When I was in school the typical advice from economists was something like “specialize your labor/human capital, and diversify your investments/financial capital”.
In other words: get an advanced degree into an in-demand profession and train for a niche skill within that. Oh, and invest in index funds.
But I’m wondering if that’s changing now? (I still like low-fee index funds).
With AI, it seems harder to predict what specialized skills will be valuable in 5 or 10 years. (Let alone 40!)
With AI, it’s also easier to try new human-capital-related projects and skills.
Openness, flexibility, and range seem more important at the margin.
I’m slightly more confident about decisions to (a) not pursue a PhD in economics yet, and (b) not major in computer science.