Run & Grind

AI Survival Essays · Episode 5 It's Not AI Taking My Job — It's the Coworker Armed with AI The redefinition of disappearing "job titles" and the skills that actually survive Let me start with a confession. I used AI to draft the very essay you're reading right now. Something that used to take two hours now takes twenty minutes. It's convenient. It's fast. But the moment I feel that convenience, another thought creeps in alongside it. If someone who uses AI better than me is doing exactly what I do right now — am I still necessary? The reason this question frightens me isn't that I don't know the answer. It's that I already have a faint idea of what it is. I We're Not Actually Fighting AI People keep making AI into the enemy. "Will AI take my job?" "Will AI eliminate my position?" But think about it real...

Survival Essays in the Age of AI · Essay 4 AI Promises a World Without Money. So Why Do the Layoffs Keep Coming? I found the reason optimism unsettles me — buried inside a sentence by Yuval Noah Harari. Yuval Noah Harari — Homo Deus As AI and biotechnology advance, humanity may split into a small caste of superhumans and a vast underclass of useless Homo sapiens. As the masses lose economic value and political power, states may lose the motivation to invest in their health, education, and welfare. Being useless is very dangerous. The future of the masses will then depend on the goodwill of a small elite. Yuval Noah Harari · Homo Deus After reading that sentence, I sat still for a long time. And then, finally, I understood. Why I always felt a quiet dread whenever the optimists spoke. I They Aren't Wrong. That's Exactly What Scares Me. The people leading AI tell us: "Humans we...

I must start with a confession. I am writing that I fear the AI era, yet I am using AI to refine this very text. I ask Jisu (ChatGPT) for structure, add alternative perspectives through Jemi (Gemini) , and polish my metaphors with Daegil (Claude) . I use Vrew for captions and Canva for thumbnails. I claim to fear the AI era, yet I spend every waking hour with it. It is a contradiction. But this is my current reality. I. The Dinosaurs Didn't Know They Would Vanish The dinosaurs were the masters of the Earth. They were massive, powerful, and overwhelming. The T-Rex could run at 20-30 km/h with vision comparable to modern raptors. The Triceratops possessed a massive shield and horns, and the Velociraptors hunted in packs. The ultimate apex predators of the planet. Could those dinosaurs have ever imagined? That small, seemingly insignificant mammals would one day rule the world? Human...

Survival Notes of an Ordinary Father in the Age of AI Today’s Question Sometimes, what feels more frightening than losing a job is watching my value quietly decline . This is a record of naming that anxiety — and checking just three things . Will AI replace humans? It’s a massive question. And somewhat abstract. What I’m more concerned about is something far more practical — survival. Will my income hold? Will the value of my work remain intact? More than unemployment, what frightens me is the slow erosion of my value. When jobs disappear, it makes headlines. But when salaries shrink, no article is written. They simply go down quietly, as if nothing happened. And that silence slowly eats away at my life. Perhaps what we truly fear is not unemployment itself, but the expiration date of our value. I. The Question We Overlook The world is busy arguing...

A ordinary Father’s Survival Diary in the AI Era The bookstores are in a frenzy. Yuval Harari warns that AI will hack humanity, and Ray Kurzweil predicts we’ll achieve immortality by 2045 through the "Singularity." Superintelligence, eternal life, technology surpassing mankind—it all sounds grand and heroic. But it’s strange. The moment I turn off the TV, instead of feeling heroic, I start thinking about my credit card statement. Humanity’s future is important, but next month's living expenses are urgent. I. The Missing Question Experts ask, "Will AI replace humans?" or "How will humanity evolve after the technological singularity?" But I’m curious about much more mundane and desperate things. "Will my paycheck survive?" "Can I maintain my current standard of living 10 years from now?" They say AI will surpass human intelligence, but my ...

A 5-Second Order, Months of Burden Work & Regret · When one sentence takes away someone’s time The easiest thing to say in a company is an order. The heaviest thing is the time carried by the person who receives it. “When can you submit the annual plan?” That five-second sentence can quietly turn into months of pressure. Today, I want to talk about that. 1. A plan is not an output — it is compressed experience People think a report is simply a document written to show others. But my years in corporate life taught me otherwise. A voluntary plan is the greatest medicine for the person who writes it. When you organize the past, the present becomes clearer. When the present becomes clear, direction for the future emerges. It is the pr...

Have you ever mistaken the “system of a large organization” for your “real personal capability”? While reading “Say No’s Teachings” , I once again faced an uncomfortable truth. Why do executives from large organizations sometimes collapse easily in small companies? Through 20 years of experience in one industry, learning through real trial and error, I want to share what I learned about the meaning of “real hands-on work.” I. After Leaving a Mid-Sized Company and Starting in a New One 1️⃣ The Belief That “I Understand Real Work” I have worked in the inkjet field for 20 years. At my previous company, I joined at the launch of a new business and helped grow it to 9.7 billion KRW in revenue within five years. Attending more than ten overseas exhibitions every year, I could roughly judge competitors’ technology just by watching their print demonst...

For 10 years, I believed “running alone was enough.” Without anyone’s help, Without comparing myself to anyone, I simply ran within the limits I had set for myself. But after just two months in a running club, The wall of limits I had built around myself collapsed. Things I never noticed when I ran alone. Things you only see when you run together. This is a record of that change. 1. Running started when my body began to break down It started as something that barely looked like running. Frequent overseas business trips, Uncontrolled drinking. At some point, I felt like my body was barely holding together. My colds lasted over a month, Even brushing lightly against a box made my skin turn red. At that time, my thought was simple. “Just do something.” That was how running started. I was in my early to mid-30s. The elementary school track near my house. I just pretended to run 10 laps. But back then, “I did what I planned ...

Anxiety after retirement. This is how I survived the collapse that came after 20 years of corporate life—by running. I. When familiar faces disappear In a marathon club, there are faces you see every week. And then one day, they simply stop showing up for a while. With younger runners, you assume it’s just life—work, family, schedules. But when men in their 40s and 50s disappear, it often means they’re going through a major shift—financially, emotionally, or both. I was one of them. My mind didn’t hold up as easily as I expected. There were moments when my mental strength quietly collapsed. But during that time, running held me together. II. Youth had its own kind of romance In my late 20s, there were days I’d listen to “Around Thirty” and sink into emotions. Finding a job was still the biggest concern, but back then, we had a strange kind of space in our hearts— room t...