"Complex challenges aren’t, unless you give them permission." - Futurist Jim Carroll
The debate about AI and the future of work, skills, and knowledge rages on.
In the meantime, lots of folks are figuring out how to leverage this darned thing. I certainly am! I have an incredibly complex, rich, and sophisticated tech setup that has supported my business for over 3 decades. I'm a computer geek behind the scenes, with a ridiculous amount of tech gear in my life. There's a lot of automation throughout the house, and my home office and broadcast studio setups are pretty sophisticated.
Heck, I've even been called crazy, such as was the case in this magazine article from about 2002.
https://jimcarroll.com/2023/03/daily-inspiration-dismissive-skepticism-is-at-the-root-of-many-a-missed-opportunity/
That said, it takes a lot of work to keep all of this running - and so for years, I've not only been the author and speaker and columnist and radio show host - I've been the tech support guy. Not only for me, but for my wife (who has worked with me in the home office for 30+ years), my two sons (who also do most of their career work out of their homes and have similar home automation setups!), and their two wives.
Enter AI.
In the last year, I've found that I have regularly turned to ChatGPT or Gemini or Claude with my tech support issues, ranging from simple requests for help to complex projects involving detailed programming in languages such as Python (which I know nothing about - more on that in a later post.)
I decided to take a look at one month's worth of the tech support requests I've made to Gemini - the full list, WITH MY QUESTIONS, is found below. And it's staggering to think about how much I've come to rely on this tool.
Augmented knowledge, as it were.
And if you think about what is happening here, there is a transformation underway - we are moving away from one type of traditional tech support to an AI-based partnership. Over time, we'll be fully integrating this knowledge augmentation into our daily lives, across a vast range of different skill sets.
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And so while the debate about AI rages on, millions of people are learning how to augment their own knowledge. This one example involves my use of it for tech support - for others, it's about augmented knowledge, medical insight, engineering skills, science knowledge, or more.
Things are changing, folks, and the sooner you jump on board, the better positioned you will be! All of which comes to the key point - any complex challenges that we face today really aren't, unless you allow it to be. Your ability to master new knowledge and skills is what will now truly define your tomorrow!
You might find reading through this PDF to be pretty fascinating - it includes 20 examples of 20 different types of tech support I've been using AI for, questions and all.
It's a wild read!
#AI #Complexity #Technology #Support #Augmentation #Knowledge #Skills #Partnership #Solutions #Integration
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Futurist Jim Carroll admits that when it comes to tech, he's always been a bit crazy and way ahead of his time.
Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2025/09/decoding-tomorrow-your-daily-future-inspiration-knowledge-skills-complex-challenges-arent-unless-you-give-them-permission/