three voices, one confused human, and the ai revolution

Every morning I wake up to news about another industry transformed by AI.

Yesterday it was customer service agents. Today it's graphic designers. Tomorrow it might be people like me, trying to figure out what value they bring to a world where machines can think faster than humans can blink.

I open Claude and stare at the conversation box.

This thing processes my scattered thoughts and hands them back organized, coherent, actionable. It remembers context from three exchanges ago. It builds on my ideas without getting tired or needing coffee breaks.

how do I use these tools without losing myself in the process?

Living with professional uncertainty means hosting a three-way debate in my brain every morning.

Voice 1 (rational, caffeinated nina): "You have 7 years of marketing experience. Go back to what pays. Use AI to do it faster and better. Stop overthinking."

Voice 2 (spiritual, walking nina): "Trust the timing. Your path will emerge when you stop forcing outcomes."

Voice 3 (anxious, scrolling Linkedin at 2 AM nina): "Everyone else figured this out already. You're behind. Learn everything about AI now or become irrelevant."

All three live in my head, taking turns.

I want to build something meaningful that pays actual money. But meaningful and profitable don't always shake hands nicely when you're asking parents for grocery funds.

And don't get me wrong - I've consumed enough podcasts to know it's totally possible to build meaning and create income. That limiting beliefs hold you back.

What happens with me is... god, I don't know. Aimless thinking? Analysis paralysis dressed up as being thoughtful?

the contradiction I live with

I simultaneously understand that AI creates opportunities AND feel lost about my place in it.

Part of me gets it. I'm genuinely optimistic about this shift. AI will create more opportunities than it eliminates. As everything becomes automated, people will crave human connection even more. I saw a YouTube video labeled "human made lofi" the other day - that's where we're heading.

AI will free up time from repetitive tasks, creating space for strategic thinking and creative work. The people who thrive won't be the ones who resist it or think it'll solve everything - it's the ones who stay curious and remember that technology is just a tool.

But then there's this other part of me that wakes up every day thinking: what exactly do I contribute that justifies someone paying me money?

Both perspectives exist in me simultaneously. I can intellectually understand the opportunities while emotionally feeling lost about my specific role in it all.

I open 47 browser tabs about AI workflows and let them paralyze me into inaction.

• "10 AI Tools That Will Replace Your Job"

• "How to Future-Proof Your Career"

• "AI Automation for Entrepreneurs"

• "Why Human Creativity Will Always Matter"

When the noise overwhelms me, I close everything and return to what I can observe directly:

AI is advancing rapidly. People are confused. I think most clearly when I write.

Those are facts. Everything else is speculation marketed as certainty.

Information without testing is just expensive entertainment. I can watch every AI course on the internet, but unless I'm experimenting with something real, I'm just collecting concepts that make me feel productive without actually doing anything.

what I'm actually experimenting with

1. Brain dump circular thoughts

2. Ask AI to organize

3. Identify which ideas spark something in me

4. Write from that feeling

5. Use AI for grammar and flow

6. Question whether I'm becoming cognitively lazy

7. Write more to prove I can still think independently

8. Repeat

AI handles structure well. The actual insights still come from my mind, not from prompts.

I know that learning to use these tools creates opportunities I can't see yet. But I'm also conscious about not letting them do my thinking for me.

The struggle of figuring things out is what changes me. I don't want to outsource that.

the skills question

I'm not sure what my skill set is yet, let alone how it fits into an AI world.

I'm constantly trying new things - Lovable, Replit, vibe coding, learning GitHub Codespaces, messing around with Gamma and different LLMs. I love all of it, but I think I'm tripping myself up by overthinking everything.

Maybe because I have a lot of time these days, I'm creating problems that don't exist.

I can write, but I don't know if I'm any good at it.

I can learn new tools quickly, but I don't know what to build with them.

I have ideas, but I don't know which ones are worth pursuing.

The issue isn't competing with AI. The issue is I haven't figured out my own value yet, with or without these tools.

Maybe I'm making this more complicated than it needs to be. Maybe the answer is just: keep experimenting, see what sticks, stop trying to solve it all in my head.

I keep waiting for some moment of clarity where everything clicks into place. But maybe there isn't going to be some grand revelation.

Maybe it's just about taking the next small step, even when I can't see where it leads.

Thanks for reading the whole thing. If you liked it, you can buy me a coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/ninabrenes :)