For most of history, having an idea was the easy bit.
But if you wanted to build something real… you needed money, or the right contacts, or a great team, or the nerve to quit your job and go all in. Often a combination of these.
Unfortunately, much of the world doesn’t have this access.
**And so, they’ve taken world changing ideas to the grave. **
That’s most of human history, really. Potential everywhere, access limited.
But, to me at least, it feels like something about that is changing.
A couple of years ago, AI helped me tidy up my emails. Last year it helped me do data analysis that I never could’ve alone. This year, it opened so many doors of opportunity across my work and personal life (and built me this very website).
It’s allowed me to create things I have no business being able to make on my own. Learn things that I may never have learned before.
And that’s the shift, far more than my own little projects.
You used to need someone to research, someone to design, someone to tell you whether the numbers held. That expertise pooled around people with the right resources.
Now a subscription puts a version of all of it on your desk. The kid in a regional town and the enterprise in the city are, for the first time, reaching for the same tool.
I’m not naive about it. Access still isn’t equal, and AI won’t magically fix what’s broken.
There’s plenty to be wary of, and I’ve had my own months of staring at the ceiling wondering where all this goes.
But the gap between “can afford expertise” and “can’t” is one of the oldest unfair advantages there is. And it’s narrowing faster than almost anyone expected.
Which leaves a strange, slightly thrilling situation.
The bottleneck used to be access to capability. For the first time, it isn’t. The capability is sitting right there, much the same for everyone, waiting.
Now it’s just whether you decide to use it.
That part’s on you. It’s on me too.
Get after it.