Why We're All AI Tool Builders Now (Whether We Know It Or Not)

Author

Stefan Wirth
May 25, 2025

Hi Mate 👋,

I just finished Kevin Kelly's "The Inevitable" and realized something wild.

This book was written in 2016, but Kelly predicted exactly where we are today. His core insight? We're not heading toward utopia or dystopia, but "protopia" - a state of constant becoming.

And guess what? We've already arrived.

What's new

Kelly's "Four Stages of Flowing" framework isn't just theory anymore - we're living through the final stage right now.

  • Stage 1: Fixed - Expensive, rare, expert-only

  • Stage 2: Free - Commoditized through copying

  • Stage 3: Flowing - Unbundled, remixed, platform-based

  • Stage 4: Becoming - Audience becomes creator ← We are here

Photography went through this evolution over 100 years. Music took decades.

AI tools? We've compressed this entire cycle into just 2 years.

Think about it: Anyone with ChatGPT is now a tool builder. Anyone with Claude can create custom workflows. The "audience" has already become the "creator."

Insight

Here's what Kelly taught me: The shift has already happened. Most people just haven't noticed yet.

When something becomes free, you don't fight it. You build what Kelly calls "generative values" on top of it.

AI can write anything for free now. But people still pay for:

  • Immediacy (instant, custom results)

  • Personalization (tailored to their exact situation)

  • Authenticity (human + AI collaboration)

  • Interpretation (making sense of the chaos)

This explains why our wedding speech generator works at $10k MRR. It's not the AI that's valuable - it's the human curation, the domain expertise, the immediate personalization.

The AI is free. The experience is priceless.

The Explosion Is Already Here

Kelly predicted that when tools become liquid, niches would explode exponentially.

Look around. It's happening everywhere:

  • Every podcast needs custom music → AI composers emerge

  • Every business needs custom content → AI writers proliferate

  • Every industry needs specialized tools → AI builders multiply

We're not waiting for "everyone to become AI tool builders."

Everyone already is one.

The real question: Are you building tools that flow, or are you still thinking in the old fixed paradigm?

Becoming a Learning Machine

Rating: 4/5 (This framework completely reframes our current moment)

"The Inevitable" gave me the missing piece to understand what's happening right now. We're not experiencing an "AI revolution" - we're in the final stage of the flowing revolution that started with the internet.

Kelly's genius is showing us that the pattern is predictable. Once you see it, you can't unsee it. Every industry, every creative field, every human endeavor is moving from fixed to flowing to becoming.

The winners won't be those with the best AI. They'll be those who understand that we've already shifted from products to flows, from ownership to access, from fixed to liquid.

My Latest Video

I made a new channel intro video to set expectations where we’re going together.

Things have been a bit all over the place, but I think I finally found a niche and something that is valuable for everyone 👇

Talk Soon,
Stefan

P.S. After reading Kelly's book, I'm seeing these patterns everywhere. Have you noticed industries in your world moving from "fixed" to "flowing"? Hit reply - I'd love to hear what you're seeing.