Average is Over by Tyler Cowen

• Key questions: Are you good at working with intelligent machines or not? Are your skills a complement to the computer, or is the computer doing better without you?
• There is a catch: machine intelligence often does not look like machine intelligence. It is abstracted away, running in the background (Google Maps, Facebook, etc.).
• As mechanized intelligence grows in power, value will flow to that which is scarce: land/natural resources, IP, and quality labor with unique skills.
• True in the Industrial Revolution and true now: machines do not put us all out of work as they eventually create new jobs to replace the old ones.
• The key is mixing technical knowledge with the ability to solve real-world problems.
• Marketing as a seminal trait: in an era where attention is competitive, especially for the highest earners, the ability to communicate and tell a story will be powerful.
• Where income and wealth disparities are pronounced, everyone not at the top will be scrambling for attention from those who are.
• If you have an unusual ability to spot, recruit, and direct those who work well with computers, even if you do not do so yourself, the world will make you rich.
• Machines are connecting us more tightly, and this necessitates more people capable of leading them.
  • Leadership as a leverage point for the future: a clear area that machines cannot conquer.
• Two avenues: lean into working with machines, or lean into working with people. To paraphrase Naval, lean into both and you will be unstoppable.
• The internet is democratizing self-development (e.g., MOOCs, blog dialogue, lectures, and PowerPoints).
• Online education’s success comes as a blend of time-shifting (watch when you want), user control, direct feedback, communities, and packaging of information into smaller bits.
  • Reminder: Most of the remaining value in elite institutions comes from being around other elite high performers daily.
• Online courses are an asset: very low to no cost of maintenance and limited energy required to onboard new users, and the best courses can serve tens of thousands to millions.
• Need to spend more time studying the gaming industry for potential interactions that keep the player interested.
• In the modern era, online education rewards one thing above all else: interest.
• When humans and machines work together, value flows to the top talent and not the most well-connected.
  • Connections win in silos; talent wins elsewhere
• The future of education: when AI can teach the content, the main role of the teacher becomes as a motivational coach.