June 2025

Tools are great for clearly defined tasks. They follow set instructions and execute on familiar routines. They accomplish their purpose.

Builders decide the purpose and set the tasks. They craft a vision, muster the conviction to pursue it, and gather the tools to get the job done.

Some people choose to be tools, others choose to be builders.

History is brutally clear about the fate of tools: they get replaced by better tools. The human "computers" who once performed calculations by hand? Replaced by machines that compute faster. Factory workers performing repetitive tasks? Replaced by robots that don't need breaks.

In AI, we have the ultimate tool. It writes, codes, designs, analyzes, predicts. It will likely replace more human functions than any technology in history.

But tools can never replace builders.

Optimizing what exists can't replace imagining into being something that doesn't exist yet. Following prompts — even perfectly — can't replace knowing when to break the rules. And being able to get something done can't replace deciding what needs to be done in the first place. Agents don't replace agency.

So what makes someone a builder?

Builders imagine what could be, invest time to become masters of tools, and turn vision into reality in the world.

They take the reins of their future, and of all of ours.

In a world of increasingly sophisticated tools, don't be another tool.

Be a builder.

— Ivan