In this clip hosts Carl Alexander and Zach Stepek reflects on the empowering yet intimidating nature of this transition, emphasizing the need to expand skillsets and stay mindful of new tools. Carl notes how overwhelming it can be to keep up with the pace of innovation, and together they highlight their goal of helping listeners cut through the noise, focus on what matters, and find practical ways to leverage AI and personal branding during this pivotal time of career evolution.
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Episode Transcript
Carl Alexander:
I think it’s a very hard transition period for, for people right now. And, uh, but it’s also like a very empowering time at the same time. It’s a very— you can hold two ideas. I love the paradox of holding two conflicting ideas, but it’s a, it, it, it’s essentially that because it is a scary time, uh, But it’s also, like I said, like I’ve never felt more enabled in my entire career and I’ve been coding for 35 years, you know? Right. So it’s like, uh, you know, and, but part of it is exactly what the mission of this podcast is and it fits so nicely because it’s more important than ever to like expand the stack basically because I think in a year or two, even something as quaint as calling yourself a frontend or a backend developer will just not matter, basically. Um, you know, you might have a certain expertise or knowledge, uh, but you know, if your goal is to just get stuff done, it won’t matter,
What you— you’re just, you just have to be aware of what’s out there so that you can You know, use the tools at your disposal and let AI do a lot of the work for you. Um, and so that’s why I think the mission’s more important than ever. And I agree, like bringing people, not just like support marketing, like marketing, like how to, how do you brand yourself? How do you like promote yourself? How do you stick out? Like all these things are, are difficult right now. Um, And I think that’s like a real challenge, um, and something worth talking about, um, as well, because they’re all part of, of expanding that stack of, of knowledge, um, of things you do, of things you can do. Uh, you know, like I’d never wanted to do React, but I might end up doing some React, but it’s just like You know, because I just have AI do it, uh, and I can review and I can do some stuff. But again, that’s why I think it’s really important, uh, in this like transition time.
Zach Stepek:
Yeah, no, absolutely. Absolutely. And I think that there are so many things to learn and the, the world is moving faster now than it ever has, right there. The changes are coming. Faster than ever before. And yeah, it was already a lot to keep track of before all of this, before AI, before, you know, this land— this really landmark shift in direction for, yeah, you know, the world as a whole. Um, but it’s harder than ever to keep track of everything that’s going on. And I think we, we both want to be a source through this podcast of a way to kind of cut through the noise and— Yeah. Find the things that matter, right? And not just the things that matter to us, the things that matter to the community as a whole. I mean, I’d like to think we’re focused on the things that matter to the community as a whole, and that lines up, you know, and aligns perfectly with what matters to us, but it’s not always the case.
Carl Alexander:
So I love it. I mean, you know, I’m not as AI-pilled as some of the people I read. Uh, I just think it’s important to like, I take, you know, I move forward and then I, I stay there for a bit and then I just kind of like experiment where things are. I’m not like, cause I mean, if you try to follow AI, it’s worse than JavaScript in the sense of like the turnover and stuff. It’s not worth your energy. Um, I think what’s important is just to be aware of it and just think about how it can be a source of of good in your life, uh, for your career and for the things you do. It’s just— it’s a rough transition time. And but by bringing, I think, other people from other places, like, you can see the impact, you can think about other things, you can like rethink how to leverage this tool and, and what the impact is and what it’s— and what people’s careers have been too, um, because career change happens. So it’s just, it’s just those things, it— those things happen. So it’s just, it’s about navigating this time too.
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