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How was 2024? The Usual, The Hectic, or A New Beginning? Celebrate, Reflect and Ace the Future

Being Human for a Better Tomorrow in the Age of AI

  • December 16, 2024
  • 27th edition
  • 16th in Vol 2
How was 2024 The Usual The Hectic or A New Beginning Celebrate Reflect and Ace the Future

Being Human in the Age of AI series of the Mindvista newsletter. The goal is to explore and present new ways of thinking and ideas for driving agency and adoption of AI for self, enterprise, and society.

For many people, and much of the time, one year is like another—a continuum that sails through just as expected, like being in college or another year at work in the same place doing the same job.

But sometimes, a year can be a whirlwind of action, where decades of work compress into one decisive or critical period.

And then there are those rare occasions when a year brings about a complete change—a discontinuity from the past—setting off in a new direction into the future. A loss of a job, a sabbatical, taking a break for self or family care, or an official retirement can represent such a discontinuity.

Unusually, the last five years have been continually discontinuous.

2020 and 2021 were negative years of change for millions of people due to COVID and geopolitical events, and 2022 to 2024 have been years of hectic action driven by breakthroughs in technology.

Take AI, for instance. While it has been researched since the 1950s, it arrived to the public in 2022 and became mainstream in 2024 with new models and use cases. Today, at least among techies, teens, and many in white-collar work, AI is a task worker that helps create content, automate tasks, develop or test code, or even do homework!

What Has 2024 Been for You and Me?

If it was a year of the usual and continuity, congratulations. You carried on calmly while the world was in tumult.

If it was a year of action, hearty congratulations. It’s a gift to have one and be successful.

If it was a year of change, then congratulations again for having the courage and curiosity to explore.

For me, 2024 has been a year of change—a discontinuity with no agenda—coming after an uninterrupted career spanning 36 years. It was a choice to be free to watch, to be open, to explore, to make time to care for myself and others, and to embrace life and living with zest and without burden.

However, I realized that looking at challenges and finding solutions is nourishment for an optimistic, active mind.

Now, I can relate to good old Charlie Brown when he said, “Sometimes you lie in bed at night and you don’t have a single thing to worry about. That always worries me!”

So, to know and contemplate which problems need solving, I began simultaneous studies and trials on the future of work and AI (the science, tech, and the skills to use). I connected with experts, and revisited past wisdom to see if it could inform our own future.

These connections led me to start the Mindvista weekly LinkedIn newsletter, sharing widely to help people, businesses, and society create agency in a rapidly changing, unpredictable world. As Garfield once quipped, “It’s not a matter of life and death—it’s more important than that.”

This is the 27th edition, and I am grateful for the reads, likes, comments, and feedback from you.

What’s Next for Us?

The past is over, but how you see the past predicates the future.

Looking ahead to what’s next, it’s worth pondering the words of Linus from Peanuts: “Life is like a ten-speed bicycle. Most of us have gears we never use.”

As we gear up for 2025, consider these five questions, condensed from our early Mindvista articles, that may help you see the year that went by in a spirit of contemplation—now or whenever you choose to look ahead:

Q: Why do you work?
A: To be independent, secure expenses, keep busy, lead, build—all could be answers. Whatever it is, it gives an essential purpose and conviction. This is not a one-time but a periodic question to revisit.
Q: How do you work?
A: Are you just doing the essentials, taking on responsibilities, or bringing about change? A good way to understand your own approach is to be real about your actions, use clear indicators, and draw inferences from them.
Q: Where do you work? What do you do? Who do you work with?
A: How has your equity and social capital in the company grown? Your choices, not comfort, today will determine your growth tomorrow.
Q: What is your learning model while doing your daily work?
A: Additionally, are you investing time and money to see how you can use technology to augment your work? If not, you’re on a fast track to irrelevancy; the work will go away, or you’ll be replaced by someone AI-savvy, plain and simple.
Q: Have you embraced your uniqueness?
A: By embracing and building on your uniqueness, you’re authoring a life of purpose and impact.

Now more than ever (see sidebar for the next gen and the next you), reflection on these questions can clarify your motivation, assess how you’re doing, and how you can continue to be relevant and valuable at work.

The biggest quest of all is finding happiness and being at peace as you live life.

Do you practice self-care? Are you taking and enjoying breaks? Doing nothing, or doing what you truly want to?

A happy life is like great art that brings a smile to many.

Here’s to a fantastic 2025, whether it’s the Usual, a “Year of the Nap” (as Garfield might say), or a Hectic or Disruptive year with more “aha!” moments than just “ok” or “oh no!” moments.

Here’s to more mindful musings, mingled with merriness and laughter. As someone said, “If we couldn’t laugh, we would all go insane.”

See you in the final edition of Mindvista for 2024.

Sidebar: For the Next Gen and the Next You

Whether you are in early, mid, or even late career looking for a fresh start, the best years are ahead. Then, of course, there’s the next gen who are still at school or college. In the busyness of everyday life, you or they might miss the fact that the underlying message is “The Disruptive Times.” As Marshall Goldsmith put it: “What got you here won’t get you there.”

The 17th and 18th centuries were the golden Age of Reason—our knowledge about science, society, and philosophy took a giant leap. The 19th and 20th centuries were the Age of Automation, where technology (broadly defined) provided all the means for finding answers.

A quarter into the 21st century, we have now entered the Age of Intelligence.

With AI and an abundance of networks, never before in history has exploring, connecting, and finding answers been so widely accessible (though much remains to be done about societal inequality).

So, what does one do in an age of abundant intelligence to stay successful and relevant?

Unfortunately, our systems at school and work often grade us on the ability to answer questions or follow orders set by someone else. That works for the system, but inadequate. An independent, engaged, and discerning mind is essential for the individual.

Being Curious. After all, there’s little difference between a human who performs tasks mechanically and a machine.

Always Exploring. AI raises the bar for the average. To nurture uniqueness and excellence, keep learning from cause and effect; engage in conversations with machines, peers, and experts.

Critical Thinking. In a time of information abundance and attention scarcity, the ability to discriminate between fact and fiction, and between objective data and subjective interpretation, is crucial.

From now on, skills will matter more than degrees. Learning is an everyday activity; the best way to learn is by doing. Courage, resilience, and energy are subtle dimensions of success in the Age of Intelligence.

Few said it better than Richard Feynman:
“Study hard what interests you the most in the most undisciplined, irreverent, and original manner possible.”

I hope these insights help. Please subscribe, follow, and share.

Comments and questions are welcome.

Best wishes

II. Questioning / Asking

Good conversations flow from well‑sequenced questions—topical, simple, coherent, cohesive.
LLM Conversation Example 1
Q: What are empirical judgments?

A: Empirical judgments are based on observation, experience, or experimentation.
Q: What are moral judgments?

A: Moral judgments are based on ethical principles and values.
“AI is a language. Treat it like one: practice, iterate, and mind your grammar prompts, assumptions, and verification.”
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