I learned something recently that changed how I relate with AI.
Not in a flashy, futuristic way.
In a quiet, almost uncomfortable way.
I realised I had started using AI the way many of us use convenience tools—not to grow, but to avoid effort. To skip the strain. To move faster without getting stronger.
Someone I respect deeply in the technology and leadership space, a former CEO who has lived both the monk’s discipline and the strategist’s rigor, framed it in a way that stayed with me: AI should be a training partner, not a crutch.
That idea landed hard.
Because if we’re honest, most of us are using AI as an answer machine.
Write this. Summarise that. Fix this. Think for me.
It feels productive. Tasks get completed. Notifications clear.
But something subtle is happening underneath.
Every time we let AI do the thinking we should struggle through, we trade growth for speed. We finish faster, but we finish weaker.
It’s like showing up at the gym and asking someone else to lift the weights for you. You leave feeling busy, maybe even accomplished—but your muscles didn’t work. Over time, they shrink.
There is a better way. A harder way. And a far more rewarding one.
1. Learn to Be Intelligently Lazy
There is a kind of laziness that is not a flaw but a discipline.
Our brains are wired to feel good when something is “done,” even if it was never worth doing in the first place. It’s called completion bias. Polishing slides that don’t matter. Rewriting emails that won’t change outcomes. Formatting instead of thinking.
AI is excellent at these tasks. Ruthlessly efficient.
So I’ve started handing those things over.
Drafting rough first versions.
Pulling together background research.
Cleaning data. Reformatting documents.
Not because they’re unimportant, but because their value is capped. The upside on doing them excellently is capped.
When AI handles the low-value repetition, my energy returns to the work with uncapped upside: thinking, deciding, designing, leading.
That is intelligent laziness.
Freeing the mind for what only you can do.
Ask yourself: What am I still doing manually that does not deserve my best thinking?
That’s where AI belongs.
2. Stop Asking AI for Answers. Make It Explain Itself.
AI is not a calculator. It’s a probability engine.
Brilliant, fast, and very capable of being confidently wrong.
So the quality of what you get depends entirely on how you engage it.
I’ve learned to slow it down.
Instead of accepting the first response, I ask it to show its reasoning.
To explain its assumptions.
To walk step by step through how it arrived at a conclusion.
Something interesting happens when you do this.
The output improves—but more importantly, your thinking sharpens. You are pushing yourself to learn.
You start seeing structure. Trade-offs. Gaps. Alternatives.
AI stops being a vending machine and becomes a thinking mirror.
If you do nothing else differently, do this:
The next time you use AI, add one sentence—
“Walk me through your reasoning step by step.”
Then read it slowly.
3. Put Your Mind Under Resistance
This is the most important shift.
There are moments when speed matters and friction should be removed.
And there are moments when growth matters and friction must be added.
Most people remove friction everywhere.
That’s why they get faster—but not wiser.
I now use AI the way a serious athlete uses a spotter.
A spotter doesn’t lift the weight for you.
They help you lift more than you could alone.
Here’s what that looks like in practice:
I study something first—properly.
Then I take my understanding to AI and say,
“Don’t explain this to me. Test me.”
I ask it to challenge me at increasing levels of difficulty.
Beginner. Intermediate. Advanced. Executive.
Sometimes I even ask it to argue against me.
That resistance forces clarity. It exposes shallow understanding. It builds mental strength.
This is how knowledge turns into mastery.
This is very important…
AI is not neutral.
Used carelessly, it will make you dependent.
Used deliberately, it will make you formidable.
One path leads to mental zero gravity—effortless, comfortable, and weakening.
The other leads to disciplined growth.
I’m choosing the second.
Not because it is easier, but because it pays on the longterm.
So here’s the real question, not for social media, but for yourself:
Are you using AI to escape thinking—or to become better at it?
- That single choice will quietly shape the kind of person you become in the next five years.
Choose well.
What’s ONE thing you’ll do differently with AI after reading this? Share in the comments! 👇
