Jess Eddy reaches back to the 19th-century pessimist Arthur Schopenhauer for the distinction senior creatives may worry about:

Talent is like the marksman who hits a target which others cannot reach; genius is like the marksman who hits a target which others cannot even see.

Eddy borrows a line from Jack Grapes, the poet and writing teacher: “Make me look good, and I’ll keep you on the payroll.” That’s the trap. The longer you’ve been at it, the more reliably your talent delivers, and the more expensive it gets to walk away from what works. Most career advice says lean into your strengths. Eddy says your strengths keep you aimed at targets you already know how to hit.

For experienced designers, those targets are getting harder to find. AI is changing what counts as design work and what tools do it, and the ground under the profession is moving with it. The reflex when the ground moves is to double down on the move you’ve already mastered. But the mastered move hits the visible target. The targets that come next won’t be visible yet.

Eddy doesn’t let anyone skip the mastery step. The 5–10-year window isn’t optional. But once you’ve put in the time, you have to walk away from the talent that made you reliable. Eddy closes with Grapes:

Talent does what it can, genius does what it must.