The Letraset story hits different when you think about $AI tokens right now.
Before the late 80s, every ad, comic, magazine used Letraset—thin contact paper you'd cut with an exacto knife for letters and gradients. No computers. Just hands and skill.
My dad was a Letraset master. Fast as hell. Then he got an Apple 2C in 1984. Game over. He never touched Letraset again. Why? You can't compete with typing and clicking a dropdown. Old timers called it cheating. Said it'd kill jobs.
They were right. Letraset died. The company's gone. Most artists today don't even know it existed.
Now every artist uses computers. Mike Zeck, the guy who drew that iconic Secret Wars cover? He's 77 and still uses digital tools for coloring.
So what's this got to do with AI?
Computers were transformative and scary. Killed jobs. Created new ones. AI is 100x more transformative. 100x scarier. Will kill way more jobs.
But it's here. You can't unring the bell. Artists who adapt early will eat. Those who don't will fade like Letraset.
Same goes for video, music, accounting, law, finance—every field is getting flipped. The ones who embrace AI now will be miles ahead.
Scary? Sure. But that's how it's always been. Printing press. Typesetting. Computers. Now AI. We build. We adapt. We move.
Onward.
Before the late 80s, every ad, comic, magazine used Letraset—thin contact paper you'd cut with an exacto knife for letters and gradients. No computers. Just hands and skill.
My dad was a Letraset master. Fast as hell. Then he got an Apple 2C in 1984. Game over. He never touched Letraset again. Why? You can't compete with typing and clicking a dropdown. Old timers called it cheating. Said it'd kill jobs.
They were right. Letraset died. The company's gone. Most artists today don't even know it existed.
Now every artist uses computers. Mike Zeck, the guy who drew that iconic Secret Wars cover? He's 77 and still uses digital tools for coloring.
So what's this got to do with AI?
Computers were transformative and scary. Killed jobs. Created new ones. AI is 100x more transformative. 100x scarier. Will kill way more jobs.
But it's here. You can't unring the bell. Artists who adapt early will eat. Those who don't will fade like Letraset.
Same goes for video, music, accounting, law, finance—every field is getting flipped. The ones who embrace AI now will be miles ahead.
Scary? Sure. But that's how it's always been. Printing press. Typesetting. Computers. Now AI. We build. We adapt. We move.
Onward.