When will non-AI goods become premium?

Hey Everyone - All the news I’ve been inundated with has been Open Claw related. Honestly, I’m still holding out a bit till I get a handle on the costs and the true security issues. I think this is the start of something big, but I’ll be waiting a bit more to really start diving in and writing about it.

Honestly, I’m thinking more about the second order effects of the technology. What bigger picture opportunities does it create to hedge?

This week:

Let’s dive in.

For most of the last two years the dominant story around AI has been abundance.

Cheaper content. Faster code. Infinite images. Endless personalization.

But I think a counter trend is already forming.

As synthetic output becomes everywhere, the things that are unmistakably human start to get more valuable.

We are heading toward a world where it becomes genuinely hard to know what was made by a person and what was produced by a machine. Photos can be generated. Videos can be fabricated. Essays can be written instantly. Voices can be cloned. Social profiles can be automated.

When everything is easy to produce, scarcity shifts.

The scarce thing becomes provenance. Physical presence. Knowing who made something and why. Being able to say, with confidence, that a real person was on the other side of the interaction.

That is why I think people are going to start paying premiums for experiences, products, and services that explicitly advertise the absence of AI.

Handwritten notes. In person events. Local workshops. Live music. Physical art. Restaurants that emphasize the chef rather than the automation. Consultants who insist on human judgment. Communities that only operate face to face.

At first that sounds nostalgic. But economically it makes a lot of sense.

When supply explodes, differentiation moves upstream. Not to output volume, but to trust. To craft. To relationship. To accountability.

You can already see early hints of this in small ways. People gravitating toward private groups instead of public feeds. Preferring newsletters written by individuals over content farms. Wanting to know who is behind a product. Choosing in person meetups over another Zoom room.

It is the same dynamic that shows up in food and wine. Mass production did not eliminate farmers markets. It made them more attractive.

AI will likely do the same thing to information work.

This does not mean automation disappears. Most people will happily use AI for logistics, drafting, research, and coordination. But for decisions that matter, money, relationships, taste, trust, people will increasingly look for a human signature.

That creates an interesting second order effect.

Skills that anchor you in the physical world get more valuable. Being able to host people. Teach something live. Build something tangible. Facilitate a room. Run a local business. Develop a reputation that travels through word of mouth instead of algorithms.

The mistake would be to think this is about rejecting technology.

It is about where humans stay in the loop.

The Signal to watch is simple.

Pay attention to when “human made” stops sounding quaint and starts sounding like a selling point.

When restaurants advertise the chef’s presence. When consultants emphasize that no automation touched the final recommendation. When events ban phones or recording. When communities require showing up in person.

I believe these are market signals.

They tell you where scarcity is moving in an AI saturated world.

And if that shift is real, the safest long term bets will not just be in building better machines.

They will be in becoming unmistakably human in the places that matter most.

Very few people change the world by themselves. I think the saying is “it takes a village”… or something like that.

One of the highest leverage activities I’ve observed is finding really good people to work with. They get things done, they keep you accountable, and they even out your weaknesses.

I’m quite lucky that many of these people have fallen into my life. I have my wife, Warren who I work on the local newsletter with, and my team for Newsletter Hero. Working with others allows me to divide my attention while still moving all of my pieces forward.

I’ve personally found two ways to really find people like this.

(1) Put yourself out there. Talk to people about what you’re working on. Do interviews, calls, and informal chats. Make friends and accountability partners. Very few of the relationships I have started as business ones.

(2) Have a unique skill set. For me, I’m pretty good at talking into a camera. I’m also pretty good at getting people to buy into an idea with me. Honestly, this could be anything. If people think you have a useful skill to grow a business, they will want to work with you.

I’m pretty capped out on the projects I’m working on right now, but I plan to add more as the things I have in the oven become more self sustaining.

This newsletter isn’t about comparing all the new tools that came out. On the other hand, it is what I’ve been primarily learning about this week…

Things I Learned

This week’s survival skill is one that does not get enough attention, especially in technical circles.

Learning how to manage people.

As AI makes individual output cheaper and faster, the scarce thing becomes coordination. Getting a group of humans to move in the same direction. Keeping people motivated. Resolving conflict. Creating clarity. Building trust over time.

You can be brilliant at your craft and still stall out if you cannot lead even a small team.

I have become increasingly convinced that this is one of the highest leverage skills you can build. Not because it looks flashy, but because almost every meaningful project eventually turns into a people problem. Misaligned incentives. Unclear expectations. Poor communication. Slow decisions. Quiet resentment.

Managing well is about setting direction, creating psychological safety, giving feedback early, and making decisions when information is incomplete. It is about knowing when to push and when to get out of the way.

This skill also shows up long before you have a big company.

It shows up when you run a side project with a friend. When you organize a meetup. When you collaborate with contractors. When you bring on your first hire. When you try to get volunteers to help with something local.

Most people stumble through these moments without training.

The good news is that this is learnable.

You can start small. Run weekly one on ones. Write down what success looks like for someone before they start. Practice giving clear feedback instead of hinting. Ask people what is blocking them and actually remove those obstacles. Reflect on what drained energy in a group setting and what created momentum.

I also think this is one of those skills that becomes more valuable as technology accelerates.

AI can help draft plans, summarize meetings, and propose org charts. It cannot sit across from someone who is frustrated and help them feel heard. It cannot build long-term loyalty. It cannot navigate the subtle dynamics of trust, ambition, fear, and pride.

If people start paying premiums for human-run organizations and human judgment, then the ability to manage people well becomes a serious competitive advantage.

Bubble or not.

Models get better or stall.

The world will still run on teams.

Learning how to manage people is one of the safest long-term bets you can make.