🔥 💣 Is AI somehow bigger than we can imagine? ⛰️ Feeling alive 😖 More frustration needed 🧘♂️ How to create more time
#77: a weekly 4-item newsletter created to inspire dads to use the challenges of fatherhood as fuel for building an incredible life & an antifragile mind.
Welcome to the 77th edition of the antifragile 4 🔥.
This week: an article that people either think is nothing…or the end of the world as we know it.
Plus — a skinned knee reminds me I’m human, why we need more frustration in our lives, and the one absurdly simple thing that slows time (that almost none of us actually do).
Thank you, as always, for reading.
With love,
Chris
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Here’s this week’s antifragile 4 🔥:
💻
💣Is AI somehow bigger than we can imagine?⛰️ Feeling alive
😖🧠 More frustration needed
🧘♂️ How to create more time
1.) 💻💣 Is AI somehow bigger than we can imagine?
This article is long — but worth your time.
A lot to digest. Three thoughts that stuck with me:
1️⃣ College kids are in a tough spot.
If even a fraction of entry-level white-collar jobs disappear over the next couple years, it will be felt. These are the jobs a kid with a 3.1 GPA (ahem) would normally land — solid, respectable, learn-on-the-job roles. If those opportunities shrink, what fills the gap?
We’re already seeing rising anxiety and depression in Gen Z. What happens when you remove not just income—but structure? Apprenticeship? Identity? Purpose?
2️⃣ Does this pave the way for National Service?
If college grads have dramatically fewer job options…what’s society’s move?
Mandatory (gasp!) National Service is a fascinating idea. Park Service. Education. Military. AmeriCorps. Habitat. Maybe it’s service. Maybe it’s skilled trade training. Maybe it’s something entirely new.
Gap years are one of the most universally loved concepts on earth — at least for those lucky enough to take one. Why? Because stepping off the conveyor belt changes you. And if that conveyor belt is headed straight for your parents’ basement, maybe there’s more to gain than to lose.
Some of my most formative growth came from hard seasons shared with strangers. Shared struggle does something to you. It builds identity. Perspective. Pride.
Maybe a generation with fewer office jobs ends up with more shared purpose.
As one friend put it: “What’s better for the country—a wave of 3.1’s from Mizzou in entry-level enterprise sales roles…or a generation that’s served together in something bigger than themselves?”
3️⃣ On the flip side: what a moment to build.
We’re rapidly becoming limited only by imagination. I spent the last 48 hours building software with the latest models—it wasn’t without effort and frustration, but astonishing nonetheless.
Zero formal training required.
Those who lean into these tools won’t just survive the disruption—they’ll shape it.
So much to think about.
Thanks to Matt for sharing & Jason for the thoughtful discussion.
2.) ⛰️ Feeling alive
My life is pretty…safe.
Other than cracked skin from the dry Colorado air, I rarely bleed.
So when I ate sh*t on a trail run last week and scraped my knee, it struck me as…wonderful. That hadn’t happened in years. And weirdly, I loved it.
Not because I enjoy pain. And not because I’m about to take up base jumping.
But because it reminded me that surprises are waiting beyond comfort. Beyond routine. Beyond the well-lit, temperature-controlled safety of adulthood.
Sometimes a little blood is proof you’re still out there.
Proof below. 🩸
3.) 😖🧠 More frustration needed
When I mentioned the Nun Study to my friend / training Yoda, George Curtis, he summed it up beautifully:
You need to be doing things that frustrate you on a regular basis.
— George Curtis, Zoetic Coaching
Kids don’t count. (Unfortunately.)
I’m talking about frustration because you’re bad at something. Yet.
Learning an instrument. A language. A new skill. Lifting heavier. Walking or lifting while counting backward by 7s. Writing better. Building software with AI?
That friction — that moment where your brain wants to quit — is where new neural pathways are built.
That’s the cognitive reserve that kept nuns sharp into their 90s, even when their brains showed signs of Alzheimer’s.
Stay frustrated.
4.) 🧘♂️ How to create more time
Like most people on the planet, I struggle to meditate consistently.
But here’s the strange part—when I do, I suddenly have more time. Poof.
I’m less rushed. More relaxed. My days stretch instead of blur. I get frustrated less. I do more of the things I actually want to do.
Nothing in my schedule changes.
Just my nervous system.
Remind me again why I fight this so hard?
Two last things for you this week:
Meditate. Or whatever your version of it is. Magically create some time.
Be fire and wish for the wind 🔥
With love,
Chris
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