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Good morning Launch Key 🚀 community!

Will your 9-5 be extinct in the next 10 years? That’s a pretty provocative headline prognosticated by no less than Marc Andreessen.

Why should we listen to him?

Because he’s been right so many times over the past 30 years.

Let's dig into it.

Comment below and let me know if we’re on the right track.

Table of Contents

• Pull to Eject

• Modern Tools

• Old School Wisdom

• Free Knowledge

• Recommendations

• Visual Crapshoot

Pull to Eject

Andreessen, the billionaire investor known for his prescient technology vision, stirred the pot earlier this summer with a bold prediction on the end of 9-5 jobs.

His premise is that AI will drive down the cost of goods and services to the point that traditional work won’t be required to live a comfortable lifestyle.

And while I don’t gush over everything AI (see Technology is a Commodity or Human Ingenuity Wins), I have been listening to Andreessen for decades.

I mean – while we were still using modems – I started a web design firm because of the Mosaic web browser that he developed in grad school. And internet browsing kind of became a thing. 😉

This X thread by Hosun is excellent backstory on the history of Andreessen and Netscape changing the world.

But he’s been ahead of the curve on so many things. And once he matriculated into venture capital, his investment exits chart is unmatched.

So just what is he saying about the death of 9-5 jobs?

High value professional services might have their costs cut a thousand-fold because of AI. That is a lot of white-collar jobs. He gives 3 excellent examples of:

• management consulting

• legal services

• medical diagnostics

His point is that AI could offer strategic insights and solutions at dramatically reduced rates. And the implication is that it will democratize many other professional services that are currently expensive and out of reach for individuals and small business.

Forbes and the New York Times shared the 2034 timeline, only with some pretty funny gaslighting. They both claimed Reid Hoffman, the outspoken liberal LinkedIn co-founder, made the claim instead of Andreessen, who has voiced displeasure at the regulatory oversight of Democratic party policies.

Despite the media mockery, anyone with a thinking brain understands that Andreessen has been right so many times, he is worth listening to – no matter his politics.

As I was editing this over the weekend, Austin Rief (Morning Brew CEO and co-founder) shared this on X just to help make the point ⬇️.

When authentic tech leadership like Andreessen and Rief are telling us where the puck is going, should we pay attention?

Even if they’re wrong on timing, how can you take advantage of their insight?

First off - get started on your self employment so you’re not blindsided by the coming corporate cuts. Everyone should have a side hustle.

Despite Rief’s comments about big Consulting, it’s the logical solopreneur gig for many.

As you contemplate a consulting side hustle don’t just regurgitate how you’ve done things in the past. Think through ways to use AI in your tech stack to give yourself an efficiency advantage. Let AI do foundational grunt work. It is literally the commodity use case. Easy access has made AI startup table stakes.

Augment top shelf insight into your model. Improve the outcomes by borrowing liberally from top tier consulting that is readily available online. McKinsey's GenAI tool (Lilli) is referenced below to highlight the impact already happening on the high-end.

McKinsey admits that Lilli is great at synthesizing knowledge but it can’t link it to the concrete client situation. That’s where the humans win. AI still can’t:

• Go to meetings

• Relate relevant stories of success

• Interact with workshop feedback

• Ask customer service to launch a new research project

• Go into the factory to analyze processes

To quote Peter Drucker, “Innovation is the driving force behind the success of any business or organization. It's not just about technology; it's about creating new value through novel ideas, products, processes, and business models.”

Technology is never the value-ad.

Can your sole proprietor consulting practice use AI to deliver world class answers?

Absolutely.

But only if you start with outstanding inputs and tailor results based on your uncommon knowledge.

Now go launch something 🚀 

Modern Tools

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Old School Wisdom

AI and Future of Work pod has solid insight many weeks. But this pod with old school Nick Mehta and his concept of "human-first AI" and how companies can leverage AI to remove grunt work while enhancing the human elements of customer interactions is very good.

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Free Knowledge

Fortune recently published a list from several top tech firms and universities offering free online courses that serve as an introduction to AI technologies.

Easy way to dip your toes in the water.

Recommendations

🤓 The Product-Led Geek : The weekly newsletter unlocking the secrets of product-led success.

📕 MGMT Playbook : Practical management insights straight to your inbox every Wednesday.

💹 Growth Hunter : Transform ambition into action: your exclusive source for strategies that scale.

📰 Marketing Memos : Proven Marketing Tips for Founders

🧠 Seven Deadly Stupidities : Discover the patterns that lead to failure and learn how to avoid them.

🏆 IDiyas : Weekly patent newsletter highlighting the most prolific inventors, engineers, executives and entrepreneurs.

Visual Crapshoot