I generate my ideas myself. AI gives me compressed info on them like when I need to research a public company with a view to investing in it. But working, talking to people, getting rejected... AI won't teach us that.
Sometimes I do it this way. Sometimes I flip it—I have AI generate ideas (usually by uploading previous content of mine and prompting AI to ask clarifying questions and identify gaps) then I write the content responding to those questions myself. Like Tim said, AI is an amplifier. It speeds up my process—but I still need a process.
Also, I may have used the em-dash twice in this comment but I most definitely wrote it without ChatGPT 😅
I agree Tim. I share my essays with chatgpt for feedback and discussion and extension. I brainstorm ideas, do research, and use perplexity for searching but I'm very critical of the results and never accept them all wholesale. It's a tool, a very powerful one, but still just a tool. The better we learn to use it, the more it will augment our abilities.
This reminds me of the episode of How I Met Your Mother where they talked about the smartphone killing the 'bar debate'. Where you would argue an idea or a point with your friends over a beer - it was engaging, lively, and built connection. Now, if someone says, "I wonder what the most goals ever scored in a game is?" You just look it up - no debate, no discussion, no connection - just answer and move on. I think you're spot on that AI is this same problem to the n-th degree. You have to disciplined in using AI as a tool, not a replacement for thinking, discussion, and connection. I use AI all the time, but I get pages and pages of high quality notes and ideas from a one hour conversation.
Exactly! AI is an amplifier (like Tim said), just like the smartphone. For people who were already creating and making, the smartphone let them do so much faster and more prolifically. For people who played video games constantly, it put that same entertainment in their pocket to fill moments when they weren’t at home too.
Technology like the smartphone, internet, AI… all of them simply reflect and magnify the person using them.
I love this. *Yes,* AI can be an effective tool – but if used as a crutch, it becomes a liability. More peeps need to understand this. "AI" agents are *not* creative, in fact they *cannot* create, think, envision anything truly new because they are just mimics... and sometimes mimic really bad or broken stuff. Be careful out there. 🤣
PS...Adding a reference to this in my article on building an AI readiness article. Great perspective and well said, Tim! Thank you.
I use AI regularly to help me understand concepts that my linear mind thinks are unworkable or inapplicable bullshit. Doing that is allowing me to participate in activities previously closed to me.
I still have to think for myself but now I understand the basic concepts of what new activities I'm thinking about.
I'd like to know how you use it more for your writing. Sometimes I'll have streams of thoughts that seem unrelated, yet all relate to the same topic. I'll drop all of those streams into an AI agent and ask it to present patterns or correlations among them, almost like an outline. Then, I'll massage them and continue to iterate until it feels right.
Another thought-provoking and great post, Tim. It's so thought provoking that it prompted me, who seldom ever comment on your posts, to write back to you. Yes, "AI" is called Artificial Intelligence for a reason. The last time I checked, "artificial" means fake; something synthetic and man-made. And as with all things that are man-made, it's intelligence is limited to its user. Can it run complicated projects a million times faster? Sure. Can it beat Nobel Prize geniuses in analysis? Why not. Can it empower a 2-year old to create Picazo level of art? Yeah. Can it help you and I think about what we want to do in life? Of course, and the list goes on.
But here's the litmus test for whether it is 'fit' to replace a human mind: Does it feel pangs of hunger? Does it feel emotional pain when it loses out to its competitors? Does it feel the pain of losing loved ones to some random disaster? It can emulate and imitate empathy, but it does not have a "nervous system" to sense pain or pleasure. And that's why an AI lacks 'soul' (for want of a better word), and total reliance on AI robs us of that as well.
Without knowing pain, we would not know to avoid danger, or to fear for our lives. Would you hand your loved ones over to someone who has never faced the pain of losing their loved ones before? Would you entrust medical surgery to something that has never felt the prick of a needle on their skin before? Without knowing pleasure, we have no motivations to improve ourselves, nor feel rewarded from gains. Why do anything at all when you derive no pleasure from it. Think about turning on a gaming console to play a game and immediately skipping to the victory ending sequence. What's the friggin' point?
I have therefore realized that in an age where all the obstacles can be easily overcome, the skill to remain human is all the more precious and sought after. I may not be able to type or write as cleanly or as skillfully as an online writing assistant, but every word that I write comes from the experiences that I had acquired over a lifetime of sweat and tears. Every typo and grammatical error that I make is proof that I am alive, and that I would not stand for any insults to my humanity. Rather than playing with 'toys', I'd rather work out with my flesh-and-blood peers. For I am human. Just human, and all too human.
Hey Tim, agree. However, I really don’t think that AI writes well, yet. It still lacks literary quality. I have yet to read a genuinely beautiful sentence from AI. It can churn out gnomic and pithy copy, kinda, but nothing that takes your breath away. That is what great writing is really about. It has to move you. Even for business, there needs to be that deep human element that the reader feels.
I start feeling a bit of a weakness or a bit ill at moments I have caught myself relying on AI too much. I have spent my whole life, since 8 years old (25+ years), training my brain and trying to understand how I work, how I can be healthy, how I can perform best, etc. I want to help people create critical thinking firewalls. I think the best defense is to figure out how we can create guardrails for what kinds of conveniences we allow (those that are helpful) and which ones we shield against (those that are harmful and might seem helpful at times).
I’ve been preparing for this age since I was 8 based on intuition, curiosity, and the drive to understand.
I get where you're coming from, Tim—and you're not wrong about people outsourcing their thinking. But for someone like me, AI isn't making me dumber. It's helping me stay in the game.
I’m a disabled vet recovering from cancer surgery, building a GPU infrastructure company for federal contracts, launching a content brand, and documenting the whole thing transparently to help others. I'm not using AI to think for me—I'm using it to amplify what I've already thought through.
Deep thinking still happens. But instead of getting lost in 10-hour workflows, I’m feeding those thoughts into AI to execute faster—video edits, branding, research, code scaffolding. AI is my exo-suit, not my brain.
The people who let AI replace their voice are going to drown in the noise. But the ones who combine human story + AI execution? They’ll rise.
So yeah—think first. But don’t act like using AI makes you lazy by default. For some of us, it’s the only reason we’re still able to move forward at all.
A member of my family is an expert in AI; been working with it for 11 years. I've been studying it and working with it for over two years because I want to know the pros and cons. Plus, informing people in my age range because they are constantly saying they refuse to use AI and I told them "well, you better get rid of your cell phone, your television, your laptop, your desktop, your tablet, most likely your car, your online shopping, your home sound system, you name it, because AI is involved in all of that".
I think it’s a new layer of capability for people who couldn’t or wouldn’t generate content before. Is it generating a high amount of noise relative to signal? Undoubtedly yes.
I just hope the tools for discovering the diamond in the rough get better too.
I started saying the same things when smart phones first came out. What a 'damned if you do, damned if you dont' thing. hat bothers me is sites such as Medium with all the 'writers' who just cut and pasted AI generated stuff. You can tell. Wow, in high school biology and physics we had to work thnghs out on a SLIDE RULE We used our brains. I tell me daughters about encyclopedia that were already outdated by the time they were peddled at our front door LOL Now its just 'Google it' or ChatGPT it. Shallow shallow. It allows and fosters shallow on the one hand but helps expand the mind for those who have discipline and dont succumb to just taking what ever ol ChatGPT buddy says. I have long long talks with GPT, prompting it this way and that way for varying and new results, often being told "Im sorry you are right to want this included" etc from the AI. Learning how to REALLY chat with an AI and use prompting etc is a mind worker but most just ask a question, relay it then close the screen and forget.
I generate my ideas myself. AI gives me compressed info on them like when I need to research a public company with a view to investing in it. But working, talking to people, getting rejected... AI won't teach us that.
Sometimes I do it this way. Sometimes I flip it—I have AI generate ideas (usually by uploading previous content of mine and prompting AI to ask clarifying questions and identify gaps) then I write the content responding to those questions myself. Like Tim said, AI is an amplifier. It speeds up my process—but I still need a process.
Also, I may have used the em-dash twice in this comment but I most definitely wrote it without ChatGPT 😅
Haha it still feels you wrote the comment on your own
I agree Tim. I share my essays with chatgpt for feedback and discussion and extension. I brainstorm ideas, do research, and use perplexity for searching but I'm very critical of the results and never accept them all wholesale. It's a tool, a very powerful one, but still just a tool. The better we learn to use it, the more it will augment our abilities.
This reminds me of the episode of How I Met Your Mother where they talked about the smartphone killing the 'bar debate'. Where you would argue an idea or a point with your friends over a beer - it was engaging, lively, and built connection. Now, if someone says, "I wonder what the most goals ever scored in a game is?" You just look it up - no debate, no discussion, no connection - just answer and move on. I think you're spot on that AI is this same problem to the n-th degree. You have to disciplined in using AI as a tool, not a replacement for thinking, discussion, and connection. I use AI all the time, but I get pages and pages of high quality notes and ideas from a one hour conversation.
Exactly! AI is an amplifier (like Tim said), just like the smartphone. For people who were already creating and making, the smartphone let them do so much faster and more prolifically. For people who played video games constantly, it put that same entertainment in their pocket to fill moments when they weren’t at home too.
Technology like the smartphone, internet, AI… all of them simply reflect and magnify the person using them.
I love this. *Yes,* AI can be an effective tool – but if used as a crutch, it becomes a liability. More peeps need to understand this. "AI" agents are *not* creative, in fact they *cannot* create, think, envision anything truly new because they are just mimics... and sometimes mimic really bad or broken stuff. Be careful out there. 🤣
PS...Adding a reference to this in my article on building an AI readiness article. Great perspective and well said, Tim! Thank you.
I use AI regularly to help me understand concepts that my linear mind thinks are unworkable or inapplicable bullshit. Doing that is allowing me to participate in activities previously closed to me.
I still have to think for myself but now I understand the basic concepts of what new activities I'm thinking about.
My keyword here is Understand.
I am a programmer and I can program chatbots.
I'd like to know how you use it more for your writing. Sometimes I'll have streams of thoughts that seem unrelated, yet all relate to the same topic. I'll drop all of those streams into an AI agent and ask it to present patterns or correlations among them, almost like an outline. Then, I'll massage them and continue to iterate until it feels right.
How real this article is:
AI is an amplifier, not a replacement for human thinking.
Even today, the experiences of our ancestors are irreplaceable, in quality and thought, and have survived the centuries.
Forever Human Thinking will be irreplaceable.
I hope it becomes more valuable, in this world drowned by empty show!
Another thought-provoking and great post, Tim. It's so thought provoking that it prompted me, who seldom ever comment on your posts, to write back to you. Yes, "AI" is called Artificial Intelligence for a reason. The last time I checked, "artificial" means fake; something synthetic and man-made. And as with all things that are man-made, it's intelligence is limited to its user. Can it run complicated projects a million times faster? Sure. Can it beat Nobel Prize geniuses in analysis? Why not. Can it empower a 2-year old to create Picazo level of art? Yeah. Can it help you and I think about what we want to do in life? Of course, and the list goes on.
But here's the litmus test for whether it is 'fit' to replace a human mind: Does it feel pangs of hunger? Does it feel emotional pain when it loses out to its competitors? Does it feel the pain of losing loved ones to some random disaster? It can emulate and imitate empathy, but it does not have a "nervous system" to sense pain or pleasure. And that's why an AI lacks 'soul' (for want of a better word), and total reliance on AI robs us of that as well.
Without knowing pain, we would not know to avoid danger, or to fear for our lives. Would you hand your loved ones over to someone who has never faced the pain of losing their loved ones before? Would you entrust medical surgery to something that has never felt the prick of a needle on their skin before? Without knowing pleasure, we have no motivations to improve ourselves, nor feel rewarded from gains. Why do anything at all when you derive no pleasure from it. Think about turning on a gaming console to play a game and immediately skipping to the victory ending sequence. What's the friggin' point?
I have therefore realized that in an age where all the obstacles can be easily overcome, the skill to remain human is all the more precious and sought after. I may not be able to type or write as cleanly or as skillfully as an online writing assistant, but every word that I write comes from the experiences that I had acquired over a lifetime of sweat and tears. Every typo and grammatical error that I make is proof that I am alive, and that I would not stand for any insults to my humanity. Rather than playing with 'toys', I'd rather work out with my flesh-and-blood peers. For I am human. Just human, and all too human.
Bravo! I've been noticing the laziness. I also use AI but I agree with your philosophy 100%.
Hey Tim, agree. However, I really don’t think that AI writes well, yet. It still lacks literary quality. I have yet to read a genuinely beautiful sentence from AI. It can churn out gnomic and pithy copy, kinda, but nothing that takes your breath away. That is what great writing is really about. It has to move you. Even for business, there needs to be that deep human element that the reader feels.
I start feeling a bit of a weakness or a bit ill at moments I have caught myself relying on AI too much. I have spent my whole life, since 8 years old (25+ years), training my brain and trying to understand how I work, how I can be healthy, how I can perform best, etc. I want to help people create critical thinking firewalls. I think the best defense is to figure out how we can create guardrails for what kinds of conveniences we allow (those that are helpful) and which ones we shield against (those that are harmful and might seem helpful at times).
I’ve been preparing for this age since I was 8 based on intuition, curiosity, and the drive to understand.
I get where you're coming from, Tim—and you're not wrong about people outsourcing their thinking. But for someone like me, AI isn't making me dumber. It's helping me stay in the game.
I’m a disabled vet recovering from cancer surgery, building a GPU infrastructure company for federal contracts, launching a content brand, and documenting the whole thing transparently to help others. I'm not using AI to think for me—I'm using it to amplify what I've already thought through.
Deep thinking still happens. But instead of getting lost in 10-hour workflows, I’m feeding those thoughts into AI to execute faster—video edits, branding, research, code scaffolding. AI is my exo-suit, not my brain.
The people who let AI replace their voice are going to drown in the noise. But the ones who combine human story + AI execution? They’ll rise.
So yeah—think first. But don’t act like using AI makes you lazy by default. For some of us, it’s the only reason we’re still able to move forward at all.
A member of my family is an expert in AI; been working with it for 11 years. I've been studying it and working with it for over two years because I want to know the pros and cons. Plus, informing people in my age range because they are constantly saying they refuse to use AI and I told them "well, you better get rid of your cell phone, your television, your laptop, your desktop, your tablet, most likely your car, your online shopping, your home sound system, you name it, because AI is involved in all of that".
I think it’s a new layer of capability for people who couldn’t or wouldn’t generate content before. Is it generating a high amount of noise relative to signal? Undoubtedly yes.
I just hope the tools for discovering the diamond in the rough get better too.
I started saying the same things when smart phones first came out. What a 'damned if you do, damned if you dont' thing. hat bothers me is sites such as Medium with all the 'writers' who just cut and pasted AI generated stuff. You can tell. Wow, in high school biology and physics we had to work thnghs out on a SLIDE RULE We used our brains. I tell me daughters about encyclopedia that were already outdated by the time they were peddled at our front door LOL Now its just 'Google it' or ChatGPT it. Shallow shallow. It allows and fosters shallow on the one hand but helps expand the mind for those who have discipline and dont succumb to just taking what ever ol ChatGPT buddy says. I have long long talks with GPT, prompting it this way and that way for varying and new results, often being told "Im sorry you are right to want this included" etc from the AI. Learning how to REALLY chat with an AI and use prompting etc is a mind worker but most just ask a question, relay it then close the screen and forget.