Edition #22 - Who Do You Become When No One Needs You?

Who do you become when no one needs you?

By Mykel Salomon · 2026-03-27

<h3>🔓 Opening Reflection</h3>Lately, there’s a question that keeps coming back to me.When things slow down. When the work gets done faster than expected. When you realize something that used to take hours… now takes minutes.And the question is simple, but it stays with you:Who do you become when no one needs you?For most of our lives, being needed has been the goal.That’s how we measured ourselves. That’s how we built confidence. That’s how we built careers.Being the one people go to. Being the one who solves. Being the one who knows.And now we’re building a world where that dynamic is… changing.Not overnight. Not everywhere. But enough to feel it.<hr><h3>🔦 Signal of the Week</h3>You can feel it across different industries.Tasks are getting automated. Decisions are getting assisted. Entire layers of work are being compressed.Not eliminated completely… but reduced enough that something shifts.It’s subtle. But it’s there.The distance between being productive and being necessary is getting smaller.And I don’t think we’ve fully processed what that does to people.Because this isn’t just about jobs.It’s about identity.<hr><h3>🧠 The Human Moment</h3>I’ve been thinking about this a lot.Because if we’re honest, most of us didn’t just build skills…We built a sense of self around being useful. Around being relied on. Around being needed.So when that starts to change, even slightly, it creates a strange feeling. Not fear, exactly. Not even uncertainty. More like… disorientation.You can still be capable. Still driven. Still adding value.But something feels different.And if we don’t talk about it, it turns into something heavier.Because when people start to feel unnecessary… it doesn’t stay at work.It follows them home.<hr><h3>⚖️ The Tension</h3>We’re optimizing everything right now.Speed. Efficiency. Output.And that’s not wrong.But humans were never designed to be measured only by how fast they produce something.We’re wired for meaning.For contribution. For connection. For knowing that what we do actually matters to someone.And here’s the tension I keep coming back to:We are getting very good at building systems that run without people…But we’re not spending enough time asking where people still belong.<hr><h3>🔍 The Deeper Question</h3>So maybe the question isn’t:Will AI replace certain types of work?That conversation is already happening.The deeper question is:If your value is no longer tied to being needed… what is it tied to?Is it your judgment? Your ability to connect dots others don’t see? Your ability to sit with complexity instead of rushing to answers? Your ability to understand people in ways systems can’t?Or… is it something we haven’t fully defined yet?<hr><h3>🎙️ This Week’s Episode</h3>Episode: Why AI Projects Stall (And What It Reveals About Us) Guest: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="text-[#4FD1C5] underline hover:opacity-80 ember-view" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/schneiderlarissa/">Larissa Schneider</a> | <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="text-[#4FD1C5] underline hover:opacity-80 rbJlXBzRbySbuPCWQzjoswVAGlGBFmEhY " href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/unframe-ai/">Unframe</a>Are you struggling to translate AI strategy into real results?You’re not alone.This week’s conversation goes straight at something a lot of teams are experiencing right now but not always saying out loud:AI isn’t failing because of the technology. It’s stalling because of the organization around it.In this episode, I sat down with Larissa Schneider to unpack why so many AI initiatives never make it past the promise stage.Not because the tools aren’t powerful enough… but because the foundation underneath them isn’t ready.What stood out in this conversation:<ul><li>Many teams jump into AI before clearly defining the problem they’re trying to solve</li><li>Without that clarity, AI becomes experimentation without direction</li><li>Trust, governance, and ownership are often afterthoughts instead of starting points</li><li>And when those pieces are missing, even the best technology struggles to deliver real value</li></ul>One idea kept coming back:We’re spending a lot of time asking what AI can do…But not enough time asking what the business actually needs.And that gap is where most projects start to stall.This episode felt less like a conversation about AI… and more like a conversation about how organizations think, decide, and operate under pressure.Still figuring this out myself.Curious where you’re seeing this show up.🎧 Available on: <a target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="text-[#4FD1C5] underline hover:opacity-80 rbJlXBzRbySbuPCWQzjoswVAGlGBFmEhY " href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/6gqT4AFiFYbDVCeXuMAJFH?si=7Z7SB8uyRjWO1f8f9NfJDQ">Spotify</a> -> <a target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="text-[#4FD1C5] underline hover:opacity-80 rbJlXBzRbySbuPCWQzjoswVAGlGBFmEhY " href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s2e12-from-idea-to-impact-what-it-really-takes-to-deploy/id1843402023?i=1000757244999">Apple Podcasts</a> -> <a target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="text-[#4FD1C5] underline hover:opacity-80 rbJlXBzRbySbuPCWQzjoswVAGlGBFmEhY " href="https://youtu.be/Ab9SHxlDGEw?si=KgVeMPC0EEpJt4za">YouTube</a><img class="max-w-full h-auto rounded-md my-4" src="https://media.licdn.com/dms/image/v2/D5612AQGb_3TahEzL2A/article-inline_image-shrink_1000_1488/B56Z0v.7QtGsAQ-/0/1774626518909?e=1784764800&v=beta&t=-bHriDPAfPLOfVNrpzN7f2ZnyR3cWVyLpX5JCna9xnc" alt="Article content"><hr><h3>🧭 Closing Thought</h3>We talk a lot about building the future. But very little about who we’re becoming while we build it. And maybe that’s the part we can’t afford to overlook.Because if we don’t define it ourselves…Something else will.Mykel