Is This the Best or Worst Time to Be Alive?

The answer depends less on the world and more on how much agency you’re willing to take.

This question has been on my mind, specifically in the context of a career in white collar work, where I have spent my time.

On one hand, access to information and people has never been greater. Nearly everything you could want to learn sits in your pocket. You can acquire new skills, build businesses, and connect with people across the world. The internet has collapsed the cost of education, starting companies, and building relationships. The level of leverage available to an individual today would have been unfathomable even at the turn of the millennium.

At the same time, most people feel deeply unfulfilled by their work. They spend most of their waking hours sitting behind a desk, chipping away at tasks that don’t give them a real sense of purpose and feel disconnected from their interests. That dissatisfaction is now paired with a growing anxiety about job security as artificial intelligence reshapes the workforce.

It sounds like I’m talking out both sides of my mouth. Both of these realities exist at once and everyone faces a choice between two entirely different paths. It all depends on agency.

Agency is the capacity to steer your own life. It shows up in your daily decisions and in the actions you take. It is the belief that your decisions matter and that your trajectory is not fixed. A person with agency bends the world to their vision rather than waiting for circumstances to change.

Agency has always mattered. But now more so than ever before. The gap between high- and low-agency individuals is widening quickly.

This is because we are living through a significant technological shift. Artificial intelligence has already materially impacted how businesses operate and how individuals perform their work.

Case in point, in October 2025, layoffs at large U.S. corporations reached the highest monthly level in over twenty years. Layoffs were driven by tech, retail, and services industries, with reasons cited including restructuring, AI adoption, and economic pressures, affecting major companies.

Source

This trend is accelerating. Entrepreneurs and investors on the AI frontier openly discuss the possibility of billion-dollar companies run by a single person. The implication for us all is simple. Operate under the assumption that AI is coming for your job; it will either replace it or radically alter it. You have no choice but to use these technologies to accelerate your own skill sets and learning if you want to stay relevant.

For those who have taken the conventional career path of pursuing a stable job, usually at a large employer, in a field that historically pays the bills, you are most at risk. Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter (now X) is a good example of this. There was so much gloat in the workforce, yet he laid off 85% of employees and the business continues to run smoothly. And the October data supports that this is accelerating.

Pair these pressures with the quiet crisis of meaning. I see this in my own life. Most of my friends and connections online are far from thrilled about their work. Many are not even remotely interested. Following the familiar script of college, entry level role, and promotion cycle (by the way if you aren’t growing your earnings at least 10-15% you are falling behind due to inflation). They are waking up each day inside a job that is offering them neither fulfillment nor leverage and ownership.

They do it because it is safe, it is stable, it gives them a sense of security. So what happens when that sense of security is threatened and then lost?

This path is already under acute pressure. AI scaling, over-bloated companies, and an affordability crisis where home prices, insurance, cars, and food are all rising faster than wages. You see this evidenced in the broken housing market, which I wrote in greater detail here.

For low agency individuals, the future feels uncertain and heavy. Yet for high agency individuals, the same environment presents opportunity.

The internet has flattened access to knowledge and connections. The great internet meme “you can just do things” is the perfect mantra for this cohort. You don’t need to ask anyone’s permission or get credentials from an institution to take agency over your life and use the internet to cultivate connections and expand your opportunity set.

And your ability to “just do things” is only increasing. The barriers are lowering. For example, 2025 felt like the year of vibe coding, where nontechnical individuals who don’t know how to code can still build functioning websites and applications. Businesses can simply do more with less. That’s true from the largest organizations all the way down to startups that no longer need a massive upfront investment just to develop technology.

Another opportunity is using the internet’s ability to connect with people to your advantage. That might be finding like-minded people who share an interest, finding a cofounder for a project you’re working on, or finding a job.

My past two jobs, including my current employer, came from proactively reaching out. I didn’t wait for a job posting or hope someone reviewed my application. I reached out directly to executives, had the conversation, and got my foot in the door.

So while the future is uncertain, it does not have to be bleak. The disruption the workforce is going through presents real opportunity for people who are willing to take it.

If you’re still deciding whether this is the best or worst time to be alive, the answer depends on whether you’re willing to take responsibility for shaping your path. Sit with your habits. Look at how you spend your time and the people you surround yourself with. Ask yourself whether you’re actually taking ownership of your life.

This doesn’t mean life is easy. It never is, at any place or time in history, for most people. It does mean there are more opportunities than you might realize. So if you ask me, this is the best time to be alive. My father tells me that every generation faces its own challenges, and I’m up for it.

If you found this valuable, feel free to share it with someone who might benefit. I send one of these each week.

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Signal: If your light environment is misaligned, you are doing yourself a major disservice and no amount of clean eating or exercise fully compensates.