For most of the last century, expertise was an appreciating asset.
You trained in something, earned the credential that certified it, and spent decades letting experience compound on top.
The mechanical engineer of 1985 was, in the main, still the mechanical engineer of 1995.
The entire architecture of careers rested on one quiet assumption: that a body of hard-won, learnable expertise holds its value long enough to be worth acquiring.
That assumption is the thing AI actually breaks—and I don't think we've been honest about what that means, because the honest version is inconvenient.
