HOW TO WIN IN THE AI AGE You are competing against people who copy what exists and let AI remake it. Most design, writing and product work comes from AI copying existing references in generic mode, which is why the internet feels like an endless conveyor belt of bland. The moment you push past that baseline and force the model to do something uncomfortable, you separate yourself from the entire curve. Giving it original ideas + references outside your niche. The people who win are the ones who insist on originality in a world that keeps asking for “good enough.” The reason this matters is because default effort produces default outcomes, and default outcomes disappear instantly in a feed that never stops moving. I bet these default startups have more and more friction standing out going further as AI makes startup making more like a machine. People can FEEL the difference between something generated and something directed, between something assembled and something authored. AI will happily produce the average case forever, but it will never choose to take the creative risk that changes how something feels. And that's where the alpha is!!! Anyone can generate. Almost no one curates, edits, reworks, reshapes, interrogates, or pushes until the thing becomes unmistakably theirs. The edge is in the taste you bring to the model, the choices you make that the average user will never even see, and the willingness to throw away nine versions to get to the tenth that feels alive. In a world where everyone has access to the same tools, the only real advantage is the person who refuses to behave like a default setting.