Dean Ball: Assessing Computational Tractability is the Meta-Skill of the AI Era
deanwball · x · 2026-08-08
Dean Ball argues that the crucial meta-skill in the AI era is figuring out what problems in arbitrary domains are computationally tractable.
Mastering this heuristic offers the opportunity to act as a kind of "meta-genius" for at least the next year or two. While you may not know the answers or exactly how to find them, you will possess refined heuristics to ask the right questions and drive meaningful marginal progress. Ball admits this is probably the skill to have optimized for over the last three years, and although its longevity as a human advantage is uncertain, it remains relevant for now.
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