The world will be very different soon...

this video is sponsored by the online personal  information removal service in cogy protect your data and personal information from data Brokers  and search sites use my link in the description to get 60% off in Incogni's annual plan. “So, what do you want to be when you grow up? ” Mason, just six years old, looked up at Enya,  one of his mother’s friends.

Enya meant well, of course. This was a very common question to  ask children. But, in truth, it was a quite a strange and imprudent question to ask a child. 

In fact, it was a fairly strange and imprudent way of thinking for anyone in general. Mason contemplated his answer with juvenile intensity. Then, in a loose innocent  voice, he answered, “A superhero, a baseball player, and the first man on mars.

” “Oh yeah? ! That’s amazing!

” Enya replied. “I’m sure you’ll be all three! Just keep dreaming big,  okay?

You can be whatever you put your mind to. ” “Okay! ” Mason said with a smile.

Though Mason was completely unaware of it, this conversation had planted a seed in his head  that would be continually watered throughout his life every time a similar question or statement  was posed to him. Without realizing it, starting around this time, he would increasingly  assimilate a feeling of incompleteness and insufficiency. In order to be someone, he needed  to become something else.

Achieve something. In elementary school, Mason struggled. He  was a smart kid, but generally uninterested and easily distracted.

He liked to play  and explore—he was a kid. His parents decided it was best to put him in a private  school with more individualized attention, educational resources, rigid structure, and higher  academic standards. And so, that’s what they did.

“You have to focus, Mason. Apply yourself.  Your mother and I know you can do so much better.

That’s why we’re putting you in this  nicer school. We know how smart and capable you are. Don’t you want to get good grades so you  can get into a great college and get a great job and have a great life?

” “Yeah, I guess,” Mason answered, both discouraged with himself  and somewhat irritated by the conversation. Throughout middle school and into  high school, Mason began to focus more and more. He paid attention in class,  diligently took notes, completed his homework, and studied for every test.

His grades soon  began to reflect these efforts and sacrifices. As he moved further through high school,  the seed of that once-innocent-seeming question began to sprout more and more, the  branches quickly becoming heavy. What, or who, was he going to be?

He didn’t have any clear idea.  He felt incompetent for not knowing. He didn’t want to let his parents down.

He didn’t want to  fall behind his peers. He wanted to be important and worthy. In his junior and senior years,  Mason sacrificed more and more time with friends and family to focus on studying and researching  careers and colleges.

He joined extracurricular programs and clubs to help assist with his  prospects of getting into good schools. He did college tours and internships and job shadowings. Mason also regularly watched and read a lot of motivational and self-help content around this  time.

He particularly liked an individual that went by the name Terry G, who was a popular  business owner, speaker, author, and content creator. When Terry had an event near where  Mason lived, Mason jumped on the opportunity, purchasing VIP tickets with a meet-and-greet. At the event, Mason waited in a long line filled with other hopeful people, eager to meet Terry  and absorb his vast wisdom about industries, and markets, and careers.

Finally, it was Mason’s turn. Mason approached Terry and reached out  to shake his hand. Terry aggressively grabbed and shook it with wide eyes.

Too wide. “What’s going on, my man? How we doing?

” Terry asked with haste in his voice. “Good,” Mason answered. “So, what’s up?

What’s going on with you? ” “Uhm. So, I’m seventeen right now, and I want to do something really great with my life.

I want to  be someone important, but I’m … I’m not really-“ “Sure what? ” Terry interrupted. “Yeah.

My parents … are really overbearing. And I feel behind a lot  of my friends. And it’s just like—“ “Look, don’t worry about your parents.

Don’t worry  about anyone. Worry about you. You’re in control.

What do you want to do? That’s the question. ” “Yeah… I’m just… not sure.

” “Well, you got to figure that out man! You have  to get out there and try things! Look, you’re in America.

You can do anything you want. Follow your  gut, your passions, yourself. If you aren’t happy, then, honestly, that’s on you, my man.

” “Okay. Yeah, yeah,” Mason replied with genuine agreement. “Okay?

You’re in control. Don’t forget that. You’re in control.

” Terry  pointed at Mason, locking onto his nervous eyes. “Yeah, thanks so much! ”  Mason said enthusiastically.

“Course. ” Terry looked away from  Mason and toward the next person in line as he gestured at them to come forward. In 2017, Mason enrolled in Drxel University, still not exactly sure of what he wanted to do. 

After much contemplation, Mason finally decided to enroll in the Animation & Visual Effects  program. He always liked video games and movies, and he had experience with video editing  from the skate videos that he and his friends would make. He had also begun to dabble in 3D  animation in a couple courses in high school, which he developed a real interest in and  knack for.

And so, he landed on this degree with as much confidence as he could find. In college, Mason began to develop a real passion for visual effects. He loved the process  of combining computer-generated sequences with live-action footage to create scenes in films or  videos that couldn’t otherwise be easily created in real life.

For the first time, he felt a sense  of orientation and clarity in himself and his future. If he could make it into a major Hollywood  production studio and work on major feature films, surely he would be someone. His parents seemed  to be happy with the plan as well.

And so, Mason went all in, dedicating most of his  time and focus to his courses and personal development. He optimized his schedule with  various planning and organization methods, he optimized his workflow with various software,  and he engaged in additional opportunities to better himself in any relevant area of life  or work wherever possible. By his junior year, Mason had become increasingly focused on asset  and texture creation in the visual effects field, taking pre-production concepts and building  out detailed, functional 3D models and textures to be built on and used in films.

After graduating college in 2021, Mason struggled to find a job. The job market was extremely  competitive, and finding a decent job in any field with essentially no professional experience was  extremely difficult. Furthermore, since starting his degree, some of the technology around visual  effects had begun to change, and there were fewer jobs in several areas of production compared to  when he started and narrowed in on his path in school.

On top of that, a global multi-year  pandemic that came about while in he was in school, which temporarily dramatically changed  and reduced resources, demand, and opportunities across most industries, including film  production, didn’t help Mason’s cause. After working essentially full time to  merely find a job, Mason finally landed an entry level position as a runner at a small  post-production studio in California. This was a far cry from where he wanted to be and from  where he probably should have been skill-wise, but he needed to prove himself.

He needed years of  professional experience and a proven track record to be given any real responsibilities on any  major project. And so, down Mason’s head went, working long hours and weekends, continuing  to sacrifice a great deal of his life for his career. He spent less and less time with friends  and family—and less time engaging in hobbies and activities outside of work.

He mostly neglected  any potential romantic relationships. He became increasingly focused and increasingly isolated. By 2027, Mason had climbed up several rungs of the ladder at the production studio he worked. 

He had gained increasing responsibilities, continually proving his value and skills.  He was now finally able to really begin building his professional resume and reel,  getting a bit closer to that higher-level job with a major Hollywood studio. Unfortunately,  however, by that same year, Mason was laid off.

Mason looked across a small desk at  his manager. His jaw was clenched, his hands were twitching, his eyes were glassy. “I’m sorry, Mason.

You know I hate to do this. Obviously, you’ve been great asset to the  company. A great worker.

Diligent. Skilled. But we just can’t afford to continue like this. 

The lights are next to go if we don’t do this, honestly. Unfortunately, when technology  changes, we have to change with it. I know you know that.

I hope you can understand. ” “Yeah, I understand,” Mason said somberly as he stood up and shook his manager’s  hand. “Appreciate everything,” he said.

Video generation software utilizing AI models  had become increasingly powerful by this time. Technologies that had seemed mostly negligible  when Mason first decided on his career path in college were now capable of achieving the work  people like Mason did much quicker, cheaper, and easier. Of course, generative models and AI  technologies did not replace all human visual effects artists.

They just changed what they  needed to do. The need for human artists were primarily project leads, concept artists, and  general artists—not so much artists specializing in narrower production subsets, like individual  asset creation—like Mason. Big studios needed less and different kinds of people.

Small-  and mid-sized companies were downsizing, restructuring, or going out of business. Of  course, Mason had been attempting to keep up with the shifting technology and industry  landscape outside his job as best he could, but his job required his full attention  until it didn’t require him at all. Over the following year or so, Mason tried to find  other companies and roles hiring someone like him.

He had very little success, with the few  opportunities he did find quickly falling through. In order to make money and survive,  he primarily did freelance work on smaller, mostly one-off projects for clients outside the  film industry. By 2030, this expertise wasn’t needed by most people or companies either. 

To make ends meet, Mason started barbacking three-to-four nights a week. Fundamentally, he  either needed to relearn a completely new domain of visual production or move on. Extremely bitter  and disillusioned by the industry at this point, understandably, Mason gradually found himself  moving on, unsure of what he was going to do—what, or who, he was going to be.

He felt like  a loser. Like an idiot. He felt worthless.

While trying to figure out what he was going to do  next, Mason began to write—about his experiences, his feelings, his struggles, his uncertainties  and fears, and so on. He found fiction to be the most useful and interesting to him. He  especially loved writing little speculative science-fiction short stories.

Writing  about potential future technologies and their effects on human experience gave Mason a  sense of control over what, in the real world, he largely had none. With a strong understanding  of storytelling being inherent to his previous career, and having a love for stories in general,  Mason began to delve more and more into writing. Over the following year or so, Mason focused on  two things: writing a speculative science-fiction novel and getting a book publishing deal.

He  worked relentlessly, dedicating most of his time and focus on this goal. Being a first-time  author in an industry that was also going through massive changes was quite an uphill battle. He  received twenty-six rejections from literary agents before finally getting representation. 

Then, he received thirty-eight rejections from publishing imprints before finally getting  a book deal offer from a small, independent publishing house, which Mason eagerly accepted. The novel was about a new industry of electrical brain stimulators being used in the consumer  market to enhance focus, boost performance, and provide meditative states. These devices  quickly become the norm in the world of the novel, leading to an addiction for many people  who become strung up by the augmentation of their productivity and optimization.

It took Mason over three years from the inception of the idea of his novel, to pitching it, to  getting a deal, to writing it, to editing it, to finally publishing and distributing it.  By the time the book came out, the concept of the story was sort of already happening in  reality. Technology was simply moving too fast.

Mason couldn’t even keep up with it when  projecting himself into the fictional future. Since the book was largely dependent  on the speculative motif, which now felt stale and almost unaware, the book did very poorly. Again, needless to say, Mason was devastated.

He felt like a fool. A loser. Worthless.

Around  this time, however, it was becoming clearer to him that this feeling and experience was  increasingly common for large amounts of people. And so, he had one more idea for one more book. Several years later, Mason sat across from a man named Steven at a table with four cameras pointed  at them.

Steven was the host of a podcast called The Longform Podcast. Mason was the guest. “Why don’t you tell us a little bit about the book.

It came out in … 2037. And it’s  obviously been a huge hit. I believe it’s been a best seller on several platforms.

That has  to feel good, huh? But yea, so why don’t you tell us a little bit about it? ” Steven said to Mason.

“Sure, yeah. The book is about a popular futurist and speculative science-fiction author named  Dagny. She comes to fame in the mid-2010s, and everything is going great, but then by the  late 2020s and early 2030s, things begin to change for her as she struggles to write in the  style and format and topics that she had come to know and be known for.

By the 2040s, basically  every time she comes up with a novel, writes it, and then comes out with it, the concepts no longer  really make sense or are very interesting because technology is changing so much and so fast,  it’s impossible for her to meaningfully keep up. She then essentially has to deal with the  fact that her whole identity as an author of futurism is no longer clear or sustainable. ” “Wow.

That’s fascinating. My understanding is that you actually previously were in an industry  that experienced a lot of obsolescence and change in recent years. Of course, so many industries  have faced that over the last many years, but it seems like your own personal story is actually a  good one.

Is just quick adaptability the key now? ” “I got lucky. That’s it.

All my life, I was told I  could be anything I wanted. I just needed to pick and work hard at it. But that’s not how it works  at all.

When as a kid, I was asked what I wanted to be when I was older, not only was I supposed  to know what I wanted to do for the rest of my life when my brain was barely even formed yet,  but I was supposed to know what the world was going to be like. I could have just as easily been  unlucky. Most of us are.

Time and circumstances are like a spinning roulette wheel. No one  knows exactly where it’s going to land. And now, it only seems to be spinning faster and faster. 

Look, if you aren’t where you want to be in life, it’s not necessarily because of you. ” “Hmm. Now I tend to agree with you there.

But what would you say to someone who feels  like that’s maybe a bit of a fatalistic view? ” “I would say that that’s not what I mean. Look,  inevitably, we will all be replaced.

Everything everyone does, has done, won’t matter at some  point. But you are not what you do in a career. You’re what you do in your life.

That doesn’t  mean disregard your passions and your career and your responsibilities or money. It doesn’t mean  don’t care or try. It just means know how much to regard those areas, and also how much not to.

Your  friends, your family, your health, your community, your feeling of connection and experience of  okayness are at the very least equally important. ” “You’re clearly a very ambitious person. That  surely has to do with your success and your ability to adapt with the times, don’t you think?

” “Ambition increases the odds that you’ll get somewhere, sure. But you don’t always need  to be somewhere else, somewhere impressive, to live a good life and be more than a worthy  person. That’s all I’m saying.

Ambition is a sanctioned drug that society wants to  see us overdose on. I think, ultimately, the world doesn’t really care about you. It will  move past you or run you over if it can or has to.

So just be careful how much you care about it. ” “Hmm. I certainly think that’s timely insight,” Steven said with a little hesitancy in his  voice.

“So, what’s next for you? ” Steven asked. Mason looked at Steven, smiled,  and let out a soft laugh.