close encounter with some secret fourth kind

I think that part of the reason why many adult professionals are so obsessed with using Gen AI for work even though they've done just fine without it all this time is the same bug that gives certain kinds of professionals the idea that some jobs aren't "real."

I just saw a post explaining a scenario that's becoming increasingly common where an older man in middle management asked an employee what AI tool she used to format something to send a client, and she explained (to his confusion) that formatting and and creating forms for clients to interface with is part of her job and what she's been doing for over two decades.

I think that it's easy for a certain kind of person (especially someone in middle management who is doing more overseeing and signing off on finished work rather than making something from the ground up) to forget that if something exists it was made by a human and that they've gotten on just fine with that having been the case. It's similar to how people will say that the arts or humanities aren't "stable" or "real" career paths when every single piece of art or philosophy they consume in every day life was made by a person who did just that.

If you ever think that doing something with Gen AI will be easier/take less time/work better than something made by a person, erase the last 5 or so years for a moment and just really think about it. Is asking an AI to write, format, and tweak your entire resume really that much better than using a human made template? Or asking a friend for help?