During my career break, I kept coming back to the same questions: What is dedication? What does it mean to pursue something?

I read a bit of both capitalism and communism, trying to get a sense of how people responded when the steam engine suddenly replaced their livelihoods during the 19th-century industrial revolution.

There's a concept that stuck with me: stress is privileged.

When a machine suddenly takes your job, you don't just lose income. You lose your sense of pursuit. You stop knowing what to do with yourself. You can't even feel stressed, because stress requires something to care about.

Two weeks ago, I started building things with Claude Code. Very Mindblowing, I know this is not exactly breaking news. But it made something click.

I'm not a scientist. I'm not an engineer. I'm nobody, particularly special, which is exactly why I've been thinking hard about what work means and what I mean by it.

When AI gradually replaced my day-to-day routine, what actually changed wasn't my output. It was my focus. Less execution noise, more attention on core knowledge, real communication, and what I actually want to build.

AI didn't make me more productive. It gave me back my dedication.

Stress is a signal that you still care. That you still have something worth pursuing.

If AI is taking things from your plate, the question isn't how to use it. It's what you're going to do with the dedication it returns to you.