Lessons - Why AI Can't Replace You

Welcome to Lessons episodes of Success Story, part of the HubSpot podcast network. These lessons episodes will be shorter conversations with past guests, valued members of the success story community, and myself. They'll be focused on teaching you actionable, insightful takeaways that you can use to upscale your personal and professional life. To empathize and to innovate is unmatched by any algorithm. This is a quote from the legendary inventor, Nicola Tesla. The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all the previous centuries of its existence. But the real question is how can we unleash our creative potential to thrive in an era of thinking machines? How can we ensure that we remain relevant and valuable in the face of exponential AI progress? How can we be the masters of the algorithms and not the slaves? The plan is to give you an anti-AI toolkit, a toolkit that will make you indispensable and unstoppable no matter what version of chat GPD rolls out. See the machines are here, but so are the infinite possibilities of the human imagination. Now this toolkit that I put together has three pieces, curiosity and creativity, originality and perpetual learning. These are the three things I'm going to teach you how to master. Let's start with curiosity and creativity. There's six pillars to unlock curious creative genius, the first weapon against the machine. So conventional wisdom will always state that curiosity and creativity are these pseudo-magical gifts. You either have them or you don't, and this is false. They can be cultivated. They can be built. They can be strengthened. They can be trained through deliberate practice. Now, why do I care about curiosity and creativity? Well, because first, to be creative, you have to be curious. curiosity cannot and will not exist without curiosity. See, it's a two-part problem that we need to solve for. There's a great book. The three human super-talent AI will not replace by Thomas, Camaro, Pramuzek and Reese Axtar. And they speak about how to architect curiosity and empathy and self-awareness. These are not my three, but these are another three. But they are three critical talents that AI is really unlikely to replace. But the one part that I wanted to pull out from this book is curiosity. Now, in the book, there's a study based on an article published in Harvard Business Review. Here's a quote from the study. It's all about curiosity. Curiosity is the engine of intellectual achievement. It's what drives us to keep learning, keep trying, keep pushing forward, but too many people lose this innate quality as they grow up. So we need to foster curiosity in ourselves and others, especially in a world where innovation and creativity are essential for success. But then you ask yourself, how can you measure and improve curiosity and creativity? See, in the book, they reference the case study from a global consulting firm that wanted to find out this particular and solve for this particular problem. They use an online assessment tool to measure the curiosity levels of their employees, as well as some adjacent skills and personality traits. And guess what they found out? Curiosity was positively correlated with performance, client satisfaction, and retention. And they discovered that curiosity could be enhanced by feedback and coaching using methods like asking open-ended questions, challenging assumptions, seeking diverse perspectives. Very simple, but very effective. So what's the lesson? Curiosity is not just a trait, it's a skill, it's not just a feeling, it's a habit, it's not just a gift, it's a choice. So by understanding curiosity's core drivers, you can actually train it, learn it, which is going to allow us to be more creative, to activate that inner divinci that we need to fight against machines. So again, in summary, curiosity, you have to build it up so that you can be creative. Now, the study results that that global consulting firm put together, they created and delivered a tailored curiosity development program for their employees, which boosted all these great KPIs work outcomes significantly. So again, we have to approach every single problem with this curiosity mindset. It is a mandatory requirement in order to be a creative individual. So now that we know how to approach problems and be curious, now we can train ourselves to be creative. And here are the six items that we have to consider in order to think creatively, assuming that we're living life as a curious individual, which is again, the precursor, visionary thinking, visionary thinking is the ability to imagine and create new possibilities for the future. Remember, the current version of AI is built on millions of data points and inputs from past data. So think of visionary thinking as the opposite of AI training data. It's the ability to see things that haven't happened yet. It is the source of innovation, disruption and impact. Now how can you develop visionary thinking? Well, the first step is to avoid copying existing ideas. You can't just follow the crowd. You can't just accept conventional wisdom. You don't just do what everyone else is doing. Instead, you have to challenge assumptions constantly that underlie the current reality. To quote Socrates, an unexamined life is not worth living. This applies not only to your personal life, but also to your professional and your creative life. So examine the beliefs and the models that others usually take for granted. Don't become some tinfoil, hot-wearing conspiracy theorists, but do ask more questions. Be critical of quote the way things have always been done. Ideas, existing playbooks, strengths and weaknesses. You're going to always be asking yourself, what if things were different? What if I could change something? What if I could do better? You also want to think from first principles, not analogies and not to get too complicated, but first principles are the fundamental truths that are independent of any context or situation. Whereas analogies are comparisons based on similarities or patterns. By thinking in first principles, you can break down complex problems into their basic elements and then build up new solutions from scratch. By thinking from analogies, you can only replicate or modify existing solutions and you limit your creativity. Some of the greatest visionaries of our time were Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Richard Branson. They all won the game by questioning the status quo and creating new product services and industries that no one had ever imagined before. They didn't copy. They created. See, visionary thinking is not a gift. It's a skill. Again, stemming from that curious mindset to skill that you can learn and practice. To skill that you can use to actually make a difference in the world or you know, you can use it to keep your job or you can use it to beat Elon to Mars your choice. The second thing we got to think about is expanding our inputs. So creativity thrives on combining diverse ideas sets, but we limit our potential significantly when we stay isolated in our domain. When we only do what we're trained to do, which is our comfort zone, you got to break out of your bubble. So don't limit yourself to your own domain or your own field. Don't stay isolated in that comfort zone and settle for what you already know. You have to explore diverse and unfamiliar domains and fields. You have to follow your innate curiosity and passion into these unknown territories. You learn from arts, psychology, cosmology, or any other area that interests you history. Whatever it is, read books, watch videos, listen to podcasts, take courses, go to events, meet people. Remember, we're trying to achieve our creative inner divinci. And if we actually want to use them as an example, he was one of the most creative geniuses of all time. He was renowned for equal talent in art and engineering. He was also interested in anatomy, astronomy, botany, geology, many other subjects. See, he combined his knowledge and skills from different domains to create masterpieces such as the Mona Lisa, the Last Supper, the Vitruvian Man. He didn't specialize. He synthesized creative inputs are not just facts, think of them like puzzle pieces. They're puzzle pieces that you can use to construct new and original combinations. Your puzzle pieces that you can use to solve problems, generate ideas, and make an impact. And here's another Steve Jobs quote, creativity is just connecting things. This speaks to creative genius perfectly. The more creative inputs you have, the more creative outputs you can produce. Creative inputs are not a fixed quantity. They are a choice. So if you expand your inputs, you expand your impact, and you will expand your outputs. The third thing that you have to focus on is thinking divergently. So convergent thinking is focusing in on one particular outcome. You're reducing possibilities, divergent thinking explodes possibilities wide open. So divergent thinking is the ability to generate multiple diverse and original ideas. And outcomes, it is the opposite of convergent thinking, which is the ability to narrow down and select the best idea. But how do you develop divergent thinking? Well, the first step is to ultimately delay judgment and entertain sometimes unconventional, even in practical ideas. So you don't dismiss or criticize ideas too quickly. You don't filter or censor your own thoughts, and you don't just follow the rules or norms blindly. Instead, you embrace eccentric diversity. You want to fuse disparate different concepts into these fresh combinations, very much following up what we just spoke about with creative genius, but you have to experiment with different perspectives and scenarios. This is all how you approach problem solving. So when you look at, for example, Thomas Edison, he is one of the most prolific and inventors of all time, and to quote him, to invent, you need good imagination and a pile of junk. What this means is that junk ideas often contain seeds of genius, and that imagination is the key to unlocking them. So you don't reject, you explore divergent thinking is not just a skill, it's actually an attitude. It's an attitude of challenging status quo, seeking new possibilities and value, creativity over conformity, and you're valuing really impact over just convention the way it's always been done. It's a lay judgment, entertain the unconventional. Your attitude always has to be one of openness and exploration, and you can do basic exercises to help this. You can do brainstorming, you can do mind mapping, you can do what's called scamper, which is substitute, combine, adapt, modify, put to another use, eliminate, reverse, it's a way to think through problems. You do random word association techniques. Basically, divergent thinking is the lifeblood of impactful innovation. So the more divergent ideas you have, the more convergent solutions you can find. Divergent thinking again, it's not a gift, it's a choice. The next thing, the fourth thing that you have to focus on is intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is a drive to do something, not just because you enjoy it, it's because it's a sort of passion, purpose, and fulfillment. And to increase intrinsic motivation, we have to ensure that the things that we're working on align with our inner purpose, you're not just chasing money or status, you're not letting external factors dictate your choices, you're not compromising on your values or your mission. Instead, you're staying guided by your mission, your why, your reason for being. And there are a few good exercises for figuring out your north star, but that's for another newsletter. You want to maintain creative autonomy over the projects that you're working on when possible. You want to, you have to choose work that challenges you, inspires you, and makes you happy. And you're going to learn later on from Mihai, Chikcent Mihai, who is a psychologist. I've got a few other topics, but I just want to introduce them now because it's important for you to understand the work he's on. He worked on flow and he coined the term flow to describe the state of optimal experience. Well, this ties back to working on things that you care about. And he found that when people are intrinsically motivated, it develops skills, attached meaning to their lives, they achieve higher levels of performance and satisfaction. So this all ties back to this intrinsic motivation, it's not just a feeling, it is a massive force that can fuel innovation, it can fuel creativity, it can ignite a ton of potential. And you've heard the Simon Sinek quote, people don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it. Intrinsic motivation is the why that matters most. Because the more intrinsic motivation you have, the more extrinsic rewards you're going to get. Passion really powers possibility. The fifth thing that we have to focus on is iterating rapidly. Now, remember, we're trying to solve for creativity, but what does creativity actually lead to? Well, leads to innovation, which is not a moment of instant insight. It's a massively iterative process of gradual improvement and fast failure. I mean, we can look at Airbnb, one of the most successful online platforms we're renting and hosting rooms and accommodations. Their founders prototype their idea quickly and cheaply and they use the feedback they receive to improve their product and service again and again and again. Another example, Amazon, one of the most innovative and successful companies in the world, company places these small bets on different projects that can unlock these massive breakthroughs. And the company encourages its employees to experiment with new ideas and projects even if they fail or lose money. The company even has a process called working backwards to test customer demand and viability of new ideas before they invest too much money or time into it. And well, how did they do it? All through rapid iteration. See, iteration is essential for innovation, learning and growth, but how do you actually iterate rapidly? Well, prototype bold ideas, quickly gather feedback, view setbacks as the tuition for growth. You have to place these small bets that could unlock big breakthroughs. Basically, the more you iterate, the more you learn, the more you learn, the more you improve, the more you improve, the more you innovate. And you've heard this line before from medicine, I've not failed 10,000 times, I've successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work. So this is a process of iteration. And the six and final piece of creativity is flow state mastery. Flow means a ton when we're trying to get into this peak performance mindset that's going to allow us again to fight against the machines. Ideas really don't mean a lot without focus and stamina to execute on them. And this is where flow comes in. You have to make activities that create immense focus of daily practice. You have to structure conditions to enter flow regularly and you have to guard your creative time zealously and you will achieve breakthroughs much quicker. Remember our psychologist, Mihai? Well, again, the guy that coined the term flow to describe the state, optimal experience, you found that flow state can be induced by following four steps. You have to find a challenge that matches your skills. You have to set clear and immediate goals and you have to focus your attention on the task. And lastly, you have to receive immediate feedback on your performance. Remember, flow is absolutely sacred. It's an extremely important piece of this playbook. Do not let anyone or anything interfere with your flow state. Don't allow others to interrupt you, distract you. Don't sacrifice your creative time for requests that are not needle moving. Remember that urgent important perspective that you have to have when you take on task and don't compromise your quality or quantity of work. You have to guard this time like your life depends on it because honestly it does. Communicate your boundaries and expectations to others. Respect your own schedule, protect your energy, protect your attention, honor your commitment, honor your discipline, flow state is key, impactful innovation, creativity, and basically any other defense we have against the rise of AI in the machine. So these are the six pillars of the creativity foundation that really hold a key to unlock your inner divinci. And right now, after you know, learning this, you do have a small chance of beating Steinette and we've really nailed down the creativity piece, but we do have to talk about a couple more things. So we have to talk about originality. Now, we have nailed down the six steps of curiosity and creativity. And originality is another important item. It's not a fixed trait that you have you don't have. It is very much a skill you can develop and improve on very much like creativity. And it is a reflection of who you are, what you care about, what you aspire to. So how do you find your originality? Well, the first step is to look in where to ask yourself some questions. Don't settle for superficial or generic answers to any of the questions I'm about to list out. Go deep, for example, a five wise framework of necessary. Ask yourself why in response to your answer five times to get a deeper insight out, you can also ask a friend to do this if you're having trouble being honest with yourself. Now, originality, questions I want you to ask yourself, what activities absorb you? When do you lose track of time and enter flow state? What original pursuits bring you alive? And, you know, as philosopher Joseph Campbell said, follow your bliss and doors will open where there were no doors before. The things you are not really obsessed with will reveal your natural talent. Other questions, what energizes you intellectually? What topics never cease to stimulate your mind? What disciplines really call out to your curious spirit? And you want to follow these intellectual magnets to really uncover your original wiring because they rarely steer you wrong when you really go deep. You want to ask what problems get you fired up? You want to ask what injustices or grievances ignite your passion? What broken systems infuriate you that you feel compelled to fix? What feels like play not work when have you become so engrossed in an activity that it felt like play? What are your strengths? What are your quirks? What unique strengths and oddities make you who you are? Who do you admire and why? Which figures inspire you most and why? Where do you create best? By exploring all these questions, you really unravel your true original makeup. And originality, if you haven't figured it out by now, is uncovered with an exceptional focus on self-awareness. Once you have these questions answered, you have to act. This is where you start to align your work with the activities that light you up inside. And then the way you work, again, is through that creative framework. Now, if you always lead from your originality, not external expectations, well, to quote Seth Godin, you're sharing your scaricist resource, your unique perspective. Because the world needs precisely what makes you beautifully strained. You have to trust your originality and your original compass, which will allow you to operate on your own frequency completely unrestrained by other standards and you become a conduit for this original muse that is living inside you. And that's where you make your greatest impact. Most peace to this puzzle is a growth mindset. I know that we figured out curiosity, creativity, and originality. Now we have to focus on the mindset that is going to allow us to take all these things on and sort of tackle the AI uprise. Because continuous learning is the master skill of the 21st century. And to continuously learn, we need the right mindset. Because simply reading more books or taking the occasional online course, it doesn't cut it. We believe that abilities can be developed through practice and grit. See, this mentality framework creates the relentless drive for self improvement. It unlocks the superpower of perpetual upskilling. And how do we do this? Well, this is the growth mindset that we have to adopt. We have to believe that abilities are elastic. We have to view capabilities like elastic, able to stretch and expand. They're not fixed traits. People are more alike in potential than different. And what separates the greatest their mindset. Psychologists, Carol Dweck explained that when people believe their basic qualities can be developed, it leads to greater motivation and achievement. So we need to approach upskilling with the perspective that nearly any skill can be built over time. We have to discard the notions of innate giftedness and we have to expand a sense of what is possible for you. We have to view setbacks as feedback because each failure does contain a lesson. So instead of labeling setbacks as demoralizing, we have to reframe them as valuable feedback loops to improve because progress is never linear. You have to upskill patiently like mastering anything complex. Mark Cuban always embraces this mindset and speaks about it. He said, I've learned that it doesn't matter how many times you failed. It doesn't matter how many times you almost got it right. No one is going to know or care about your failures and neither should you. This mindset is so important. We have to believe that small bets will unlock big breakthroughs. So limiting beliefs like the thought of, I don't think I can do that. It loses power when you have these small wins. So each skill that you build is a small win and it slightly destroys limiting beliefs because each skill that you build opens new possibilities and expands your identity. So you break ambitious goals into these miniature challenges and you adopt this playful testing mentality where small daily wins create unstoppable momentum. See, these baby steps really stack up. Another thing we have to adopt is the ability to practice under pressure. So just like lifting heavy weights builds muscle, practicing under pressure builds mental fortitude. This is accomplished by deliberately working outside your comfort zone. Give presentations, attempt public speaking, take on ambitious projects that require you to expand your skill set with each managed stress, your tolerance increases. And this inoculates you against all these future unknowns. So we are embracing learning through a mindset of it is possible to upskill. And this is how we're going to combat against AI in the age of AI. We are adopting this agile, almost cyborg mindset of perpetual learning. See, we've spoken about curiosity, creativity, we've spoken about originality and we've spoken about these growth mindset hacks that allow us to constantly upskill and learn because the secret in winning the AI wars is the ability to merge knowledge, insight, wisdom, originality and creativity with not instead of AI tool. And this is where lifelong learning is a core tenant of all of the things we've just spoken about. It's an adventure. It's not this occasional chore. So in summary, this growth mindset equates to viewing abilities as elastic, not fixed, trying learning to intrinsic motivations, reframing setbacks as feedback, attempting small daily challenges, practicing undermanaged pressure, focusing on the promises ahead, not the temporary stumbles. It's all focusing on this progress compounding slowly over time. And with this growth mindset, there is no challenge that you can overcome. See, the future will always belong to the perpetually curious, the perpetually original and the perpetually learning. So this is what we have to seize. See, the future belongs to the creative. Advancing technology easily leads to over optimization and dehumanization. This is our opportunity. So the rise of intelligent machines is inevitable, but so too is the resilience of the human imagination. Our creative spirit remains truly limitless. No algorithm can replace curiosity, creativity, originality and the mindset required to constantly upskill. Apple's Tim Cook was ahead of his time when he said, these are things that technology doesn't do. They don't have a heart, it doesn't have a soul, and it doesn't have a conscience. But we humans do, and these uniquely human faculties will become even more critical in an AI-driven world. Now, see, we stand at the brink of an automation AI revolution, but this new era needs human hands to shape it. So own your creative tools, submit to lifelong learning, know your originality and share your gifts fully. Upskill with insatiable drive, see the coming challenges call for builders, not victims and mastery, not resignation, and you can heed the call, then watch what becomes possible when human creativity is unleashed.