We are all becoming traders. And how to hire in that world.

Before the Industrial Revolution, much of what we could produce depended on physical strength. A stronger person could add more value to the economy by getting more work done.

Then machines made strength cheaper. Further - irrelevant.

Suddenly, more of the economy started rewarding intelligence. Or rather - stopped rewarding the strength. The smartest people could build the most impactful companies by applying their understanding of technology.

Now, in the AI revolution, intelligence is getting cheaper too. Less relevant. We have models that are already much smarter than any of us in many areas.

But they’re not free! We can discover opportunities. We can bet on them. We can decide where to put compute and energy, watch what happens, and decide whether to stop or invest more.

Imagine a future where a small team can put AI researchers to work on a very hard problem. For example - a battery that lasts twice as long.

It (likely!) takes a lot of compute to solve.

The team still has to decide whether the idea is promising enough to fund, and when to stop the loss if it doesn't work out. Cheaper intelligence makes the attempt possible. But it's still a bet.

Our ambition determines which opportunities we even consider. Our risk appetite determines which ones we actually try. Our judgment and taste determine whether we build something people want. Those choices will increasingly determine our success.

It’s no longer just about the ability to build things, as it has been in recent years. It’s about choosing the right problems to solve.

This applies to everyone here. If you're an engineer, the question is becoming less about whether you can build something and more about whether it's the right thing to build. Agents can do more of the work. You still have to choose the problem and know whether the result is any good.

That's the mindset we want to hire for, rather than a particular hard skill.

We can attempt much more now. Let's be smart about what we choose.