On being behind

Everything is a trade-off. Take the slow route, methodically, step by step, and you may arrive to find that others got there long ago and have already pushed it to the nth degree.

Chase the latest and greatest instead and you get the leverage. But you miss the understanding that only comes from generating the idea yourself.

And now that AI can implement ideas, coming up with them may be the most important skill left. The slow route is where that gets trained.

The other comfort is abundance. We are approaching the singularity, and we are already rich in everything available to us. Soon you will benefit simply because you exist in the world.

If competing is the goal, then yes, track the frontier constantly. Otherwise relax, and do what you find interesting and fun at the time.

The jobs of the future may not exist. But everything will be so cheap that you won't need much money. You will just have to defend your right to exist.