After reading an impactful newsletter by Greg Isenberg this week.
I’m even more convinced about the power of knowing what not to do with AI.
You see, in this time of ‘AI can do everything’, knowing what you should keep doing yourself is not only powerful…
It’s CRITICAL.
Because skill erosion is a real problem.
And that’s not AI’s fault, it’s ours. We’re naturally becoming lazy as we indulge in the path of least resistance and instant gratification.
The urge to explore this dawned on me several times last week across my work with clients. I get paid to help companies with AI enablement. Part of that involves identifying best fit tools and how to leverage them. At least, that’s what I’m most tasked with.
No one asks me about keeping the human, and could we say humanness, at the core of it all.
But I bring it to the table, anyway.
So, today, we’re exploring what not to do with AI, and why your future self will thank you for it.
The question no one is asking about AI in 2026
I was sitting in my overpriced home office chair talking to 100 people on a call about how to leverage AI as a strategic thought partner, and not just an automated engine that runs like a conveyor belt for company requests.
The usual questions came down the channel.
- “Can this create a slide deck for me?”
- “How do I get it to write this report?”
- “Can it create these images?”
All basic, always the same and at this point in my time in all this, 100% predictable.
I’m not saying this is a bad thing. After all, the workplace has conditioned us to execute, execute and execute (tasks btw, not people). We want to know what end product we will get, and if it’s worth the time to learn how to use another AI tool.
My answer to all those questions is very different in 2026.
“Yes, it can do all of that. To varying degrees of quality depending on a few factors. Yet, the more important question is: do you want it to do them?”
I’ve heard more noise at a morgue than the wall of deathly silence that greeted me.
I get it. They thought they were here to learn how ‘x’ tools can make them do ‘x’ things faster and to the same level that they would do. Not a philosophical analysis on working with AI.
Despite that, I chucked the question into the void.
There were a few murmurs but I wasn’t expecting any answers from such a large group. No one wants to be the person that says “AI can do my spreadsheets for me, but I love Excel!”, I feel you, human.
My point is the choices we make have consequences.
I’ve spoken about these in this very newsletter for years now.
From strategies to stop AI hijacking your mind to the hidden impact of AI on your skills to the growing skill erosion problem in society.
I even gave a talk last year at DataCamp about “Does AI help or harm skill building?”
The choice you make with AI every day
I’m kinda obsessed with the psychology of all this.
That’s also the reason why I keep sharing this Jurassic Park quote every week: “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could do it, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”
The follow-up to that very quote from Dr Ian Malcolm talks about the aftermath of such choices: “‘Ooh, ah,’ that’s how it always starts. But then later there’s running and screaming.”
Hopefully we have no running and screaming. Yet I’ve made my point.
↳ You have a choice.
Yes, you can create a presentation with x app.
But what do you lose?
- The blank page thinking of “how do I start”
- The chain reaction when one out of the blue idea leads to another
- The ‘aha’ moment when your brain spots a beautiful visual idea
- That killer story arc you spotted as you structure your thoughts, notes and slides
Maybe it’s all of this, maybe it’s some and maybe it’s none.
Don’t get it twisted, AI is amazing.
I use it every day. I would be stupid not to. It’s no longer an advantage to use AI because everyone does. Spitting feathers on social media on who used AI to do what is pointless.
The real power is in how we choose to use AI.
This is where you have all the power, but my god, do you need to have the restraint of a monk to not follow the herd down the same path.
A common sense framework for a senseless time
I get everything I’m telling you is counterintuitive to what all the “AI bros and thought leaders” say on every social platform.
Instead, I’m looking at the long game. I’m asking what happens in 5 years from now if I stop doing ‘x task’ entirely.
I can’t tell you what will happen.
No one can.
You do have a choice on how you shape that future, and ultimately, what you would like it to look like. That’s why I loved the suggestion that finished the newsletter I was reading by Greg.
Greg shared an exercise we’ll call the “Non-negotiable.
The funny thing is I’ve been doing this natively so I kinda feel ’seen’ in the fact that I’m actively finding ways to not use AI for every task.
That’s not because I don’t believe AI can do it, because it can.
It’s mostly because I enjoy doing so many of the tasks I get to do, and I don’t want AI to take my joy from that. Plus, I’m a deep thinking kind of guy (not that you would guess). I’m actually convinced my therapist gets more from me in our sessions than I get from them with my deep introspection, analogies and thought patterns.
Skills, joy and your expertise: You don’t need to trade these for AI
I’m fully on board to keep doing the things that keep the most powerful operating system (your brain, fyi) we have sharp alongside AI.
I want both my brain and AI to be at their best. Not me being reliant on only an external source. I’d add another component to Greg’s output here of sharpening your thinking, and that’s joy.
Do more of the things that you enjoy.
I know there’s probably some secret Excel lovers reading this, and you know what? If you love dropping data in those cells and pivoting the sh*t outta that table, then you go do that, friend.
Don’t hand that over to AI.
I take this same approach to how I work.
There’s a bunch of stuff I don’t wanna do or is out of my expertise, and AI really helps me here. So I dive in to collaborate with my digital bud.
Then I have my “non-negotiables.”
For the most part, AI could do more of my tasks but I’m choosing not to let it. That’s not to say I don’t use AI to help me in the process of these tasks, I just don’t automate or delegate to it.
I find too often that we default to ‘automate’ rather than ‘how can we work together’.
One example of what I’m not gonna give AI, is this newsletter you’re reading right now. I love writing this thing. I mean, not all the time, especially when I’m up against the inescapable force of depleting time and I gotta get 1500 meaningful words out the door.
But I wouldn’t change it for the world.
To write is to think and to think is to write.
That’s how I stay sharp. Every week I open a blank doc and drop my unfiltered thoughts in. I leave, come back and drop some more.
That’s how it starts.
I’ll then continue to ponder and procrastinate on my words and the message I want to share with you across the next 5 days. I’ve been writing online in some form for 15 years, so I’ve developed human based systems from great writers and thinkers that help me shape my thoughts.
It’s an art and science.
AI only sees my writing when I think it’s 70% there.
Mostly to make sure my spelling, grammar and structure are on point. But also to give me a counter view I might not have seen or unearth an angle I might have missed.
Sometimes it does this well, often it does not. We spar and disagree about my overuse of sarcasm and analogies, yet we always get to a product I’m happy to put my name on (for the most part, there have been clangers over the years).
So while I don’t start nor end with AI on this task, it helps me sharpen my thinking in the ways I don’t use it.
Specifically, by doing all that pondering and procrastinating that’s led us to this sentence right now.
That is the beauty, joy and challenge you don’t want to lose.
Final Thoughts
This feels like a good place for us to end today.
TL;DR (too long; didn’t read):
- It’s very important to know what not to do with AI
- Use common sense to keep your mind sharp
- Don’t ditch the tasks that give you joy (I got your back Excel lovers!)
- AI is not a god. Disagree with it, let it help you but at the end of the day. Do what’s right for you.
Before you go… 👋
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