I remember when we used to repeat the mantra to each other — and from conference stages — that there is no silver bullet. It was practically a professional creed.
And then AI showed up, and it turned out that wherever you add it, everything gets better. For managers. For products. For designers. For SaaS companies. Add AI to anything and it simply becomes better.
Better how? Better in what way, exactly? And the way things worked before — why doesn’t that work anymore? Those are details. Digging into them feels almost impolite. So, anyway — the silver bullet is AI.
The CEO is King Midas now
The CEO has become King Midas, except everything he touches turns into an AI product. Not gold. An AI product.
If you still have some small, quiet program that doesn’t use AI — protect it. Run it on the side. Don’t show it to anyone. And whatever you do, don’t push it to GitHub, where things turn into AI even faster.
Hiding is weak aura
Although — let’s be honest — hiding is weak aura.
Strong aura is bolting AI onto everything yourself. Telling everyone how you use AI. Which model. Which version. Sharing your take with everyone within earshot, unprompted.
Strong aura is becoming an AI Engineer — because then, it follows, you can solve every problem with the silver bullet.
There is no silver bullet. We were right for thirty years. We just got tired of being right.