Remember “The Matrix”.
It took me three viewings to even vaguely understand what was going on. Agents, Simulations, Skills you can download and learn immediately. Mind-bending stuff in 1999.
Remember "The Matrix"? I first watched it 27 years ago.
It took me three viewings to even vaguely understand what was going on. Agents, Simulations, Skills you can download and learn immediately. Mind-bending stuff in 1999.
Last week I watched it with my kids. They're 12 and 14.
They got it like that. No confusion. No rewinding. No "wait, what just happened?"
And I sat there thinking… of course they did. Because for them, this isn't science fiction. Just another Tuesday.
They're growing up with AI assistants, with tools that learn and adapt, with the idea that knowledge isn't something you slowly accumulate - it's something you access, apply, and build on right now.
We grew up linear. They're growing up exponential.
Our generation built knowledge the hard way. Read the book. Do the reps. Put in the years. One building block at a time, sequentially. This generation has a fundamentally different relationship with knowledge. They close the gap between "I don't know this" and "I understand this well enough to use it" in hours.
Now, I'm not pretending I know exactly what happens when this generation enters the workforce. Nobody does.
Some experience can be taught. Some can be accelerated with the right tools. And some, the hard stuff, the judgment calls, the scar tissue from projects that went sideways - that still requires being there. Living it. No shortcut for that.
But the balance between what can be accelerated and what can't is shifting. Fast.
When these kids hit the workforce, their relationship with knowledge and expertise will look very different from ours. That's not a problem to solve. It's a reality to prepare for.
Go have a real conversation with someone young. Ask them how they'd learn something they know nothing about.
Their answer will tell you more about the future of your workforce than any analyst report.