Vinod Khosla’s advice for young people: Don’t plan your career around any one job.
In an episode of the “People by WTF” podcast released on Saturday, the Khosla Ventures founder said that AI is changing the world quickly, so it is important not to specialize in any one area.
“You have to optimise your career for flexibility, not a single profession,” he said. “That’s the most important advice because you don’t know what will be around.”
The billionaire venture capitalist said that the future, while unpredictable, will be “dramatically different.”
“You go for agility. You follow trends, you move around, you be more adaptable and flexible. You do more first principles thinking.”
First-principles thinking refers to a problem-solving method that involves breaking down complex issues into their most basic parts and finding new solutions.
Khosla added that young people should continue to get an education. But they should be”learning how to learn” instead of only focusing on subjects like finance or welding.
“At age 70, I’m learning at a much faster pace than I’ve ever learned in my whole life,” he said. The 70-year-old VC’s notable investments include OpenAI, DoorDash, Block, and Impossible Foods.
Plus, learning how to use AI well will be essential, he said.
“The people who don’t know how to use AI will be obsoleted by people who know how to use AI first,” he said. “If you’re dynamic and learning, then you can move with whatever’s happening in the world.”
As conversations intensify about reaching artificial general intelligence in the next five to 10 years, business and tech leaders have been offering ideas on how workforces can adapt.
LinkedIn’s CEO, Ryan Roslansky, suggested people focus on skills that make them distinctly human, such as emotional intelligence and critical thinking.
“Whatever is uniquely human about yourself, lean into that,” he said in a June interview with Bloomberg. “Communication, collaboration, all those things, be really good at that. That could be the thing that actually helps you stand out.”
Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas urged young professionals to prioritize AI usage over time spent on social media and to consider entrepreneurship as a career path.
“Spend less time doom scrolling on Instagram. Spend more time using the AIs,” he said in a podcast released last month. “Not because we want your usage, but simply because that’s your way to add value to the new society.”
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