"Just ask ChatGBT"

you're doing a lot better than you think you are.

You are not as behind as the internet is making you feel.

I promise.

If you spend enough time online right now, you’d think every 23yo startup kid in a weighted vest is building the next trillion dollar company off 94-hour work weeks, OpenClaw agents, and burning $6,000 worth of Claude credits.

It’s become essentially what I’ve dubbed productivity theater.

“OMG I’m shipping all day bro!!1!”

That’s the 2026 “look at me” refrain from guys who experience mild tumescence at phonk edits of matte black Lamborghinis cruising down Ocean Drive at midnight.

The AI conversation online has already become what crypto became around 2021: a strange arms race of jargon, screenshots, and FOMO.

I realize this induces anxiety in the general population.

You feel like you’re missing out.

You feel technologically illiterate.

The future is happening, and it’s happening without you.

Let’s push back on that for a second.

Most people don’t even pronounce ChatGPT correctly.

Close friend of mine the other day told me all his colleagues refer to it as “ChatGBT”.

That’s actually more common than you’d think.

The internet is so good at creating an illusion that everybody else is sprinting while you’re standing still.

In reality, the loudest 0.5% of terminally online optimization addicts are simply posting the most, largely because they’re embroiled in a..uh.. “measuring contest” amongst themselves.

Most normal people are not running autonomous agents from a LED-lit Brickell apartment while Huberman clips play in the background.

Sure, I’m keeping the mood light, but I’m also keeping it real.

You do not need to become an AI warlord overnight to have a good future.

Are there people doing tremendous things with AI?

Yeah, of course there are.

(Shamelessly plugging my boi Elevator Charles, who is the AI consultant supreme)

That will always be the case with any realm of human endeavor.

Outliers will always be outliers.

However, for the rest of us?

You probably just need to become slightly more adaptable than you were six months ago.

That’s really the whole game.

Mess around with a few tools, get comfy with your favorite one, don’t panic.

Because despite what the internet would have you believe, we are still incredibly early.

Realize the bulk of your friends and colleagues are hardly using this stuff, and if they are, they’re having it write emails (with—- the —dead giveaway—em dashes) or having it tell them what Harry Potter house they’d be in.

(Us Slytherins would never.)

And truthfully?

The people who are going to thrive long-term probably are not the loudest “optimize everything” maniacs online anyway.

I always hammer on about soft skills ruling the roost, and that’s because it’s arguably my strongest-held core belief.

People who can still communicate clearly, build trust, think creatively, and not fry their nervous system are still going to be the top of the food chain as time progresses.

You don’t have to have an existential crisis every time you read a tweet about a guy bragging that Claude was writing an internal memo for his company while he was out sharing animal style In N’ Out fries with his side piece.

Every technological Gold Rush shows the same signs: initial assessments are overblown, the jargon around the tech normalizes, the hysteria fades.

When the dust settles, being adaptable, calm, likable, and competent will still matter an absurd amount.

If you need further anxiety alleviant?

Far less people even care to read or research this topic at all.

If you’ve made it to the end of this short write-up, congrats.

You’re ahead of almost everybody already.

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Chat soon.

🫶🏻

-John Abbate

5/12/2026