Signals from the Future
Health | Innovation | Society
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Leverage built the world. AI will redefine it.
But leverage – the ability to get asymmetric returns on your effort – has transformed dramatically over time.
It’s the one concept that built the pyramids, creates billionaires, and has powered all human progress.
Leverage has evolved from muscle & money, to media, and models. Few are ready for it. Don’t let that be you.
The dividing line is now the the leveraged v. unleveraged.
Understand leverage to be a force in the world of tomorrow.
A History of More with Less
The Industrial Era (1800’s-1950’s) defines the imagery of popular conceptions of leverage. Raw effort through manpower, money and machines built the physical infrastructure of the world.
Trump seems fond of this era and seeks to return to it with tariffs and emphasis on manufacturing jobs.
The Information Age (1950’s-1990’s) This is the era of the white collar professional. Through formal education, degrees and bureaucracy people were able to monetize knowledge. This is the era most physicians still find themselves in as well as lawyers, cpa’s and engineers.
The Digital Age (1990’s-2020’s) – is about media and code, including social media, SaaS, and the Internet. These modern forms of leverage are permission-less. A bank has to give you a loan, a university a degree. But you can start your own podcast today and reach potentially millions. Less friction means more opportunity.
Moreover, the marginal cost of replication for software is zero. Once you made some software or a social media post, it spreads globally instantly with no additional charge. This is not true in the physical world. Speed and scale become allies.
The AI Age (2020’s- ) – We speak now of Audience, Algorithms, and AI agents. The shift is from permission-less leverage to autonomous leverage. This is software that does self directed work based on prompts. AI agents and no code tools allow regular people to replicate the work of hundreds of people easily.
The Network State
It’s a law of human nature that people with leverage seek to preserve it. Thus, as more and more people (and non-people) have access to leverage, collaboration actually becomes more essential because laws, guilds, credentials, financial moats and physical threats – traditional self preservation strategies – are less effective competitive advantages.
Autonomous intelligence and widespread de-centralized collaboration are the pillars of the techno-optimists’ so called Network State. Not every one can get a loan (capital, permission based) but the declining cost of tech means almost everyone will be able to afford AI tools.
This will be the great upheaval that may end nation states, reshape industries, and create an entire new social order.
It is perhaps no surprise, then, that this anti-gatekeeping sentiment dovetails perfectly with the populist political movements sweeping much of the world.
The Future of Leverage
But what comes after AI agents and models? The future of leverage is not just making you faster, but non linear. It is personalized, automated and behavioral. It’s not just doing more — it’s doing more of exactly what matters, automatically.
- Synthetic personas – The natural extension of doing more work for less effort is to do no work at all. Artificial avatars will do our work for us across time zones, media formats, and even languages. It’s not just rock stars and athletes that need representation.
- Digital nations – The collapse of institutions can prompt the collapse of the nation-state, the central unit of analysis of all political science. People self form across ideologies and techno-orientation than around flags, ethnicities and geography. Individuals who can win this game of attention and collaboration become the new sovereigns.
- Bio-leverage – Longevity tech will create a bio-divide where health and wealth compound for the elite who seek not only lifespan and wellness, but vitality and superhuman capacities. Bryan Johnson is probably a techno narcissist , but he does represent an avatar of where society is headed. Health and its proxies – beauty, fitness, and youth – become the ultimate form of leverage as time itself is extended.
- Meaning as leverage – What happens when software and machines do all the work and you can live longer and healthier than possible? In an optimistic scenario, we return to our roots to crave uniquely human entities – purpose, beauty, ethics and soul.
Personal Leverage Strategy Map
Not sure where you stand vis a vis leverage? Want to protect your job?
Take this quick audit (scale 1- 10).
- Time – Are you trading time for money? Can you delegate?
- Code/Tools – Are you using no code tools to 10x your efforts?
- Media – Do you have a platform where your ideas compound?
- Audience – Do you own any distribution channel (eg email list)?
- Brand – Do you have a compelling story that resonates with people?
- Product – Do you have a digital product (course, book, app) that earns while you sleep?
- Capital – Are you investing capital to grow assets or a business?
- Network – Are you plugged into high leverage networks (mastermind)?
- Reputation – Are you a recognized though leader or expert?
Two truths follow from this list:
- The knowledge worker wins when their thinking scales – not their time or effort.
- Your net worth is not just a financial number but a composite score reflecting all these forms of leverage
And yes, you would be right that this is what I am pursuing with the Tomorrow List
A Final Word
In times of upheaval like now, I think of the story of John Henry, the fabled African-American strongman who bested a steel driving machine in a contest to drill into the side of a mountain.
It is a powerful story of man versus machine, and the defiance and resilience of African Americans reeling from the effects of slavery.
It’s also a parable of the eternal battle between innovation and tradition – one that all families, companies, and societies have to address.
But people forget he dies at the end. He collapses from exhaustion. His victory is symbolic yes, but also pyrrhic.
It’s a cautionary tale that hard work (muscle) alone will not protect us. That’s a lesson physicians, in particular, need to hear.
We will need the tools of leverage to move the world to where it should be. To create the lives we all deserve mandates we think creatively.
We need to know when to fight, move laterally, and when to collaborate with our technological counterparts.
Innovation cannot be stopped but it can be cultivated, cultured and commandeered.
If you feel like you’re behind, don’t worry. I’ll help you figure it out.
You’re just one playbook away from exponential impact.
Tomorrow Can’t Wait,
