i was in an interview today and got asked a question i've heard a hundred times.
"where do you see yourself in five years?"
i paused.
not because i didn't have an ambitious answer. i genuinely didn't know.
the world is changing so fast that predicting five years out feels almost dishonest. honestly, i don't even know what some jobs will look like in two years.
i gave some answer and we moved on.
but after the interview, i couldn't stop thinking about it.
every conversation lately feels like it's about how fast everything is changing. ai. jobs. industries. the economy. every week there's something new that makes last week's prediction look outdated.
after a while i realized i was trying to answer the wrong question.
instead of asking myself what will change, i started writing down things that won't.
the laws of physics.
time.
humans still have twenty four hours in a day.
people will still want status.
they'll still want to feel understood.
curiosity won't disappear.
fear won't disappear either.
people will still make decisions emotionally and justify them logically.
trust will still matter.
good stories will still spread.
great builders will still obsess over problems.
technology changes.
human nature moves much slower.
it made me realize that maybe the best way to plan your future isn't by trying to predict the next technology.
it's by understanding the things that survive every technology shift.
those are much safer bets.
anyway.
that interview didn't work out.