Judgment is the principal. Tools can increase the yield, but if you give up ownership, you give up the upside.
I want AI to iron my clothes and wash my dishes so I can spend more time creating not to do the creating for me. When we outsource judgment, we’re not saving time; we’re diluting the very thing that compounds.
AI doesn’t generate thinking it runs on it. The raw material is still human judgment. Forgetting that is how people confuse acceleration with autonomy.
The more you offload your judgement to AI the less reliable you’ll find your own intuition. AI should be used as a sparring partner—but never should be thought of as being able to walk in the ring for you.
Thanks for sharing! I can definitely relate to the Sunk Cost fallacy. That's a sentiment I've gotten in the past in my professional life that has been undoubtedly played against my career. Lucky for me I was able to just take the initiative of changing my area of expertise for a better job.
I will be applying these models to my Substack journey
That’s a powerful realization. Sunk cost quietly hijacks judgment by making past effort feel like a reason to continue.
What you did changing direction was a design decision, not a failure. Applying that lens to your Substack is smart: start with the problem you want to solve now, not the work you’ve already invested.
Tremendous summary of the various models and helpful to consciously think about them. It seems most of the these are subconscious though in our daily lives and how can we optimize the right model for the right situation subconsciously. It seems to me one significant way is ensuring space between action and reaction. Thoughts?
Thanks for sharing. This is specially useful in thinking of strategies on how to approach a problem from a different perspective. I have learned something from this piece of knowledge.
The Search-Inference Framework section stood out. Most people skip the search phase entirely and jump straight to evaluating whatever comes to mind first, which is usually just their usual mental shortcuts. I've defintely fallen into this before when making product decisions—where the first few options looked good but deeper search would've revealed bettr alternatives. The principal-agent distinction also applies way beyond just business owners vs employees.
Thinking is not about collecting mental models, but about taking responsibility for judgment.
Heuristics can guide, AI can accelerate but neither should decide for you without costing something essential: your intellectual autonomy.
I agree and I think of it like equity.
Judgment is the principal. Tools can increase the yield, but if you give up ownership, you give up the upside.
I want AI to iron my clothes and wash my dishes so I can spend more time creating not to do the creating for me. When we outsource judgment, we’re not saving time; we’re diluting the very thing that compounds.
AI doesn’t generate thinking it runs on it. The raw material is still human judgment. Forgetting that is how people confuse acceleration with autonomy.
Totally agree.
AI can accelerate processes, but judgment cannot be delegated: without it, there is no authorship or meaning.
Confusing assistance with substitution is losing what truly matters.
The more you offload your judgement to AI the less reliable you’ll find your own intuition. AI should be used as a sparring partner—but never should be thought of as being able to walk in the ring for you.
Excellent summaries!
Thanks Cathie!
Thanks for sharing! I can definitely relate to the Sunk Cost fallacy. That's a sentiment I've gotten in the past in my professional life that has been undoubtedly played against my career. Lucky for me I was able to just take the initiative of changing my area of expertise for a better job.
I will be applying these models to my Substack journey
Isn’t it funny how we feel attached to something because of the time and resources spent on it? Glad it worked out for your career in the end!
That’s a powerful realization. Sunk cost quietly hijacks judgment by making past effort feel like a reason to continue.
What you did changing direction was a design decision, not a failure. Applying that lens to your Substack is smart: start with the problem you want to solve now, not the work you’ve already invested.
Tremendous summary of the various models and helpful to consciously think about them. It seems most of the these are subconscious though in our daily lives and how can we optimize the right model for the right situation subconsciously. It seems to me one significant way is ensuring space between action and reaction. Thoughts?
Thanks for sharing. This is specially useful in thinking of strategies on how to approach a problem from a different perspective. I have learned something from this piece of knowledge.
Thanks Norberto, glad you enjoyed it.
The Search-Inference Framework section stood out. Most people skip the search phase entirely and jump straight to evaluating whatever comes to mind first, which is usually just their usual mental shortcuts. I've defintely fallen into this before when making product decisions—where the first few options looked good but deeper search would've revealed bettr alternatives. The principal-agent distinction also applies way beyond just business owners vs employees.