i saw the year 2035, let me tell you about it

This is the year 2035. And you are about to hear a human speak. In text.

I know. Sounds far from a reality that will ever be real, right? Sounds like the opening line of a sci-fi film. But sit with it for a second. Because it's not as far as it sounds. Honestly, it's not as far as I'd like it to be.

so let me talk. Like a human. while that still means something.

Hi, I am Ozal.

the box and the hill

My father told me a story. He carried his box and climbed hills just to get to school. Every day. Every single day. to a neighbouring village. miles away from home.

and he did that bare footed. Just to get a 1st school leaving certificate. Lol

The hill was the price. The education was what he bought with it. And everything he became after that, he paid for on that hill. God bless his soul.

I think about him a lot when I work now. and if I'm being honest with you, I don't think he'd be proud of how I get things done. I think he'd be disappointed.

Not in me, exactly. In how easy it has become. Because today, I can prompt my way into most of his achievements.

Hey, my dad lived a life of impact. Trained people. Invested in people. Built a house. Gave us a life. I'm not talking about those... I'm talking day-to-day tasks.

I don't have to climb anything.

nobody talks about this part

Everyone is talking about what AI can do. Faster. Cheaper. 10x. Fine.

been on Claude for 2 months now. I am a crazy guy! I've built stuff. And I can't explain a line of code. I feel pity for devs.

But nobody talks about the psychological damage of watching something you spent ten years learning become a prompt. I spent 2-3 years learning design. Last week, I did an entire event branding with Opus 5.5! nobody knew!

The late nights. The tutorials you watched three times because you didn't get it the first two. The ugly first attempts you're glad nobody saw. The client who paid you in "exposure"... the day you finally realised, oh, I'm actually good at this now... then you see a better designer... a better tool.

You build a skill like a house. Brick by brick.

And then someone types one sentence and gets the house.

If it was this easy all along, was I ever special? Was the hill ever necessary?

So was the hill a lie?

I've been thinking this over for a while.

The hill wasn't the point. But it also wasn't nothing.

My father didn't come down those hills with just a certificate. He came down with a spine. With patience. With the kind of stubbornness you only earn by doing a hard thing every day when nobody is clapping. The climbing made the climber.

A prompt can give me the output. It can't give me the person who gets formed on the way there.

Maybe that's what's left for us. maybe that's what being human means in 2035. Not the thing you produce, but the thing that's producing you. (that sounded cool)

Or maybe I'm just telling myself that so I can sleep at night. I genuinely don't know yet. and I think that's okay to admit.

your turn

The goal of this writing was never to impress you. If it did, that's a plus. I just wanted to say out loud what a lot of us are feeling quietly.

So talk to me. Like a human.

• Have you spent years on a skill that now fits inside a prompt? How does that feel, really? Do you still have hope?
• Would your parents be proud of how easy things are now, or disappointed?
• Is struggle actually necessary, or have we just been romanticising it? My dad told me reading is better done on an empty stomach, so for most of my days in high school, I didn't have breakfast, so my retention levels would be high in school that morning. I'm trying to change now.
• What's the one thing you'd refuse to hand over to a machine, even if it could do it better?

and while you're here, have a look around. Tell me what you think of my website too.

Take me to the home page