AI is Smart, But Wisdom Requires Judgement

Success in the era of AI means being good at things AI can’t do. Not because AI is going to take those jobs, but because if you can do it with AI, so can everyone else. So you need to be good at things that more or faster knowledge doesn’t solve. A common theme from AI founders, influencers, and academics about what skill to develop is “taste.” I’ve been hearing that word everywhere, from education trade magazines to career podcasts.

Taste is subjective, but it’s really the ability to pick the best option from a group and do it more often than others. Having more or faster knowledge doesn’t do this for you, so AI can’t do it. All the smarts in the world won’t tell you if putting off repairs will result in your car breaking down, if a new cereal flavor will be a hit, or if your product feature will attract higher‑paying customers.

But even with perfect information, outcomes remain uncertain. That uncertainty makes taste valuable. More precisely, it comes down to navigating trade‑offs.

This means being able to consistently choose the best imperfect alternative. To make the most effective use of scarce resources like time and money. To have intuition about how upsides and downsides will balance out.

Want to thrive in an AI world? Get very good at navigating trade‑offs.