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Career Advice of the Week

I want to take a moment today to talk to a different kind of reader. Those of you who’ve been in your career for a decade or more.

You’ve built a resume that speaks for itself. You’ve most likely climbed ladders, managed teams, shipped products, and handled crises. Maybe you’ve even survived a few rounds of layoffs. You know your craft. But for the first time in a while, maybe you’re starting to feel… less sure.

Not obsolete. Just unsure how to keep playing at the top of your game when the game itself is changing.

That’s a totally valid place to be. Most of the people I meet who’ve been working 10, 15, 20 years aren’t falling behind because they lack talent or experience. They’re falling behind because they’re not adapting their strategy to a world that now rewards experimentation over execution, speed over hierarchy, and adaptability over tenure.

So let’s talk about what to do.

Here are three things I’d recommend if you’re deep into your career and want to stay ahead, not just hang on until you tag out:

1. You need to build a second brain.

You don’t need to memorize every LLM update or use every agent that hits Product Hunt. But you should start to integrate AI into your workflows. If you lead teams, learn how to delegate to tools. If you write or analyze or present, learn how to augment your thinking with AI. You’ve already got the high-level judgment, the goal now is to scale it.

2. Reframe mentorship.

Most experienced professionals think mentorship is about giving advice. In today’s market, it’s also about receiving perspective. Find someone 10–15 years younger than you. Ask what they’re doing. How do they job hunt. How do they think about AI. You’ll get insight into emerging expectations and likely learn a few shortcuts you weren’t taught.

3. Build your surface area.

This doesn’t mean tweeting every thought or starting a Substack. It means making your expertise visible. Share your playbooks internally. Write memos that demonstrate clear thinking. Volunteer to present your team’s process at a company all-hands. Quiet mastery doesn’t scale. Public utility does.

Your experience is an asset. But experience + visibility + adaptability? That’s leverage. The kind that turns seasoned professionals into company cornerstones, or, if you want it, founders.

No matter where you are, I’m here to help you not just keep up, but set the pace. Whether it’s crafting a better résumé or using agents to sharpen your narrative, I’ll make sure you’ve got the tools to make sure your next step is your best yet.

Let’s get after it.

—Aidan

This Week in AI:

No jargon, no filler—just the biggest AI developments worth knowing right now. Perfect for quick industry insights, so you can skip the buzzwords and get straight to the good stuff. Let’s dive into this week’s AI shake-ups, just as promised:

xAI released Grok 4, two new models built around reasoning and task execution. AWS is launching a marketplace for AI agents, which could shape how companies bring AI into their workflows. And OpenAI is reportedly building a web browser, suggesting it wants to go beyond being just a chat assistant and become part of how we use the internet every day.

Let’s get into it.

In This Issue:

• 🧠 Grok 4 outperforms GPT-4 in reasoning: Elon Musk’s xAI returns with its most capable model yet, now with voice, vision, and multi-agent support. (link)

• 🏪 Amazon is building the “App Store” for AI agents: AWS teams up with Anthropic to launch a marketplace for plug-and-play AI agents next week. (link)

• 🌐 OpenAI wants to replace your browser: A full-featured ChatGPT browser is in development, and it’s gunning for Chrome’s crown. (link)

🚀 Grok 4: xAI’s New Reasoning-Only Models

TL;DR:

xAI has released Grok 4 and Grok 4 Heavy. Two new language models are designed for high-level reasoning and task performance. Grok 4 offers a 128K context window and supports voice and vision. Its “Heavy” sibling includes multiple agents and a 256K context window, aimed at complex multi-step tasks.

Our Take:

After the public backlash over Grok 3’s controversial outputs, this release is a reset for xAI. While Grok 4 performs well on benchmarks like Arc-AGI and AIME, what stands out is its pricing and access model—$30/month for Grok 4 and $300/month for Grok 4 Heavy. It’s clearly targeting power users, research teams, and developers looking for an alternative to OpenAI and Anthropic. But adoption will depend on how well the models perform in the real world, not just on paper.

🏪 AWS Agent Marketplace Launching Next Week

TL;DR:

Amazon Web Services will launch an AI agent marketplace in partnership with Anthropic. This will allow companies to deploy pre-trained agents for customer service, operations, and more. The marketplace will include integration tools, pricing tiers, and analytics dashboards out of the box.

Our Take:

This is Amazon trying to build the “app store” for enterprise AI. It’s about how companies plug them in. Expect to see competition heat up as OpenAI, Google, and smaller players try to become the default agent platform for businesses. The fact that Anthropic is a launch partner gives AWS credibility, but the real test will be in how easy these agents are to deploy at scale.

🧭 OpenAI Building Its Own Web Browser

TL;DR:

OpenAI is reportedly developing a full-featured web browser to compete directly with Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. The new product would combine web access, code execution, and document summarization, all powered by ChatGPT.

Our Take:

This is a big move. Right now, ChatGPT operates in a browser, but if OpenAI owns the browser itself, it controls everything from search to shopping to document handling. It’s the clearest signal yet that OpenAI wants to move past being “just” a chatbot and become a full operating layer for everyday computing. Expect pushback from incumbents, but also watch for a test version soon.