Looking back to the mid-90s, knowing Visual Basic and building GUI apps was suddenly insufficient. Developers like me had to quickly learn HTML, CSS, and other technologies. Soon, the proliferation of PHP and JavaScript (Ajax!) necessitated yet another round of learning.
Now, as a VC evaluating startups, I am witnessing the pace of change reaching dizzying heights. In just the past month, we’ve seen the emergence of GPT-4 and OpenAI APIs. This is on top of November’s GPT3, which was already transforming the tech landscape.
Keeping up with AI advancements is a daunting task even for a coder turned VC like me. Evaluating startups that are leveraging these new technologies has become even more challenging, with the difficulty level increasing 100x.
It feels like being taken from Doom’s Difficulty setting “Hey, not too rough” to “Nightmare” within 1 minute of being introduced to the game. How does one keep up???
Being asked to extrapolate from the current state of AI to the next $100 billion AI-first start-up, is a lot like being shown HTML tags and being asked to explain TikTok’s dominance, in 1995. Where does one even start to connect the dots?
Perhaps, the future belongs to kids still in school. Unburdened by today’s technology, they live in a beautiful, timeless, bubble and can devote 100% of their attention and energies to just learning the new, as opposed to having to make a living with the as-is.
As technologists and VCs, the best thing we can do is to embrace a beginner’s mindset and make lifelong learning a priority.
But we’ve got to rush to our next meeting.
And another pitch call after that.
And a review session after that.
And a portfolio catch-up later.
Maybe making the time to get up to speed is the real magic trick.
Silver lining: The only ones who project confidence are either those shipping code or those who have no clue. All other techies are learning as we go along.