Every human skill is being simultaneously devalued and revalued. Writing is worthless when everyone has ChatGPT. Writing is priceless when you need someone who knows what ChatGPT can't say.
Programming skills crater as AI generates code—until you need someone who understands why the generated code fails. Design expertise becomes commodity—until you need someone who knows why the pretty mockup won't scale. Translation seems obsolete—until cultural context matters more than words.
The Context Swing
The skills haven't changed. The contexts have multiplied. In AI-assisted contexts, human skills approach zero. In AI-failed contexts, they're worth everything. We're all simultaneously obsolete and essential.
The new economy is context based, not skill. The value of what you know swings wildly depending on whether AI can handle the specific situation. One day replaceable. Next day irreplaceable.
Traditional careers assumed stable value. Learn accounting, always valuable as accountant, has become valuable when audit requires judgment, worthless when filing requires forms. The context determines everything.
Being good at something no longer guarantees value. Being good at knowing what matters? That's the new currency.