Work computers keep AI on a leash. Put Claude Code, Codex, or Cursor on a personal machine and start automating the work that will not stay human.
Most people are using AI extremely ineffectively. They open ChatGPT once a week and ask a random question, get an answer, then leave.
It is my (unresearched) belief that the reason behind this is: most attempts at making AI productive are being done from an individual’s work-computer where the AI is severely restricted in use so as to protect company data.
Consequently, many people are only interacting with AI to summarize and draft content in Outlook, Word, and Excel. Oftentimes, the AI being utilized isn’t great because of the aforementioned restrictions.
Since it can’t really do what you want it to do, it becomes easy to assume that its capabilities remain extremely limited, and there is no real cause for concern or need to improve with it.
It is my (much more informed) opinion that this is a terrible mistake. Corporate AI policies exist to protect company assets, not promote employee learning. It is extremely wise for a company to not allow its employes full access to a tool capable of wiping out their cloud with a single poorly vibe-coded app.
But it is incredibly unwise to let your company’s security policies dictate your personal AI development.
If the majority of your work is done on a computer, there is a very good chance that much of that work will be automated in the next few years. If your company is big enough, they are probably spending money on figuring out how to do this right now. Even if they are not, there are hundreds of well-funded start-ups that employ very intelligent people who are working on automating many of the duties you consider essential to your role.
This is a new and unsettling fact of life. Many (including the author) have spent their entire careers operating under the assumption that expertise and institutional knowledge provide a high degree of professional security. The idea that software may soon perform meaningful portions of that work can feel threatening, dismissive, or even absurd.
This is a new and unsettling fact of life. Many (including the author) have spent their entire careers operating under the assumption that expertise and institutional knowledge provide a high degree of professional security.
Those reactions are understandable but misguided. Turning 40 is also a new and unsettling fact of life but try as you might, you cannot turn back the clock. You have to lean in and evolve.
That’s why the first step in adapting for the future of your career involves putting Claude Code, Codex, or Cursor on your personal computer. If you don’t have a laptop or PC, buy one. You need to experience what this technology can actually do and what you can actually create.
These apps are different from the ChatGPT or Claude that you talk to in your internet browser or phone. These bad boys can work inside of your computer, which means you can build applications with them.
These applications can be whatever you want. You could make a personal schedule tracker, meal planner, vacation organizer, budget plan. A website for your side business, a professional grade data analytics tool for your fantasy football league, a dashboard for keeping up with family birthdays and vacations.
These can be command prompted into existence in minutes. They are simple and not overly useful, but they serve one extremely important purpose: they show you the light. For the first time, you begin to understand that AI is not merely answering questions, it is helping ordinary people build things that previously required specialized technical skills.
Then you can turn your attention to your job. What parts of your current role are automatable. Find them. Tell Claude or Chat “I am trying to automate a component of my job just to see if it can be done” and then build a mock environment from which to do it. Then find another and do it again.
After a few, you will start to see the scope of how your current position will likely change in the coming years. Lean into it. Explore what that will free you up to do. Think about what you enjoy about your job and wish you had more time to do. Begin building something to do more of that.
Bring your ideas to your boss. She probably shares the same concerns about the future as you do. Tell her you can automate x to do more of y, and that you think you might just be able to automate more of y to finally tackle z. Convince her this is the future and that you are at the forefront of thinking about it. Because now you are.
