Will Hinman

Democrats claimed rural Ohio Republicans were too racist to back Vivek for governor. But Ramaswamy won 82.5% of the primary vote and every county. Their delusion will end up biting them. Ohioans care about issues over identity politics. Here's my op-ed in today's Dispatch:

There are two camps in AI right now. Camp one says that AI displacement is overblown and that new technology creates more jobs than it destroys. “Stop catastrophizing,” they say. “The people worried about this just don't understand how innovation works.” Camp two says the disruption is real, it's coming fast, and we're not ready. The people in camp one are not wrong that AI creates opportunities, but they're having a conversation about the future from a position where their own work isn't at risk. They're not having that conversation on behalf of people who don't have a seat at the table. Camp two is closer to the truth, but usually stops at the problem, with lots of alarms and not much in the way of solutions. The people caught in the middle (the worker who just found out his role got automated) are not represented in the debate at all. That's the void I keep coming back to. The “is AI disruptive” question is settled. The question that remains is, who is actually building the on-ramp for the people who need to adapt? Who's creating the short-term, workforce-aligned training that gets someone employed in the new economy without saddling them with debt? That's the conversation worth having.

@RepDavids The adult piece is most often missing from the equation: someone displaced at 40 who needs a new path and finds almost no equivalent infrastructure waiting. We build onramps for students; we barely build them for displaced workers.

I graduated from Kansas public schools and started at community college. But success looks different for everyone — whether through trades, technical training, or a four-year degree. Every student deserves an AFFORDABLE path to opportunity.

Our system of higher education is failing. When I worked for the Speaker of the House, I saw the massive amounts we spent funding thousands of degree programs, few of which aligned with workforce needs. On paper, it looks like a system designed to help people, but in practice, it's a maze. Students end up buried in debt for a four-year degree that doesn’t equip them to live a life of meaning and purpose or to provide for themselves. Not to mention that AI is accelerating every single one of those problems. It seemed like nobody in these conversations knew exactly how to help the folks in the trenches who were actually being impacted by all of these swirling changes. When I left government, I started a lobbying firm and briefly stopped thinking about the looming perils of the future workforce. Then I met Emil Barr. He was 20 years old and had already built a business that any entrepreneur would be proud to hang their hat on. His social media agency was on the front wave of the short-form video revolution, and he’d ridden it to incredible heights. I originally reached out to represent him, and he ended up asking me to be his co-founder for this new business. I said yes before he finished the sentence. Emil had the product instinct and the content expertise, and I had relationships in statehouses and a decade of experience watching governments and agencies try to solve seemingly immovable problems across the American workforce. We built Flashpass, an online education platform designed to equip the next generation of workers and ultimately be the bridge for everyone displaced by AI-generated workforce displacement. We just closed our funding round, and the work has barely started. Instilling the sense of purposelessness that comes from unemployment is one of the worst things you can do to a person. The anxiety young people carry right now isn't just about money…. It's about not knowing what comes next and not having an unbridled sense of passion and meaning. AI displacement isn't a Silicon Valley problem. It's a people problem that will soon inhabit every facet of our nation. Somebody needs to build workforce aligned solutions for the people. That’s us.

Thank you, Chairman!

I've spent time in government, lobbying, and now building a workforce tech company. Here's what I’ve learned about AI, education, and the workers in stuck in the middle: 1/ AI is going to cause the largest workforce displacement we’ve ever seen. This isn’t some ill-conceived hypothesis. This is the only logical conclusion given the data. This doesn’t mean everyone will be unemployed, it just means that we need to adapt. It’s why we’re building FlashPass to equip every displaced worker with meaningful skills that enable them to provide for themselves and their family. 2/ The value of a four-year degree is coming into question. Given the exponential rise in tuition and college-related expenses, the ROI just isn’t there anymore. Of course, there are exceptions, but as a general rule, it shouldn’t be the default for the vast majority of high school seniors. 3/ The anxiety epidemic among young people isn't a mental health crisis. It’s a purposelessness crisis that’s only getting worse, and we don’t have a pill for that. Again, this is why I’m so bullish on FlashPass. When you give someone the tools they need to succeed, it gives them a sense of meaning and purpose that positive affirmations and therapy can’t provide. 4/ Ohio will be a top-5 tech hub within 15 years. The environment in Ohio (Columbus specifically) is oddly reminiscent of Austin, Texas 15 years ago. It’s a state capital and college town with an already an impressive startup presence, a massive presence of Fortune 500 companies and the cost of living doesn't require a Series B just to rent an apartment. The math is there and the culture is there. 5/ Short-term credentials will replace graduate degrees for most career pivots within a decade. This isn’t because they’re trendier, it’s because they are aligned with employer driven workforce needs. Skills matter more than a resume and productivity matters more than pedigree.

What it’s like to work with @RealEmilBarr 😂

@snackowska Yup. And I f we keep designing education around what AI can do today, we'll always be one model release behind.

the essay form is passé. we should be teaching students how to write prompts for cover letters for jobs that will be replaced by AI

@ThomasMHern The solution to rapid tech progression is less obvious than the immigration question. It comes down to funding short-term credentials and continuing education rather than wasting money on degree programs. The alternative is stifling innovation.

@KisekiyaCodes This is why policymakers need to shift spending away from degree programs and toward short term credentials. Continuing education is the only way to keep up with this rate of change

Job market is cooked. AI replacing jobs just got real. This week in Big Tech: - Cisco plans to cut ~4,000 jobs globally. - Oracle laying off staff and withdrawing many placement offers in India - LinkedIn laying off hundreds as part of "regular business planning" - GitLab reportedly cutting ~30% of staff to invest more heavily in AI Notice the pattern: • Headcount ↓ • AI budgets ↑ • Campus offers ↓ • "Efficiency" ↑ This isn't a hiring slowdown. It's an org-chart rewrite for an AI-first world. What are we supposed to do now — are tech jobs even needed anymore?

Some of the loudest voices in tech have spent two years warning that AI will wipe out 50% of new college grad jobs. They say it’s an existential threat. The damage from that framing is real. When radiologists hear they’re about to be replaced, fewer people study radiology. When software engineers hear they’re obsolete, fewer pursue it. The warning becomes the problem. Not because AI replaced anyone, but because the narrative scared people out of fields that still need them. The loudest narratives rarely match what’s actually happening in the labor market. We’re not short on warnings about AI. We’re short on infrastructure to help people land somewhere new when disruption hits.

@JezziiB Starting over at 39 or 42 is more common than anyone plans for. We as a society have built elaborate onramps for 18-year-olds making their first career choice. But there's been nothing equivalent for the person making their third

Average female career pivot: 39 Average female entrepreneur starts: 42 Average female millionaire: 49 Womens creative peak: 45-55 You're not behind, you're just getting started

@JoshuaLisec The output volume is the problem. People are being trained to produce more with AI tools without being trained to evaluate whether any of it actually holds up. That's the credential gap hiding inside the productivity pitch.

AI writing often sounds impressive at a glance and a skim - until you realize it says almost nothing, really. Try this... Give it back some of its own output and prompt it to "say all of that with 85% fewer words." Watch and be amazed.

When I was in D.C. as an undergrad, I was studying for the LSAT. Law school felt like the obvious next step as I was working in politics and liked the idea of lobbying. From where I was standing, every path I could see seemed to run through a law degree. So I did what I always do when I'm trying to figure something out. I started talking to people. I tracked down as many lobbyists as I could (people doing the job I wanted). I asked every single one of them what I should do, and nearly all of them said the same thing: don't go to law school. Even the ones that had law degrees themselves - almost all of them said some version of: you don't need it, it'll slow you down and cost you money, just work in government for a few years and then figure out your path from there. I put down the LSAT prep books. Law school wouldn’t have been wrong, but the process taught me a ton. The most efficient path to good judgment in any field is to find people who are already where you want to be and ask them what they think. Not necessarily what they put in their LinkedIn bio, but what they'd tell a 20-year-old who reminds them of themselves at that age. Most people are surprisingly willing to give you that answer if you just ask directly. 10 years later, I don’t regret passing up a J.D.

Jensen Huang's line is that you won't lose your job to AI. You'll lose it to someone who uses it. He's right. And the follow-up question nobody's asking loudly enough is who's building the infrastructure to help everyone else get there. The public conversation on AI and work keeps collapsing into two camps. One side says the displacement is overblown. AI creates more jobs than it removes, history proves it, stop worrying. The other side says the economy is about to crater and we're all sleepwalking into it. Here's where I land. Both camps are arguing about the scope of disruption when the real problem is the response. When a sector automates, workers need a credential that means something to their next employer. Not in two years. Now. That's what Flashpass is built for. I co-founded it because I kept watching people get left behind - not from lack of ability, but from lack of a credential that could travel with them. The winners will be the people who learn to work with AI. The question is whether we build the infrastructure to give everyone else a real shot at becoming one of them.

The people using AI to outsource their thinking are the ones writing replies beginning with “The people using AI to outsource their thinking…” and ending with something like “at some point the lack of authenticity is obvious.” It's a clear tell, and at some point, the lack of authenticity is obvious.

If your content sounds like AI, your reader assumes your thinking is outsourced too. I don't know what else to tell you.

@AutismCapital There's also a smaller box inside it for the wires that are extra important.

Are you even a human being if you don’t have a box of miscellaneous wires that you’ll never use again but can’t bring yourself to throw away because they’re perfectly good wires and you may need them one day? (You won’t.)

Elon's universal high income theory is at best a long way away from primetime, and at worst a dystopian communist fantasy. Between now and whatever future he describes, people are losing jobs, losing income, and losing a sense of direction. A guaranteed check may solve one of those things. It doesn't solve the other two. The jobs being displaced right now are real, and there’s currently no mechanism for the massive cost of UBI. This is the window when the actual damage occurs. I'm building something today and I'm betting on preparation. Short-form credentials. Skills aligned to jobs that actually exist. Programs designed around real employer demand, not abstract workforce development theory. Give people something to do, not just something to live on. The check is a theory. The job market isn't.

Build a company in this belt.