We’ve all seen the memes. Made the jokes about “productivity theatre”. We all know the colleague, guilty of producing the “workslop”. The documents and emails, so clearly written by ChatGPT. Full of em-dashes and rocket emojis.
So, to use AI, or not to use AI, that is the question.
Where I’ve landed is a barbell strategy. Two polar extremes. I try use AI as much as possible for moving fast, for shortcuts, or conversely for “power-ups” where there’s an advantage in moving fast, where some of the details don’t matter as much, but the tasks still consume time and energy. Emails, research, documentation, boilerplate and prototypes, to name just a few.
Conversely, I try to not use AI at all for my thinking, my writing, strategy, memos, personal notes, cold outreach, blog posts etc. Interestingly, the more I use AI at work, the more I find myself wanting to go fully analog outside of work. To consume less information, to take in less stimuli. This fits with my barbell strategy.
After much experimentation, this is where I am now. This should not be perceived as anti-AI, to be clear. I use AI every single day (and am very bullish), but I’ve drawn some pretty clear boundary lines in my mind as to where AI helps, and hinders. The risk is all in the middle of the barbell. Using AI for the tasks you really shouldn’t.
The biggest worry I have with AI is that lots of people will become lazy, and start to coast at work. Do less whilst using AI to keep up appearances. Many will take the easy way out. Don’t be one of these people.
Dope title of an article 💪😎👊