Steve Martin once said, “Be so good they can’t ignore you.” Cal Newport subsequently borrowed this phrase – minus the “be” – for the title of his terrific 2012 book.

It’s wise advice, and especially apt now. AI is increasingly good at a lot of things. It is not, however, astoundingly fantastic at a lot of things. It can’t be, given that anyone running the same prompt will come up with substantially the same output you get. And even the best LLM can never come up with something wholly, brilliantly new; that’s just not how they work.

The best job security I know in these increasingly uncertain times is to be great – legitimately, uniquely great – at what you do. If you are able to pull that off, and if what you do provides genuine value, you will always be able to stay afloat in even the most turbulent of technological seas.

I’m not saying this is easy, not by a longshot. It’s hard to take a clear-eyed, honest look at the value you bring, where you fall short, and what it will take to get better (similar to stepping on the scale after a weeklong food-and-drink bender on the Feast of the Seas cruise ship). It’s even harder to actually do the work to get there – especially if you’re cowering in fear and wondering when Hal is coming for your job.

It’s difficult, sobering work, but it’s worthwhile work. Your unique genius can never be stolen by a machine, not even a really sophisticated one. So it’s worth the time to hone your gifts to a level that is un-ignorable and irreplaceable.

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