February 15, 2025

The Three Bricklayers of AI

Over the years, several mental models have been used for predicting the impact of AI on jobs:

• Back in 2016, Andrew Ng’s 1-second rule stated that if a human can do a task in less than a second, it can be done by AI (with the expectation that this timeframe would gradually increase as AI becomes more capable)
• When LLMs first came along in 2022, we started taking a more role and specialisation-based view of AI’s impact, e.g. “marketing is dead”, “AI will never replace radiologists/software engineers/X”, etc.
• Today we talk a lot about seniority, e.g. “you can replace a junior engineer/CSM/marketer/etc with AI, but not a senior”

As AI proves to be more generalist and capable than we thought, I believe a new picture is unfolding, which is best explained through an old medieval (!) parable: The Three Bricklayers.

The Three Bricklayers

It goes as follows:

A traveller comes upon three bricklayers at a construction site of a cathedral. When asked, “What are you doing?”:

• The first worker replies, “I’m a bricklayer. I’m working hard laying bricks to feed my family.”
• The second worker says, “I’m a builder. I’m building a wall.”
• The third worker proclaims, “I’m a cathedral builder. I’m building a great cathedral to The Almighty.”

In the age of AI:

• If you see yourself as a bricklayer, your job belongs to AI
• If you see yourself as a wall builder, your job will soon belong to AI
• If you see yourself as a cathedral builder, meaning you have a clear vision for solving a need in the world, AI is going to be the best thing that could ever happen to you, and it will give you a near infinite number of bricklayers and wall builders to execute your vision

What’s interesting about this is that it’s not tied to any specialisation or seniority level, the same way the three bricklayers are all fundamentally just bricklayers. There are bricklayers in all levels of seniority across all roles and specialisations in the industry today.

It’s therefore crucial for all of us to start developing/refining our sense of purpose, gradually pull ourselves out of bricklaying, and learn how to use the new AI bricklayers effectively.

Let’s build more cathedrals.

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