entry—the rigorous training, the filtering of candidates—is what creates their value and justifies the trust we place in them.
AI's True Threat: It's Removing the Training Ground
For decades, the "creator" path (earning money) has been a filter. It's designed to make you quit.
- If you can only handle one step, you are on the assembly line.
- If you can handle two, you can be a security guard.
- If you can handle four, you can be a junior coder.
But a true, high-value professional might have to navigate a process with 100 steps. Not one of those steps is magic. The only "skill" is the patience and mental resilience to not give up. Most people are simply not wired for this. They are wired for consumption. They see a problem and feel a headache, not excitement.
And this is where AI delivers its most devastating, targeted blow.
AI's true threat is not that it will take the "hard" jobs. It's that it removes the "easy" jobs that train you how to do the hard jobs.
In the past, a junior coder (like I was) was a necessary apprentice. The company needed my cheap labor, so it was forced to invest in me. It tolerated my mistakes and paid me to learn the first, second, and third "buttons." I was forged in this crucible of forced learning.
Today, the company doesn't need that. The AI is the perfect intern. It is the perfect junior and mid-level coder. It never gets tired, never asks for a raise, and never makes a typo.
Now, the company only needs senior architects.
So, how does one become a senior architect? The old path of apprenticeship is gone. The new path requires you to have the superhuman, intrinsic motivation to train yourself—to pay your own way through the "junior" and "mid-level" stages, likely on your own time and your own dime, just to qualify for the senior-level job.
This is AI's true lethality. It automates the training ground. And as we've established, most people simply do not have the internal drive to master a complex system without external force.
Conclusion: Which Racetrack Are You On?
This is the new divide. We must remember that "spending money" is the only path that will be made easier for you.
"Earning money" is, and always will be, a path of increasing friction designed to make you fail. If you succeed, it's because you bit down, shattered your own teeth, and endured.
So, you have to ask yourself one question: Am I competing in the same racetrack as the AI?
Am I a "tool," optimized for executing simple, "few-button" tasks? If so, I will be replaced by a better tool.
Or am I a human "architect"? Am I someone who has the patience to master the 50-button remote? Am I someone who, when faced with complexity, feels excitement, not a headache? Am I someone who is willing to endure the multi-step, high-friction, unglamorous process of creating value, not just consuming it?
No one is forcing you to be a tool. That is a choice you are making.
Mercury Technology Solutions: Accelerate Digitality.
