Have you felt like you need to be chronically online or practically unemployed just to keep up with AI? People I genuinely respect in tech are saying the same thing out loud — and honestly, it’s one of the most relieved I’ve felt in months.
Okay, let me just say what a lot of us are feeling but maybe haven't said directly: keeping up with AI right now is genuinely exhausting. And not in a dramatic, hyperbolic way — in a real, practical, this-is-consuming-my-entire-life kind of way. Every week there's something new. Every day someone on Twitter is telling you you're behind. And if you slow down for even a second to actually evaluate what you're looking at, you open the app and three more things have already dropped. It feels less like learning and more like trying not to fall behind something that never slows down.
I've seen people joke that you basically have to be unemployed to keep up with AI right now. And as much as that's funny, it also kind of isn't, because it's true. Or at least, it feels true if you're trying to do this responsibly.
🔒 When You Work in Security, You Can't Just Try Everything
Here's where my situation gets specific. My background is IT and information security, and that changes everything about how I approach new tools. I can't just see something trending and install it. I have to understand who built it, who maintains it, what permissions it's asking for, what data it's touching, and what the known vulnerabilities are. That's not paranoia — that's just the job, and honestly, it's what keeps things from going very wrong.
OpenClaw is a great example. When it first dropped, a lot of people were excited and jumped straight in. I was the person saying, hey, I'm not telling you it's bad, I'm telling you to slow down and actually read about what you're giving access to before you install it. And sure enough, there were issues early on. Someone I know said it deleted her entire calendar when she was testing it. These aren't hypothetical risks, and they do not always show up immediately.
The thing is, if you work in security and you get compromised because you rushed to try the hot new tool without doing your homework, that's not just a personal inconvenience. That's your reputation. Your credibility. The whole foundation of what people trust you for. You can't advise others on security posture while making careless decisions with your own setup, even if the pressure to keep up is real.
🙏 Why NetworkChuck Saying He's Overwhelmed Actually Helped Me
I've been following NetworkChuck for a while, and recently he was openly talking about how overwhelming everything has become — how he found himself spending an unreasonable amount of hours trying to keep up with everything, to the point where it was affecting time with his family. He said he had to take a vacation and step back just to figure out how to approach all of this sustainably. That part matters, because this is not just about tools, it is about how you structure your time and attention.
That hit me. Because NetworkChuck's whole thing is networking and cybersecurity. He's deeply technical, he has the time and resources to go deep on this topics, and even he is saying it's a lot. That's not weakness. That's honesty. And hearing someone at that level say out loud that he hasn't been able to fully deep dive into certain tools yet because they deserve real evaluation — not just a quick install and a YouTube video — made me exhale.
Aaron Francis has said similar things. These are people I admire in tech, and they're being real about the pace, not just the possibilities.
🐢 Slow and Careful Is Actually the Right Approach
I think there's a narrative online that being slow to adopt something means you're behind. But I'd argue the opposite, at least in certain contexts. Being deliberate isn't a weakness. Taking the time to actually understand a tool before you hand it your data, your calendar, your codebase, or your workflows — that's not falling behind. That's how you avoid a mess that takes weeks to clean up, or worse, something you cannot undo.
You're not behind. You're being thoughtful. And in a space moving this fast, thoughtful is underrated.
