Look: I love reading sci-fi and thinking about the future. I love imagining what it means to be a civilization on the Kardashev Scale: the theoretical scale of civilizational advancement that says that after we use all the energy from our planet, we’ll use all the energy from our star, and then all the energy from our galaxy…

And this exact concept is invoked on Musk’s Terafab website, with a nifty graphic, too. Because it’s surely aspirational for humanity to one day absorb ALL the energy from our entire GALAXY!?

The Kardashev Scale isn’t about us “being an interplanetary species”. It’s specifically about consuming massive amounts of energy.

Most of us cannot even begin to fathom how large our solar system is. And our galaxy is so comically, absurdly, laughably large as to defy any serious inquiry into its nature.

But what could be a better business message? “Here’s a way for us to achieve infinite growth! We’ll keep gobbling up more resources, more stars, more planets, using them all up one by one, and then we’ll truly understand the nature of our place within the universe."

Imagine two trillion factories, plugging away, where each planet becomes another warehouse! Non-stop consumption from star to shining star!

Since we’ll not reach the scale of absorbing our galaxy’s energy in any of the next many many many many many many-to-the-nth lifetimes (if we even survive the next 100 years), I’m going to go out on a limb and say there’s nothing waiting for us with ten galaxies’ worth of energy that isn’t available to us right here on a walk in a forest today.

But boy, that graphic must make investors salivate!

To say that my software platform has replaced 6-7 paid SaaS applications is a bit misleading. Because it hasn’t just replaced things we used to use, it’s improved upon all of them.

If I were completely happy with any off-the-shelf solution, I never would have left them.

But finally… FINALLY I can fix all the annoying things with all the software products I’ve been using.

Finally, I can build what matters to me.

I never thought I’d be able to build an app so robust and powerful. But here we are…

Just the beginning.

Have you done the same?

I was fortunate enough to hear John Bremen speak for the second time recently, and he said something I can’t stop thinking about (paraphrasing, sorry):

The exact skills needed to thrive in the age of AI are the skills that we used to teach in business school as "leadership skills".

For people who have spent their lives cultivating leadership skills, like my friend and military veteran Mike Garlington, many of the most valuable skills taught in general leadership are the very same that will make us valuable in an age of ubiquitous AI.

But here’s the catch: we’re all about to become leaders. When the lowliest employee in an organization has access to an army of AI agents, they too must act as a leader.

Managing agents and the processes therein is the same as managing a team of people, and using those people to achieve a desired outcome is the name of the game.

Technical knowledge is still important. But cultivating leadership and communication skills is the number one thing any of us can do to upskill for the wave ahead.

In a court of law, we recognize that being an elite litigator is a talent.

In the movies, great writers and great actors earn millions of dollars because they are emotionally effective.

It’s not just the facts that matter in a case, but all too often the way the facts are explained. The way the argument is constructed and delivered.

There’s a reason that well-funded, expert legal teams routinely trounce the little guy. Convincing a jury is a skill.

In a courtroom, we can accept that this skill might be the difference between life and death. We can accept that how we structure, phrase, and present our case has a lot to do with how an argument is perceived.

But in business? I see so many founders who ignore this fundamental truth.

Technical founders think the facts of their business are all that matter. The more savvy understand that frivolities like positioning, identity, and brand are everything for consumer perception.

It’s not what you say. It’s how you say it.

Is it coding? Is it communication skills? What are the concrete skills you need right now to either land that next job, that next client, or to lead your team into the next era?

The big-picture answer is a modified version of the Serenity Prayer:

"God, give me judgment to see the things I shouldn’t automate, knowledge to automate the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference."

May we all chant it daily!