From the Farmer Effect

Back in 2016, I coined “The Farmer Effect” after telling a frustrated dev team, “Let’s all quit and go be farmers.” The joke hit a nerve I wasn’t expecting. Even today, on occasion, I’ll get a message to the tune of “farmer effect hitting hard today man!” so that is still alive and well. But now I’m noticing something …different. And it’s AI driven. In tech, we have had a front-row seat to AI. When AI “burst onto the scene”, I would joke how terrible it is, being less than helpful, pointing out an extensive list of things it was missing. From glazing over proper patterns in code, grossly simplifying concepts and approaches, sometimes being outright dangerously wrong… It was easy to laugh at. Now? It’s getting better. A lot better.

So What? A lot. The amount of effort to find pretty damn good, deep knowledge has compressed down into minutes. What takes you a full day can be done better in under 2 hours. Even for me, it’s becoming way easier to have AI “do the thing” I want it to do. It doesn’t take much.

With this newly freed up cognitive load, the joke of “when AI takes our jobs” has shifted. It’s not about when AI takes our job, it’s what are we going to do with the spare brain power.

AI Retired.

The same draw that once made us daydream about farming now pushes us toward skills that can’t be promptly replaced. Looking in first, I noticed my own behavior shift. Instead of another AI conference, I signed up for a car detailing master class. Why? I have no (paying) customers. For me, it’s a 1:1 craftsmanship carryover - I have an eye for it, I’m good at it, I love the process, the science, the art of it, people appreciate it …and an LLM cannot detail your car. It also has a hard time explaining it incase you were wondering.

The original Farmer Effect was about digital burnout and a human need to do physical things. AI Retired is about finding your irreplaceable human value. Tap into the same primal need for tangible creation, completion, and craftsmanship—except now it’s not just about sanity and balance, it’s about what will you do next? The line between hobby and hedge bet is blurring fast — and that’s ok!

So are you AI Retired? What’s your AI Retirement plan? What physical, hands-on skill are you developing for when “AI takes our jobs”? Maybe it’s farming…powered with AI.