The death of skill (and what comes next)

How to turn AI's biggest flaw into your competitive advantage.

AI just gave everyone your skillset for free.
Meanwhile most creators still think skill is what matters.

The safe route is simple.
Four years, one degree, retire after forty years of work.
Society’s golden ticket.
The education system.
You’re convinced that once you put in some effort the rest of your life will take care of itself.
Marriage, kids, promotions, vacations.
The good life is guaranteed.
This is the path that most people take.
In a world where conformity’s well rewarded, perspective means nothing.
Why develop your own point of view?
There’s no sense in a risking a sure thing. But the tables have turned.

You spent 4 years and $100k on a degree to get a job that ChatGPT can do in half the time.
Companies are replacing employees with $20/month AI subscriptions.
Even the creator economy, a safe haven for those who didn’t want the traditional route, is being taken over.
AI didn’t level the playing field.
It made the playing field irrelevant.
New creators pop up daily flooding feeds with AI generated content.
Same scripts, captions, and strategies.
They’ve outsourced their creativity to a chatbot hoping to get rich off a prompt. Destroying their own potential in the process.
But AI doesn’t have a point of view.
It pulls from the same pool of information for everyone.
That’s the flaw but it’s also your opportunity.

I’m going to show you why your point of view is the ultimate leverage and how to use it to create work that lasts while everyone else chases the next AI tool.

Perspective is all you have

Humans are wired for problem solving.
We subconsciously process millions of internal and external stimuli every second.
Scanning our environments for danger and potential rewards.
Even as you read this your brain is on alert.
Quietly scanning your surroundings for any potential threats and sifting through these words for any bit of information that might solve your problems.

Unlike our ancestors who survived mainly in the physical plane of existence.
Fighting bears, chasing deer, and surviving the dangers of their climate.
We survive mainly on the mental and spiritual planes.
Fighting political battles, chasing an income, and surviving the dangers of social media consumption.
Here’s how this relates to your perspective and how you’ll use it to create meaningful work with or without AI.

Your perspective is your filter for reality.
It determines the problems you see and in turn try to solve.
Your perspective is made up of all your experiences, thoughts, beliefs and interests. This is how you interpret your reality.
That’s why when you see a giant block of marble you see a piece of stone.
But when Michelangelo saw a block of marble he saw the statue David.
You haven’t been exposed to the same type of knowledge, experience, or beliefs that he was.

The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.
― Marcus Aurelius

The marble registered in your mind as just another part of your environment.
He saw the marble as a problem to solve.

Our lives are shaped by the problems we see.
It determines the games we decide to play in life.
Musician, nurse, entrepreneur.
It also determines what we create and how we create it.
Different artists have different styles because they have unique perspectives.
Everything that passes through their mind into reality goes through this filter of perspective.
And that’s the problem with AI.

It doesn’t have a perspective.
When you ask ChatGPT “what do you think about this idea for my podcast on enlightenment?”
It doesn’t send it through a unique perspective.
No lived experience.
No specific knowledge shaped by years in a particular domain.
No beliefs formed through failures and breakthroughs.
It doesn’t think about it at all.
It pattern matches, synthesizes, and contextualizes what ever words you said.
Combining related words to create an answer that seems relevant to what you asked.
It gives universal supportive answers unless told otherwise.
That’s why you see the same AI captions all over Instagram.
It’s giving everyone similar answers.
Unless you prompt it with your unique perspective.
You have to transfer your consciousness from you to it.
This is how you create unique meaningful work that impacts the lives of others.
You learn to transfer your consciousness to others in a way that benefits their lives. This is how originality actually happens.

Originality through transfer of consciousness

Young architects can change the world by not building buildings.
— Virgil Abloh

When you read a book you’re not just reading the authors words.
You’re adopting their point of view.
They’re transferring a part of their consciousness to yours.
You internalize whatever resonates with you the most and make it a part of your own perspective until it’s challenged by a new one.

Your individual perspective is constantly interacting with the perspectives of others.
That’s why you resonate deeply with certain creators and bounce off others.
If their perspective is too far from yours, there’s no bridge.
No transfer.
No adoption of their ideas into your worldview.

Understanding this concept is the key to:

• Creating original work by curating your perspective intentionally

• Building your audience based on your perspective

• Making your work impossible to commoditize (even by AI)

• Creating work that actually changes people’s lives

You can’t commoditize consciousness.
But you can curate it, refine it, and transfer it.
So how do you actually do this?
How do you curate and deploy your perspective to create work that stands out?

1. Curate your inputs

Your perspective is shaped by what you consume.
The media, relationships, beliefs, environments and thoughts you surround yourself with.
That’s why most people feel uncreative, unfulfilled, overwhelmed, and anxious.
Because they’re mindlessly consuming whatever society and algorithms feed them and it slowly shapes their consciousness in a way they never intended.
This leaves them accepting paths in life that don’t benefit them.
They benefit the goals of others.
The ones shaping their consciousness.

That’s why curating your inputs intentionally is so important.
What you consume becomes what you create.
You don’t just want to create original work.
You want to create meaningful work.
Work that impacts and benefits the lives of others.
This is the most effective way to build a loyal audience, monetize your perspective, and leave a dent in the universe.

First solve your problems.

You probably already have been but now you’re going to solve your problems to create work that changes your life and the lives of others.
Whatever problems you face in life.
Whether it be money, relationships, health, spiritual, creative problems.
Start improving them and as you go document the things that impact you.
Read books, listen to podcasts, buy courses (or find free ones).
Make it your mission to find your own unique way to live a good life.
You can watch cartoons, scroll social media, binge watch movies.
But do it as research not mindless consumption.
There’s lessons in everything you see.
The universe is holistic and there are patterns everywhere you look.

Along the way you will discover:

• People

• Books

• Movies

• Shows

• Systems

• Frameworks

• Ideas

• Inspirations

That shape your consciousness.
This is your unique perspective.
All the things that make you you.
Inside these things are your hidden values and aspirations.

Write down a list right now of things that have impacted your life and shaped who you are.

1. What were you obsessed with between ages 5–17?
   (Anything that was impactful to you. TV shows, hobbies, games, art styles, music videos, toys, sports, niche interests.)

2. Who are your biggest inspirations?
   (Name as many people, or even fictional characters, you can think of that have inspired you deeply. Those who have changed the way you think and see the world, art, life or yourself)

3. What are you obsessed with right now?
   (Anything that’s impactful to you now. Domains of work, TV shows, hobbies, games, ideas, philosophies, music videos, sports, niche interests.)

This is the beginning of your Brand DNA Map.
As you continue to improve your life continue adding to your map.
This is a guide for conscious consumption of content that is authentic to you.
It’s a creative archive filled with references for content ideas, camera angles, colour palettes, aesthetic tones and themes, typography, writing styles, values, and philosophies.
This is how you gain a deeper understanding of yourself and weaponize your perspective to start separating your work from others.

Here’s the template for my Brand DNA Map (hit duplicate in the top right corner) if you want structure and guidance.
It also includes a prompt to turn your map into a Brand Blueprint.

2. Transferring Your Consciousness

Your Brand DNA Map is a snapshot of your consciousness.
Now comes the important part.
Transferring that consciousness to others through your work.
This is how you’ll start creating meaningful work that can’t be commoditized.

Every great leader, artist, or brand has a higher purpose.

Apple:

Apple’s goal wasn’t to sell phones, it was to ‘Think Different’.

Virgil Abloh:

Virgil’s goal wasn’t to make clothes, it was to create open source design that empowered other creatives.

Dan Koe:

Dan’s goal isn’t to give you harsh life advice, it’s to help you become future proof.

The product is the vessel. The perspective is what transfers.

Your vision becomes your content’s guiding principle.
Every piece should move your audience toward that same vision.
Imagine the highest version of yourself.
The one who has all the skills, knowledge, and confidence you want.
As you solve your problems and get closer to this goal you create content that helps others do the same.
You transfer your vision of what a good life means to them.
You show them why it matters and how it can help their life just like it helped yours.

Every piece of content you make should be embedded with your taste, beliefs, thoughts, ideas and values.
As you learn new things that improve your life use that as content.
Teach or be an example of those things for others.
Your perspective will collide with theirs and over time the ones who resonate will adopt your perspective.
This is how you build a loyal audience who has a deep connection with your work and helps transfer your consciousness from one person to the next.
Leaving a lasting impact on the world.

The Takeaway

AI commoditized skill.
But it can’t replicate consciousness.
This is your leverage.
As others chase the next best AI tool, you’ll be creating meaningful work.
Transferring your consciousness to your audience for impact.
Prompting AI with your unique perspective for speed.
The one thing you have that no one else will ever have access to is your perspective.
Treat it like it’s the most valuable thing you have.
Because in the age of AI, it is.

Start your Brand DNA Map today.
DM me and share what you discovered about your perspective.
I want to see what meaningful work you’ll create.
’Til next time.
Don’t Betray Yourself.
Curate your inputs, and control your own consciousness to leave an impact on the world.

— Edamame Dufflebag