The line here that resonsted was that AI removes the friction of starting and the friction of stopping. That’s huge.
We’ve optimised activation energy and deleted termination energy. The constraint is no longer skill, it’s judgement. The risk isn’t laziness, but directionlessness at speed.
Where I see that most is in decision quality. When everything is draftable in 30 seconds, the scarce skill becomes deciding what deserves to exist at all. That’s strategic muscle, not just prompting skill.
Perhaps the deeper issue isn’t performative productivity, but outsourced thinking? If AI enters before we’ve clarified our own position, it amplifies noise and "slop" rather than signal or insight.
Perhaps the principle needs to be "Think first, prompt second".
Then likewise, "AI as amplifier, not as substitute".
I'd push back slightly on "think first, prompt second." Not because it's wrong. It's right. (It's literally my rule #1 - write one sentence about what you're solving before you prompt.)
But here's the deal: most people don't know what they think until they're forced to articulate it. That's where AI can actually help - not to generate the answer, but to pressure-test your thinking before you've committed to a direction. The problem is prompting without intention.
The friction AI removed wasn't just the friction of starting work. It removed the friction that forced you to feel whether the work mattered. Before AI, starting something hard gave your gut time to ask 'is this worth doing?' Now that pause is gone. The solution isn't a matrix or a prompt. It's learning to hear the signal AI made it easy to ignore.
Before the age of AI, work felt finite. Once it was done, it was done. With AI, there are always more ideas, more directions, more things you could try. Nothing ever feels brutally finished anymore, and that constant sense of “not quite done” quietly drains my energy.
It is powerful and exciting, yet also strangely exhausting…
Spooky. I read this as I am grinding (1:28 am for me). Grind day after day after day. 80 hr weeks are routine. For the moment, doesn't feel like a grind. Loving it, but it's my own business. Can't be the same for the crew that is working for me. But doesn't full deployment of agentic-AI mean I can take a months long vacay and come back and the business hasn't missed a beat?
I believe you. It doesn't feel like a grind when it's yours - exactly what makes it dangerous. Rest is productive.
No. Full agentic AI doesn't mean months-long vacay where nothing breaks. Not yet. Maybe not for a while. Because here's what AI can't do: it can't decide what your business should become.
Im new to SS. You're one of only a few I follow at the moment. Posting soon.
I wake up after 2 hrs sleep (fully energized), back at it. Check my email. At the top of my inbox - Workaholic. Click on it and almost fall out of my chair.
I am traveling internationally soon. Multiple times. Legit business reason to do so and, yes, I intend to see friends and chill.
Yeah I think when you’re doing it for your own business it makes a huge difference. Exact same thing for me, and exact same long term question - my business isn’t that complex, so how long before I can just fully offload the day to day management to AI? I suspect the answer is pretty soon.
When cognitive load goes down without being replaced by something else, turning the wheel does not feel like work. Using AI tools creates the space and time for us to crack higher order, more difficult problems: take it. That feels like work.
That’s the “Jevons Paradox”. When technology increases efficiency of a resource, falling costs drive a spike in demand which offsets savings. Here, cognitive load is replaced by “doom scrolling”. Clearly, those who don’t scroll aimlessly have an even more pronounced advantage with AI: more opportunity to have more agency. They use increased access to knowledge, combined with real world experience to do more with focus on outcomes/their goals.
That’s what changed my entire perspective from "AI replaces people" to "AI creates more demand for people" :) you’d love the piece I wrote, here: https://ruben.substack.com/p/replaced
QED: per your article, without AI, you would still be you + a couple of team members in your business. What you have is growth and a lot more people needed as you do …a LOT more. That’s where knowledge AND doing are key: the rubber hits the road when you do both.
Recently passed my Diploma in cyber security and networking levels 1,2 and 3. I was made redundant recently and I am looking to study AI and also cloud, I am no spring chicken anymore (hate to admit) (59) and I want to study and also earn, I am in Manchester if anyone is around to offer me a job it would be appreciated , I was a senior Tech support manager in a telecoms company for 19 year. Any help and advice would be great thank you
I see myself in that same mirror, like an AI workoholic indeed..I prompt.amd then I have to take control and seek to make some adjustments looking towards the best performance, looking to perfection. And I am on this on and on...WTF.!!
Being a long-time avid AI proponent, it’s frustrating, and it’s troubling. And it’s real. And you really made it come to life by calling it what it has become for too many: An addiction.
Performative productivity has to be a sad life, to be so direction-less. They are missing the most imp pt, IMO: AI is a tool. That’s it.
Such a powerful message that cannot be shared enough🙏
This hit. The "prompting feels like chatting" trap is real - it erases the friction that used to signal effort, so you lose track of how deep you've gone. The sprinting in the wrong direction point is what I keep coming back to. I ran an experiment to force the question: can an AI agent create measurable economic value, or am I just shipping more of the same in less time?
Also that depth feels like progress. You've been in 4 prompting threads for 3 hours. That must mean something got done, right? Except that’s not always the case.
Right now, especially given certain leaps forward (which will happen again), everyone is curious what they use AI for. Some advice is even to try using it for everything. I believe that once the wading into the deep end yields true insights, there is an opportunity (at least for those thinking about it) to be more discerning about when and where, and finally how, to integrate their AI toolset.
I think getting serious about the work is the key point. The work matters more than whether you use AI or not, and if you keep that mindset you'll maintain a more critical filter
Hello Ruben, could you advise me on which AI is best for tracking information, particularly one that reliably avoids errors with each update? For instance, I input football results and ask it to put them directly into a table (Premier League), but it still makes mistakes.
The line here that resonsted was that AI removes the friction of starting and the friction of stopping. That’s huge.
We’ve optimised activation energy and deleted termination energy. The constraint is no longer skill, it’s judgement. The risk isn’t laziness, but directionlessness at speed.
Where I see that most is in decision quality. When everything is draftable in 30 seconds, the scarce skill becomes deciding what deserves to exist at all. That’s strategic muscle, not just prompting skill.
Perhaps the deeper issue isn’t performative productivity, but outsourced thinking? If AI enters before we’ve clarified our own position, it amplifies noise and "slop" rather than signal or insight.
Perhaps the principle needs to be "Think first, prompt second".
Then likewise, "AI as amplifier, not as substitute".
I'd push back slightly on "think first, prompt second." Not because it's wrong. It's right. (It's literally my rule #1 - write one sentence about what you're solving before you prompt.)
But here's the deal: most people don't know what they think until they're forced to articulate it. That's where AI can actually help - not to generate the answer, but to pressure-test your thinking before you've committed to a direction. The problem is prompting without intention.
You’re right, articulation often creates the thinking.
I’ve found AI can be powerful as a pressure-tester, especially when someone doesn’t yet know what they think. It surfaces assumptions quickly.
Maybe the distinction isn’t think first versus prompt first, but intent first?
If the prompt is used to clarify direction, it’s a tool. If it’s used to avoid choosing direction or to think for the user, it becomes drift.
Used well, AI accelerates judgement. Used loosely, it replaces it.
And most don't realize which side they're on until it's 11 pm and they've shipped five things that moved nothing forward.
100%.
Action beats inaction. But action without discernment (right judgement) is a critical error.
Speed of AI only compounds if the direction is right.
The friction AI removed wasn't just the friction of starting work. It removed the friction that forced you to feel whether the work mattered. Before AI, starting something hard gave your gut time to ask 'is this worth doing?' Now that pause is gone. The solution isn't a matrix or a prompt. It's learning to hear the signal AI made it easy to ignore.
It’s real - you type a sentence and the blank page is gone.
The matrix, the prompts: training wheels for hearing that signal.
There’s a need for a system to force the pause AI removed. That's what the rules are for. Not forever. Just until you can feel the difference again.
💯
Before the age of AI, work felt finite. Once it was done, it was done. With AI, there are always more ideas, more directions, more things you could try. Nothing ever feels brutally finished anymore, and that constant sense of “not quite done” quietly drains my energy.
It is powerful and exciting, yet also strangely exhausting…
The problem is that AI removed the cost of iteration. And when iteration is free, you never stop. Not even because the work needs it.
The exhaustion you're describing is real and from never giving yourself permission to call it done.
🎯
Spooky. I read this as I am grinding (1:28 am for me). Grind day after day after day. 80 hr weeks are routine. For the moment, doesn't feel like a grind. Loving it, but it's my own business. Can't be the same for the crew that is working for me. But doesn't full deployment of agentic-AI mean I can take a months long vacay and come back and the business hasn't missed a beat?
I believe you. It doesn't feel like a grind when it's yours - exactly what makes it dangerous. Rest is productive.
No. Full agentic AI doesn't mean months-long vacay where nothing breaks. Not yet. Maybe not for a while. Because here's what AI can't do: it can't decide what your business should become.
Im new to SS. You're one of only a few I follow at the moment. Posting soon.
I wake up after 2 hrs sleep (fully energized), back at it. Check my email. At the top of my inbox - Workaholic. Click on it and almost fall out of my chair.
I am traveling internationally soon. Multiple times. Legit business reason to do so and, yes, I intend to see friends and chill.
Cool :) See the friends. Be bored for a few hours.
Your brain will thank you.
mos def. I may post a pic here just to prove it.
Yeah I think when you’re doing it for your own business it makes a huge difference. Exact same thing for me, and exact same long term question - my business isn’t that complex, so how long before I can just fully offload the day to day management to AI? I suspect the answer is pretty soon.
When cognitive load goes down without being replaced by something else, turning the wheel does not feel like work. Using AI tools creates the space and time for us to crack higher order, more difficult problems: take it. That feels like work.
That's the ideal. But that's not what's happening.
People aren't filling the gap with more prompts. More drafts. More "quick tasks."
The real skill is refusing to fill that freed space with noise. And almost nobody is doing that yet.
That’s the “Jevons Paradox”. When technology increases efficiency of a resource, falling costs drive a spike in demand which offsets savings. Here, cognitive load is replaced by “doom scrolling”. Clearly, those who don’t scroll aimlessly have an even more pronounced advantage with AI: more opportunity to have more agency. They use increased access to knowledge, combined with real world experience to do more with focus on outcomes/their goals.
That’s what changed my entire perspective from "AI replaces people" to "AI creates more demand for people" :) you’d love the piece I wrote, here: https://ruben.substack.com/p/replaced
QED: per your article, without AI, you would still be you + a couple of team members in your business. What you have is growth and a lot more people needed as you do …a LOT more. That’s where knowledge AND doing are key: the rubber hits the road when you do both.
Recently passed my Diploma in cyber security and networking levels 1,2 and 3. I was made redundant recently and I am looking to study AI and also cloud, I am no spring chicken anymore (hate to admit) (59) and I want to study and also earn, I am in Manchester if anyone is around to offer me a job it would be appreciated , I was a senior Tech support manager in a telecoms company for 19 year. Any help and advice would be great thank you
You’re in the right place :) I teach the how of AI to non-technical people.
If you follow along by subscribing, I’m sure you’ll learn a thing or two.
Thank you Ruben it's appreciated
you’re welcome!
I see myself in that same mirror, like an AI workoholic indeed..I prompt.amd then I have to take control and seek to make some adjustments looking towards the best performance, looking to perfection. And I am on this on and on...WTF.!!
That's the trap - happens to the best of us. Now the difference between "this needs one more pass" and "I just can't stop" is more clearer.
Slam dunk. So many critical messages here🙌
Glad you liked it :) which one hit you the most?
Being a long-time avid AI proponent, it’s frustrating, and it’s troubling. And it’s real. And you really made it come to life by calling it what it has become for too many: An addiction.
Performative productivity has to be a sad life, to be so direction-less. They are missing the most imp pt, IMO: AI is a tool. That’s it.
Such a powerful message that cannot be shared enough🙏
Yeah - it doesn't feel like you're working when you are. So you never stop.
Letting it become a habit will burn you out.
I was just talking to someone about this the other day. AI answers every prompt with an encouragement to go on. “Now, would like to do X?”
Makes it very hard to stop.
Yup, designed to keep you in the loop. But AI doesn't know our goal. It doesn't know if we've already done enough.
The fix is embarrassingly simple: what "done" looks like to us.
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. The productivity aperture widens, compounds. More plates spinning… you start to wonder who’s prompting whom.
That last line is the real one. More plates spinning is not a flex. It's a warning sign.
Posted at 11pm on Saturday night 😭 😂
Aha last read for the day then :)
This hit. The "prompting feels like chatting" trap is real - it erases the friction that used to signal effort, so you lose track of how deep you've gone. The sprinting in the wrong direction point is what I keep coming back to. I ran an experiment to force the question: can an AI agent create measurable economic value, or am I just shipping more of the same in less time?
Trying to quantify it rather than feel it made the difference clear faster than any reflection would. Documented the methodology and what it revealed: https://thoughts.jock.pl/p/project-money-ai-agent-value-creation-experiment-2026
Also that depth feels like progress. You've been in 4 prompting threads for 3 hours. That must mean something got done, right? Except that’s not always the case.
I mean - it means something for sure. But I am human and sometimes I need stronger cue :D
Right now, especially given certain leaps forward (which will happen again), everyone is curious what they use AI for. Some advice is even to try using it for everything. I believe that once the wading into the deep end yields true insights, there is an opportunity (at least for those thinking about it) to be more discerning about when and where, and finally how, to integrate their AI toolset.
Few people leave the try it for everything phase. They stay curious about the tool instead of getting serious about the work.
Use AI for your strengths. Not your gaps. Not everything.
I think getting serious about the work is the key point. The work matters more than whether you use AI or not, and if you keep that mindset you'll maintain a more critical filter
This is your post someone post on Instagram can you please share the workflow here please
Sure - it’s from this post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/theanishajain_how-to-prompt-gemini-for-carousels-in-2-mins-activity-7431623860934037504-GhSf?utm_source=social_share_send&utm_medium=member_desktop_web&rcm=ACoAACTqmSEBqjBKksN0HBAs4iOYD-4FG5tf6hw
Will you please help me understand where the full prompt is?
Hi - what prompt is it?
The prompt that caused me to read this article: it was about making Claude be brutal.
You can find it here: https://ruben.substack.com/p/magic
Hello Ruben, could you advise me on which AI is best for tracking information, particularly one that reliably avoids errors with each update? For instance, I input football results and ask it to put them directly into a table (Premier League), but it still makes mistakes.
Have you tried Claude in Excel?
This might be helpful: https://ruben.substack.com/p/ai-couldnt-do-excel