A guy I was talking to the other night told me his 16-year-old son asked for a record player for Christmas. Not a PlayStation. Not an Apple gift card. A record player.
So they got him one, along with a record. And when this kid opened that album for the first time — pulled out the sleeve, saw the artwork, the band photos, the lyrics printed on the inside — he was blown away. He'd never experienced music like that. He didn't even know that stuff existed.
And it hit me, because I grew up in that world.
I'm a child of the late 80s and 90s. I remember waiting for a song to come on the radio and recording for two or three hours just to catch it. I remember putting a VHS tape in and recording MTV for eight hours straight, hoping the video I wanted would play. Then fast-forwarding through everything, finding it, rewinding it, watching it again. Rewinding it. Watching it again. I literally watched the tape go backwards every single time because there was no other way.
And when CDs came along — that moment of opening the case for the first time. That CD smell. Cracking open the booklet. Reading the lyrics. Looking at the photos. Feeling like you were somehow closer to the people who made the music you loved. That was an experience. You saved up for it. You went out and bought it. You earned that moment.
Kids today don't get that. Everything is instant. Apple Music, Spotify — any song, any time, no waiting. And I'm not saying that's bad. But something got lost in the convenience.
And I think that's exactly what's happening with AI right now.
Everyone's panicking. Everyone thinks the world is going fully automated and nobody's going to need anybody anymore. Business owners are terrified they're going to be replaced. People are pulling back, isolating, overcorrecting — obsessing over what AI might take from them instead of seeing what's still true.
People still want to connect.
That hasn't changed. It's not going to change. No matter how good the technology gets, people still want relationships. They still want to feel the value of another human being. Nobody wants to live in a world where they only interact with machines. Eventually, you want to get out. You want to breathe. You want to see another person and feel something real.
What's happening right now is a season. AI is new, it's exciting, and people are swinging hard in one direction. But right there in the middle — between the fear and the hype — is the thing that's always been there. Connection. The desire to be known. The need to matter to someone.
Your business might take a hit during the adjustment. I get that. But the thing people actually want from you isn't going away. They may not care about what you do. But they care about what you do for them. And they care about who you are as a human being.
Don't lose touch with that in all the noise.
Everything has a season. This one's no different.
