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Optimus and the Meaning Economy: Building the Next Renaissance
“Optimus will eliminate poverty and provide universal high income for all.” — Elon Musk That line didn’t just drop into the news cycle — it landed like a flare. Because if Elon’s right, we’re not talking about the next version of work. We’re talking about the end of it. For generations, we’ve been told that work is what makes us who we are. But what happens when machines do the work — and humans get the why ? The Digital Labor Class Came First Let’s start with a little truth

Rich Washburn
Nov 255 min read


Tribal Knowledge as Capital (And Why Experience Is the Next Frontier of AI)
Let’s start with a truth that makes a lot of people uncomfortable: The most valuable data set in the world isn’t sitting on a server. It’s sitting in people. Specifically — in you. All those years of doing, breaking, fixing, managing, selling, designing, negotiating, training — that’s data . Real, human data. Pattern recognition, decision trees, instinct models, and judgment calls that no algorithm could fake until now. And here’s the part nobody’s saying out loud:That knowle

Rich Washburn
Nov 253 min read


The Inevitable Obsolescence of Consulting Firms
Let me tell you something strange: We don’t know how to build the Space Shuttle anymore. NASA had the plans. The blueprints. The specs.What they didn’t have was the team —the network of minds, habits, and shared mental models that made it all work. That knowledge didn’t live in one document. It lived in hallway conversations. In hand gestures. In intuition built through repetition and failure. When those engineers retired or moved on, the Shuttle didn’t just become obsolete.

Rich Washburn
Oct 263 min read


Macrohard: The Schrödinger’s Startup That Might Build the Future (or Be the Ultimate Musk Troll)
If you’ve been on the internet in the last 48 hours, you’ve probably seen that photo — a massive white-roofed facility in Memphis with MACROHARD painted across it in letters so huge you can literally see them from space. And of course, it came straight from Elon Musk’s X account. Classic Elon: half-joke, half-omen, and somehow both at the same time. This is the same man who named a car line “S3XY,” sent a sports car into orbit, and made flamethrowers a consumer product. So

Rich Washburn
Oct 223 min read


The Pandemic IT Rehab Road Trip: Better Late Than Never
You ever hear a friend describe an IT mess so vivid you can smell the burnt plastic? A buddy called me recently, pacing through the kind...

Rich Washburn
Aug 249 min read


Deep Research AI: The Beginning of the End for Human Labor?
The AI arms race has reached another milestone. OpenAI's Deep Research is here, and it's already making waves—big ones. If early reports...

Rich Washburn
Feb 43 min read


2025 AI Predictions: How DeepSeek R1 Changed the Future Overnight
If you thought artificial general intelligence (AGI) was decades away, think again. The future isn’t knocking—it just kicked down the...

Rich Washburn
Jan 295 min read


From Busy Work to Breakthroughs: How Small AI Wins Sparked a Culture Shift at XYZ Insurance
In today’s workplace, it’s often the hidden inefficiencies—what I like to call “loose screws”—that quietly eat away at productivity....

Rich Washburn
Jan 244 min read


NEO’s Automated AI Researcher: The Beginning of a Revolution in Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence has been evolving at breakneck speed, but Neo—an autonomous AI researcher tailored for machine learning...

Rich Washburn
Nov 16, 20244 min read


The Power of Prompting: A Technical Dive into AI Prompt Engineering
In the evolving landscape of artificial intelligence, one concept stands out as a cornerstone of effective AI utilization: prompt...

Rich Washburn
Aug 22, 20244 min read


Sam Altman's UBI Experiment: The Surprising Results That Could Change America
Nearly a decade ago, in 2016, Sam Altman, now renowned as the CEO of OpenAI, embarked on a journey to explore a concept that had been...

Rich Washburn
Aug 22, 20244 min read


AI Automation: The Future is Seamless Integration
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is advancing at an unprecedented pace, moving beyond the hype and becoming an integral part of various...

Rich Washburn
Jun 26, 20242 min read


Beyond Job Security: Adapting to an AI-Driven World
The accelerating pace of AI development, with predictions of artificial general intelligence (AGI) emerging within the next four to eight...

Rich Washburn
Jun 7, 20242 min read


Elon Musk's Vision: A Future Where AI Replaces Human Labor
During a recent talk at the Viva Technology conference in Paris, Elon Musk shared his vision of a future profoundly transformed by...

Rich Washburn
May 26, 20242 min read


Generating The Future of IT
The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in IT operations is emerging as a pivotal factor in driving the next wave of digital...

Rich Washburn
May 24, 20243 min read


GPT-4o: Three Jobs AI Can Revolutionize Right Now
OpenAI's latest model, GPT-4o, is redefining what artificial intelligence can achieve. This new iteration is not just an upgrade; it's a...

Rich Washburn
May 23, 20242 min read


New Economic Reality: Universal Basic Income in a Post-AGI World
As we approach the precipice of a transformative era dominated by advanced general intelligence (AGI), a significant reshaping of our...

Rich Washburn
May 12, 20242 min read


Google Lays Off Entire Python Team
Google has dismissed its entire Python team, citing cost-cutting measures as jobs are outsourced to cheaper labor markets abroad. This...

Rich Washburn
May 1, 20242 min read


Crafting Consciousness: Inside Sanctuary AI's Mission to Build Robots That Understand Us
In a world where technological advancements are rapidly transforming the landscape of labor, artificial intelligence, and robotics,...

Rich Washburn
Feb 12, 20242 min read


A New Era: How the Rabbit R1 and Its LAM Technology Could Redefine the Workforce
In the electrifying atmosphere of CES, a groundbreaking development has emerged, capturing the attention of professionals and...

Rich Washburn
Jan 24, 20243 min read
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