In this issue:

Everyone’s worried about AI taking their job. That’s the wrong question. The real game is: what makes you impossible to replace? In this edition, I share six shifts that separate the humans who thrive from the ones who get automated. Take notice. Take notes. Or get left behind.

Real quick…

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The HR Blotter: Case Files From the HR Underworld

Who needs a hug? - Job hugging is survival disguised as loyalty. Workers aren’t clutching their desks out of passion, they’re gripping the edge because the floor feels like it’s about to collapse. Ambition takes a backseat when rent is due, healthcare is fragile, and pink slips feel like they could drop any Friday afternoon. For leaders, that’s the real signal—people aren’t chasing promotions, they’re chasing safety. And if the only thing keeping them is fear of the outside world, don’t mistake that for commitment.

Silicon Valley’s New App: Office Sit-Ins - Tech’s clean glass towers are cracking under pressure. At Microsoft and Google, workers aren’t just debugging code, they’re calling out their bosses over war contracts. Sit-ins, arrests, message deletions—what used to be activism on the street is now happening in the breakroom. The lesson? Employees will risk their jobs when the work feels like blood money. And companies that confuse silence with loyalty are learning the hard way that revolt doesn’t clock out.

9-to-5 Called—It Wants Its Chains Back - The old 9-to-5 grind is losing its grip. Gen Z is tearing up the timecard, chasing flexibility, and measuring productivity by output instead of office hours. For employers, the message is blunt: if you’re still equating seat time with value, you’re bleeding talent. The future workforce wants freedom with accountability, and companies that can’t adapt will watch their best people walk.

Resumes Ready, Hope on Hold - The jobs report just ripped the Band-Aid off—73,000 jobs added, old gains revised into dust, and healthcare the only sector keeping the lights on. Black youth jobless at 21%, young male grads sinking with tech, and student loans dragging wallets under. Call it what it is: the economy’s flirting with stagflation, workers are bracing for layoffs, and leaders are still whistling past the graveyard.

Upskill or Get Replaced—Most Pick Neither - AI was supposed to boost productivity, not paranoia. Half the workforce fears replacement, few are upskilling, and the folks using AI the most are winging it without training. Leaders brag about “AI success” while employees brace for layoffs—proof the real gap isn’t skills, it’s trust.

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The Jim Stroud Podcast

Not subscribed to The Jim Stroud Podcast? Then you’ve been flying blind. Here’s a taste of what they’ve been hearing—while you’ve been missing it.

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The Future of High-Value Work in an AI World

We're living through the most dramatic shift in work since the Industrial Revolution. AI can now write code, create designs, analyze data, and even compose music. But here's what the doomsayers miss: this isn't the end of human value at work—it's the beginning of a new chapter where certain distinctly human capabilities become more precious than ever.

After studying the intersection of AI and human work, six key principles emerge for thriving in this new landscape. These aren't just survival tactics—they're your roadmap to becoming truly indispensable.

1. Your Notes Are Your Moat

While AI has consumed vast swaths of human knowledge, there's one treasure trove it can't access: your private thinking. The observations you jot down during meetings, the connections you make between seemingly unrelated ideas, the questions that occur to you at 2 AM—these form an irrepliceable knowledge base.

Your personal notes capture context, nuance, and insight that no algorithm can replicate. They reflect your unique perspective on problems, relationships, and opportunities. In a world where AI can instantly access Wikipedia but can't peek into your notebook, your documented thinking becomes your competitive advantage.

Action step: Start treating your note-taking system like intellectual property. Develop a practice of capturing not just facts, but your reactions, questions, and connections.

2. Boring Is Brittle

If your work follows predictable patterns, you're vulnerable. Tasks that can be reduced to step-by-step processes—no matter how complex—are exactly what AI excels at automating. The work that survives is inherently unpredictable, requiring human judgment calls and creative problem-solving.

This doesn't mean your work needs to be chaotic, but it should resist standardization. The most secure roles involve navigating ambiguity, managing exceptions, and making decisions with incomplete information.

Action step: Audit your daily tasks. Which ones follow the same pattern every time? Those are your automation risks. Focus on developing skills in the messy, unpredictable work that remains.

3. Tacit Knowledge Beats Explicit Knowledge

The revival of apprenticeships isn't nostalgia—it's necessity. While AI can access all written knowledge, it struggles with tacit knowledge: the subtle understanding that comes from experience, the intuition developed through practice, the wisdom passed through observation and mentorship.

This is why master craftspeople, experienced surgeons, and seasoned negotiators remain irreplaceable. Their expertise isn't just what they know—it's how they know it, developed through years of pattern recognition that can't be easily codified.

Action step: Seek opportunities to learn through doing, not just reading. Find mentors whose expertise goes beyond what they can explain. Become the kind of expert whose knowledge can't be Googled.

4. Your Network Is Your Net Worth

Trust remains stubbornly human. While AI can provide information and even recommendations, it can't build the relationships that drive high-stakes decisions. People still prefer to work with people they know, trust, and understand.

Your professional network represents accumulated social capital that no algorithm can replicate or replace. These relationships are built on shared experiences, mutual understanding, and proven reliability—qualities that remain exclusively human.

Action step: Invest in relationships before you need them. Focus on genuine connection over transactional networking. Your ability to pick up the phone and reach someone who trusts your judgment becomes increasingly valuable.

5. Slow Thinking Beats Fast Execution

In a world obsessed with speed and efficiency, depth becomes the ultimate differentiator. While AI can process information faster than any human, it can't match the profound thinking that comes from sustained contemplation and reflection.

The ability to sit with complex problems, to think through second and third-order effects, to consider implications that aren't immediately obvious—this is where human cognition shines. Deep work isn't just productive; it's protective.

Action step: Cultivate your capacity for sustained thinking. Create space for reflection in your schedule. Resist the urge to have quick answers for every question. Sometimes the most valuable response is "Let me think about that."

6. Your Taste Is Your Edge

AI can generate infinite variations, but it can't tell you which one is best. It lacks the discernment that comes from understanding context, culture, and consequence. Your ability to make judgment calls—about what's appropriate, what's effective, what's beautiful—becomes increasingly valuable.

Taste isn't just aesthetic preference; it's sophisticated pattern recognition applied to complex, subjective decisions. It's knowing when to break the rules, when to push boundaries, and when to hold back. This kind of discernment develops through experience and remains uniquely human.

Action step: Trust and develop your judgment. Take time to understand why you prefer certain solutions over others. Your ability to curate, select, and decide becomes a core skill.

The Path Forward

The future belongs not to those who can compete with AI on speed or raw processing power, but to those who can leverage distinctly human capabilities. By building your private knowledge base, embracing unpredictability, developing tacit expertise, nurturing relationships, thinking deeply, and honing your judgment, you create value that no algorithm can replicate.

The question isn't whether AI will change work—it already has. The question is whether you'll adapt by becoming more human, not less.

What resonates most with your experience? How are you preparing for this new landscape of work? I'd love to hear your thoughts.…

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The Fine Print

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One more thing before I go…

In tomorrow’s episode of The Jim Stroud Podcast, I chat with Amanda Martell, Director of HR for LifeSpeak. We had a riveting conversation about the mental health impact of AI in the workplace. Once the podcast was over, we kept on going. Below is an exclusive clip. Enjoy.

And as always, hit reply and let me know how I’m doing. Or slide into my DMs as the kids say. All good.

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