Growing up with two older sisters, I learned early on that foresight is a secret cheat code to life.
The summer internship in my freshman year of college wasn’t driven by a fierce desire to learn about SEO (funny how that’s all I do now).
It was motivated by seeing my oldest sister struggle to get a good job out of college, and being afraid I’d follow in the same footsteps.
Looking back, I was just observing where my sister invested her time and the return on her investment.
Fast forward to today, foresight has become a force of habit in every decision I make.
I may not be able to code a SaaS, but I do have experience with FaaS (foresight as a skill).
But with AI, it’s a different situation.
It’s hard to ignore the implications of something so disruptive. And it doesn’t help when AI news hijacks every corner of social media.
In one corner, you have your doomsday warriors.
“GG software devs, you have two years until you’re donezo.“
In the other corner, you have deniers that believe AI won’t actually have a massive impact on their lives.
I prefer to stay open-minded, focusing on ways to adapt at any given moment.
As Bruce Lee one said, “You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Be water, my friend.”
Hot takes on directories and AI
Call me biased (because I am), but I think directories are here to stay for a long time.
I’m not ignorant to the fact that AI is fundamentally changing the way people search for information.
But I’m also confident that some human behavior won’t change in the next 100 years.
People are still going to get haircuts, buy anniversary gifts, look for the best vacation spots, and hire babysitters to watch their kids.
All these things are driven by emotion and trust.
And by knowing that humans are emotion-based decision makers, I remind myself that there’s always opportunity to build around three fundamental areas of our lives: health, wealth and relationships.
As long as we can build:
- a tool to help people make emotion-driven decisions easier (websites or software)
- a vehicle to distribute ideas (SEO)
Then, we can continue to sell the shovels.
Directories just happen to be the internet’s most adaptable form of shovel.
Predictions
In the near term, SEO is likely going to continue changing rapidly.
The last directories standing, in my opinion, will be:
- Omnipresent – focused on distribution through organic search, social media, podcasts, email lists and partnerships (i.e. atlasobscura.com)
- Community based – sites where people naturally gravitate towards any opportunity to share human interaction online and IRL around similar interests (i.e. boardgamegeek.com)
- Evergreen – built around niches and topics that will always be desirable and won’t change in nature (i.e. dog parks near me)
- Hyper-local or hyper-specific niches – built in niches that that go so deep, there are virtually no competitors (i.etractordata.com)
- High-stake niches – healthcare, senior living, financial advice, and other areas of life that are highly consequential if proper information and expertise isn’t present (care.com)
Maybe I’m coping, overly optimistic, or this is a “famous last words” situation.
But when it’s all said and done, I’ll always remember that human adaptability is the real cheat code.
p.s. I’m going to be announcing a community for directory builders soon (built on Circle). Feel free to join the waitlist.
Best,
Frey Chu
