A few predictions. Feel free to check back.

I think the next four years change how we use technology, earn money, and entertain ourselves. The consequences for our kids stretch much further.

Here’s where I’m placing my bets.

1. The phone starts becoming a BlackBerry.

Within two years, I think the phone starts losing its place as our default interface. People will hold on, like they held on to BlackBerrys after the iPhone arrived.

My bet is a voice-first device, probably without a screen. OpenAI is my leading candidate: its hardware collaboration with Jony Ive is public. The device’s form and my timeline are predictions.

Screens remain useful for watching, reading, and inspecting things. But over years two through four, I expect talking to replace much of the app-opening and menu-tapping we currently accept as normal.

For the next generation, navigating software by hand could feel like an unnecessary chore.

2. Your favorite show might have an audience of one.

Before that device shift takes hold, I think AI influencers flood our feeds.

Social media increasingly serves content from strangers based on our interests. Gary Vee calls it “interest media.” If you’re there for entertainment, how much does it matter whether the person is real?

For trust or expertise, it matters. For a funny clip, I think people care less. I expect this to accelerate over the next six months, with AI personalities dominating large parts of the feed within two years.

Eventually, choosing from a feed gives way to describing what you want.

Fal already reports generating five seconds of video in under three seconds using H3 Max, its optimized version of MiniMax H3. It also documents an experimental Director mode for continuous, prompt-controlled video. Speed is arriving; coherent, compelling feature-length stories remain a separate challenge.

My prediction: entertainment made for one person, for one moment, becomes normal.

A movie for tonight’s mood. Music for this particular evening. Art on your wall that changes when you ask. Maybe you share it. Maybe nobody else ever sees it.

We already watch reels, send them to friends, and forget them. I think that behavior spreads across entertainment. Rewatching becomes less central when something new is always available.

Everyone becomes a director. Microculture gets an audience of one.

3. Thinking becomes the job.

For me, Astra feels like the iPhone moment for working by voice. The Jarvis comparison finally feels tangible.

My prediction is that voice becomes the default interface for computer-based work, and directing agents becomes its most important general skill within three to four years.

We’ve seen interfaces reshape employment before. By the early 1880s, typing schools were emerging, especially training women for clerical work. My mom was a clerk at a law office; that’s the world this brings to mind.

Later came email, spreadsheets, and word processing. I think the next résumé skill is knowing how to explain a problem to an agent and judge the result.

Typing a prompt becomes a conversation. Operating individual tools becomes less important than understanding what should happen.

That’s where creativity comes in.

I see creativity as problem-solving. A songwriter rearranges familiar chords into something worth hearing. Building a business or fixing a workflow involves the same work of fitting pieces together under constraints.

Systems thinking wins: identifying the right problem, seeing how its parts connect, and articulating a solution. Technical knowledge still helps you catch mistakes. Manually executing every step stops being the price of entry.

4. Abundance still has a cover charge.

Elon Musk talks about AI and robotics creating sustainable abundance. Directionally, I agree. I’m less convinced money stops mattering anytime soon.

Cheaper software and digital content could put downward pressure on prices. But ordering groceries through an app doesn’t turn groceries into software. Food, housing, energy, and delivery still have physical costs. Lower production costs also don’t guarantee lower consumer prices.

I expect an uneven outcome: better access to everyday digital services, while scarce experiences and desirable places become harder to afford relative to income.

If knowledge-work earnings get squeezed too, owning assets could matter more. The floor rises while the distance to the top grows.

That’s why I think preparing financially for our kids matters.

For an index-fund illustration, assume a 7% effective annual return. Investing $50, $100, or $200 monthly for 20 years produces about $25,377, $50,754, or $101,507. Contributions alone would be $12,000, $24,000, or $48,000.

That assumes no starting balance, end-of-month deposits, reinvested returns, and no taxes or fees. It’s hypothetical, not an S&P 500 forecast. Inflation reduces purchasing power, and index funds can lose value.

Agents can help explain investments, compare costs, and track a plan. Their output still needs checking; using AI doesn’t guarantee better returns.

If your household has room to prepare and keeps postponing it, I think you’re doing your kids a disservice. Building assets over time could help them study, start something, or pursue an opportunity.

5. The opportunity is fucking enormous.

I am wildly optimistic about this future.

Some jobs disappear. But counting today’s jobs misses the businesses that become possible tomorrow.

The iPhone and App Store helped enable Instagram, Uber, and Instacart. Existing needs met new capabilities, and entire industries changed.

Agents create another foundation to build on. Problems too expensive to solve, customers too few to serve profitably, and ideas too complicated for a small team all become worth another look.

My bet is that digital businesses can reach enormous scale with far fewer employees. Teams larger than 250 to 500 become increasingly unusual in that category. Physical operations have different constraints.

I expect a Cambrian explosion of entrepreneurship: new businesses built around capabilities we’re only beginning to understand. The internet boom, on steroids.

That’s what I want parents to instill in their kids: curiosity, judgment, and the confidence to build. Success may look very different from climbing the same corporate ladder we did.

Our kids could take an idea further, faster, and with fewer barriers than any generation before them.

I think the opportunities to create something valuable will be extraordinary. I’m excited as hell to see what they do with them.

By the way, this entire article came out of a conversation with Astra. I talked through the ideas while it researched, drafted, edited, and formatted them in Substack. About an hour from talking it through to a finished draft. That’s the kind of possibility I’m talking about.