Welcome to LifeOS: How a Generation is Reprogramming Reality with AI
- Rich Washburn
- 11 hours ago
- 4 min read
In the span of 24 hours, I had two conversations that made this whole thing snap into focus.
First: a younger guy—maybe ten years my junior—calls me up about launching his own firm. He’s early. I mean idea napkin, blank Notion doc, no domain name yet early. But what stopped me in my tracks wasn’t the pitch. It was the process. From day one, he was thinking AI-first. Not as a bolt-on feature, not “we might use ChatGPT for content,” but as the foundation. Naming, branding, research, ideation, pitch-building—GPT was his business partner. His co-founder. His LifeOS.
Next day, I’m with a very sharp, very seasoned exec—business-savvy to the bone. I’m walking him through ChatGPT, showing how to tune the system settings for better results. We dig into Custom Instructions, GPTs, memory settings—the good stuff. And I realize... this guy had no idea any of it existed. He thought GPT was just that thing you type into when you don’t want to Google something. Brilliant guy, but still operating at surface level.
Two conversations. Twenty-four hours. One striking contrast.
This isn’t about who’s smart. They’re both smart. But one of them is building a future with AI embedded at every layer. The other is still looking for the “Settings” menu.
That’s when it hit me: we’re not just dealing with a skills gap. We’re staring down the barrel of a generational mindset divide.
The Rise of LifeOS
We’re not just talking about how people use AI.
We’re watching an entire generation adopt it as an extension of themselves. A second brain. A thinking layer. A LifeOS.
Talk to a 20-year-old about ChatGPT and you’re not just hearing what it does—you’re hearing how they live with it. They’re using it to plot novels, debug code, brainstorm side hustles, navigate career decisions, plan trips, and sometimes—no joke—get relationship advice. They’re not “consulting a tool.” They’re thinking alongside one.
They’re not using GPT like it’s a glorified Google.
They’re using it like it’s a co-pilot for consciousness.
Now go ask someone in their 40s about ChatGPT. You’ll likely hear something like, “Yeah, I had it write an email once. It was fine.” Or, “It’s like a better search engine, right?”
That’s the gap. Not in intelligence. Not in capability. In mental models.
This Isn’t New—It’s Just the Next Platform Shift
We’ve seen this movie before. When the iPhone landed, kids picked it up and were flipping between apps, sending emojis, and mastering multitouch like it was second nature. Meanwhile, their parents were still trying to figure out how to delete voicemails.
Eventually, the learning curve flattened. But it took time—and more importantly, a shift in expectations.
We’re in that same early-adoption window right now with AI. Except this time, it’s not about how you tap and swipe. It’s about how you think.
And the divide isn’t just individual—it’s institutional.
Companies Are Still Asking the Wrong Questions
A lot of businesses today are treating AI like a fancy new appliance. “Maybe we can use it to summarize meetings,” or “Could it write some of our blog posts?”
Cool. Helpful. Necessary, even.
But it’s not revolutionary. It’s incremental.
Meanwhile, younger teams are out here building AI-native workflows from the ground up. They’re not asking “What can AI help us with?” They’re asking:
What would this process look like if we built it with AI in the driver's seat?
They’re not just thinking about outputs—they’re redesigning inputs. They’re not bolting GPT onto existing systems. They’re reimagining the system around it.
This is what a LifeOS mentality looks like: AI isn’t a tool you reach for. It’s the environment you operate in.
From Social Media to Cognitive Infrastructure
We’ve seen this kind of transformation before with social media.
For older generations, Facebook was a digital scrapbook. A novelty. A way to reconnect with high school friends.
But for Millennials and Gen Z? Social platforms became infrastructure. The place they built identities, communities, careers. Instagram became branding. TikTok became business. Discord became collaboration.
Social media wasn’t a feature. It was the foundation.
AI is now following that same trajectory—except instead of shaping how we express ourselves, it’s reshaping how we think, work, and live.
This Isn’t About Tools—It’s About Thinking
Here’s the real shift: Older generations treat AI like a power tool. Something you learn to use. Something you turn on and off.
Younger users treat it like a collaborator. An extension of their own cognition. They don’t “ask” ChatGPT. They “think with” it.
This is why it’s not enough to just learn what GPT can do. You have to rethink what you do—and how.
The real innovation isn’t coming from people who use AI.
It’s coming from people who are reimagining their entire cognitive workflow around it.
How to Upgrade Your Mindset
If you’re over 35, this isn’t about playing catch-up. It’s about a shift in posture.
Start here:
Don’t just ask GPT for help—ask it to help you think.
Don’t just use AI to speed up old tasks—use it to design better tasks.
Don’t bolt it onto your workflow—let it challenge how your workflow exists in the first place.
And if you’re in your 20s, don’t get cocky. The tools are incredible, but judgment still matters. Experience still matters. AI will make you faster—but faster isn’t always better if you’re going the wrong way.
LifeOS Isn’t the Future. It’s the Present—For Some.
The real question isn’t whether you’re using AI.
It’s whether you’re building your thinking around it.
The next decade isn’t going to be about “AI literacy.” It’s going to be about
AI fluency—how naturally, intuitively, and collaboratively you think with your machine.
Some people will treat AI like software. Others will treat it like oxygen.
Guess who’s going to move faster?