In a recent LinkedIn post, Kieran Flanagan, a marketing and growth leader, shared his candid feelings of being overwhelmed and falling behind due to the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence, even with his deep personal and professional engagement in the field.
Flanagan, who has dedicated significant effort to understanding and working with AI since the launch of ChatGPT, detailed his extensive involvement. This includes a full-time AI-centric role, co-hosting an AI-focused YouTube channel, writing an AI Substack newsletter, giving talks on AI, advising on AI and Go-To-Market strategies, investing in AI startups, and actively participating in AI discussions with peers. His usage of ChatGPT even ranked in the top 0.1% of users in the platform’s 2025 year-in-review.
“I’m in pretty deep. But I feel so behind.”
Despite this considerable immersion, Flanagan expressed a unique kind of feeling behind – not in terms of competition or knowledge relative to others, but in relation to the sheer volume of opportunity the AI landscape presents. He elaborated on this feeling, distinguishing it from a lack of expertise among his peers.
The Opportunity Gap in AI Advancement
Flanagan’s sense of falling behind stems from the overwhelming abundance of opportunities within the AI space. He described spending his holiday break delving into resources on Claude Code, conceptualizing multiple applications, and creating a to-do list for building agents. He noted specific areas where he felt he should possess more knowledge or have made more progress.
“There’s so much opportunity right now. I have so much I want to learn and build.”
He further detailed his efforts and perceived shortcomings:
- Working extensively with VEO 3.1, yet feeling he should know more.
- Acknowledging the need to spend more time with advanced models and tools like Opus 4.5, Gemini 3, and Replit’s autonomous agent.
- Recognizing the potential of tools like Notebook LLM and the desire to build more Claude Skills.
This feeling is exacerbated by the constant influx of new developments and the tempting nature of numerous potential projects and learning paths.
Navigating the AI Deluge: The Power of Focus
In response to this feeling of being overwhelmed, Flanagan shared his personal strategy: focus. He advocates for mastering a few things at a time rather than spreading oneself too thin across many.
“What I tell myself is – FOCUS. Master a couple of things at a time. It’s better to be great at a couple of things than average at many.”
Flanagan hopes that sharing his stream of consciousness will resonate with and be helpful to others experiencing similar sentiments in the rapidly evolving AI field. He concluded his post with a forward-looking mantra for 2026: “Focus, Grind, Be Curious, Ship.”
His insights underscore the challenge many professionals face in keeping pace with technological advancements, particularly in a field as dynamic as artificial intelligence. The need for strategic focus amidst an abundance of opportunity is a critical takeaway from Flanagan’s candid reflection.
📝 About This Content
This article is based on insights shared by Kieran Flanagan on LinkedIn.
📅 Originally posted on January 5, 2026 | View original post on LinkedIn →