I met someone who told me that AI will take over all jobs in 20 years, so helping students explore careers is pointless.
I told her I would do everything in my power to make sure she is never allowed to talk to students lol.
The funny thing is I also hear the opposite view: “AI is overhyped. Most jobs will be fine.”
Listen to the extremes: Nothing will change. OR. Everything will change.
Is this the best approach to serve our students? Absolutely not. Let’s break down what’s happening, so we can give students what they actually need.
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Response 1: Catastrophic thinking: imagining the worst outcome and treating it as inevitable.
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Response 2: Normalcy bias: assuming today’s reality will continue and dismissing meaningful change.
Together, catastrophic thinking and normalcy trap us in all-or-nothing predictions.
When it comes to AI, yes, both extremes are possible. But, neither is particularly likely.
What is more likely?
One of the other 67 scenarios we haven't bothered to imagine.(I made up the number 67, but the goal is to find the richness that exists between the extremes.)
For career advisors, this is more than a thinking error. It can become a professional failure.
When we give students only two futures, we shrink their imagination when they most need to expand it.
Our students don't need us to choose between utopia and catastrophe. They need help preparing for the other 67 possibilities.
Reshare if you think our students deserve more imagination and less catastrophic certainty.
