The dominant narrative is that AI democratizes everything. That now anyone can code, design, compose music, edit videos. That technical knowledge doesn't matter as much because AI closes the gap.
That's not how it works.
Multiplier, not substitute
The more you know, the more you can do with AI. It's not linear, it's exponential.
If you understand software architecture, Claude doesn't just help you write code faster. It helps you explore complex designs, evaluate tradeoffs, refactor systems. Someone without that foundation generates code that works, but not code that scales or solves the right problem.
If you know motion graphics, Remotion with Claude is something else. You know the names of effects, elements, how to compose animations. You ask Claude to generate Remotion code using those terms. You can automate editing programmatically, generate thousands of variations. Without that motion graphics knowledge, even using Claude, you only generate generic videos because you don't know what effects exist or how to ask for them.
If you understand image composition, generative AIs are different. You know what to ask for, how to iterate, how to combine results. Without that foundation, you just generate generic images.
The gap widens
AI doesn't reduce the advantage of those who know, it amplifies it.
Those who already understand the fundamentals can now do in hours what used to take days. They can experiment more, iterate faster, build things that were previously unfeasible due to time or cost.
Those who don't understand the fundamentals are still limited. They can do more than before, yes, but the distance from those who do know grew, it didn't shrink.
Knowledge remains critical
AI amplifies what you bring. If your base is 1, multiplying by 10 gives you 10. If your base is 100, multiplying by 10 gives you 1000.
Claude, Midjourney, Remotion, are multipliers. Those who understand the fundamentals can now do in hours what used to take days. Those who don't, keep generating generic things.
AI is useful regardless of your level. But the narrative that "now everyone can do everything" ignores that deep knowledge is still the critical variable.
Investing time in understanding fundamentals—architecture, motion graphics, composition—is still the best investment. AI doesn't replace that. It multiplies it.