Learn to (vibe) code.
From CNBC, September 25:
Teens dreaming of lucrative tech careers should seize on the opportunity to hone their artificial intelligence skills by immersing themselves in the growing number of AI-powered code generation tools, says billionaire Scale AI co-founder Alexandr Wang.
“You just have to figure out how to use the tools maximally,” Wang said on a recent episode of the “TBPN” podcast that aired on September 17.
When asked for his best advice for young people, Wang said, “it’s impossible to understate the degree to which I’ve been radicalized by AI coding.”
AI coding, also called “vibe coding,” involves using artificial intelligence to generate original software code simply by typing out commands and instructions. AI coding apps, like Replit and Cursor, allow you to write code, or even develop a new app, without any coding or computer engineering expertise.
“It’s actually, in some ways, this incredible moment of discontinuity where, if you just happen to spend, like, 10,000 hours playing with the tools and figuring out how to use them better than other people, that’s a huge advantage,” said Wang, who co-founded Scale AI in 2016 and helped build it into a tech unicorn that was most recently valued at $29 billion.
Wang compared the current moment of rapid technological advancement to the early days of the computer revolution, when people like “the Bill Gates’ of the world” capitalized on being early adopters of computers and software.
Indeed, the Microsoft co-founder has said he spent his teen years sneaking out of his parents’ house at night to spend hours learning to write software code, thanks to a fortuitous arrangement he had with a local Seattle company that gave him free computer access.
Wang believes this era’s teens would be wise to follow Gates’ approach by spending as much time as possible learning to use AI coding tools: “That moment is happening right now — and if you are, like, 13 years old, you should spend all of your time vibe coding,” he said on the podcast. “That’s how you should live your life.”
AI’s coding ability will match Wang’s ‘within the next five years’
Wang has an estimated net worth of $3.2 billion, according to Forbes, and was poached by Meta in June to serve as chief AI officer. Despite his massive success and standing in the industry, even Wang believes that “literally all the code I’ve written in my life … will be able to have been produced by an AI model within the next five years,” he told “TBPN.”The idea of AI programs potentially being able to replicate the work of even the best coders in the world is already feeding concerns about software programming remaining a promising career choice. Companies are already increasing their use of AI coding programs, and in some cases using them to replace human programmers....
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Propinquity and serendipity.
The closer you are to your subject, meaning hands-on, learning by doing, rather than theoretical understanding, the more "happy coincidences" you will experience. It is in the interstices that the creativity is to be found. But first you have to have the framework to hang it all on and that framework can be boring as all-get-out to acquire. Once you have it though, internalized rather that top-of-mind, you are freed up to observe connections that may not have occurred to other people.
There are so few truly original ideas but there are so many ways to connect those things that have already been discovered that the potential is close to infinite.
All you need is one good idea that, when combined with grit, social connections and openness to luck, and away you go.
But first you have to know something at the deepest level you can achieve.
