Fewer Things Better
Fewer Things Better
Ep. 173 - AI and the Human Sweet Spot: Where to Save Time—And Where Not To
AI and technology can supercharge our productivity and open doors we never imagined—but they can’t replace curiosity, creativity, or the irreplaceable spark of being human. In this episode, we explore how to use tech as a tool rather than a crutch, why it’s vital to keep thinking for ourselves, and how real-life experiences give our ideas depth and meaning that no algorithm can replicate. Because the best ideas still come from real moments, real conversations, and a real human brain at work.
Show Notes:
I was having lunch this week with a former client—now a good friend—and we got to talking about how quickly business is changing, especially with AI.
She told me she’s been using it for some strategic shortcuts during her busy day.
“The meeting summaries alone save me hours every week,” she said.
That’s not just productivity—that’s real time back to real life.
It reminded me of one of the early dot-com founders I used to work with.
He was known for saying, “Speed wins,” it was like a rally cry to move fast, fail forward, and iterate often.
And while that still holds true in many ways, this conversation over lunch drifted into deeper territory.
We also started talking about the things AI can’t do.
Like intuition. Critical thinking. Memory recall.
The human work that comes with being human.
The Bottom Line on Top of this episode is that technology can for sure be an amplifier for our productivity—but it isn’t a replacement for good old-fashioned thinking. Shortcuts can save time–sure, but if we skip the story, we risk losing the substance.
In the case of AI, it is an amazing support system for getting things done, but it also comes with a quiet temptation: to let it do the thinking for us.
Here’s an example:
Say you need to buy light bulbs. I just moved recently so I’ve been buying a lot of them.
You can ask AI for the best-reviewed, most cost-effective option and be done in two minutes.
That’s a win.
Now let’s say you’re my college-age son who is writing an essay on Shakespeare.
You can ask AI to summarize the themes, pull key quotes, and even craft the entire essay for you. Also a time-saver.
But here’s the tradeoff (and part of my mom lecture on the subject):
If you never read the play, you miss the metaphors that show up in everyday conversations.
You miss the subtle subtext that connects act one to act five.
You miss the feeling of the thing—which is what sticks with you long after the facts fade. And this isn’t just a soliloquy for English majors out there, it really is a metaphor for life.
Because when we rely on AI to fill in the gaps, we risk a kind of attentional narrowing.
That’s when our focus shrinks down to only what’s right in front of us—like the output on the screen—instead of wrestling with the messy middle ourselves, and that’s really what sticks.
And while that mental friction might feel uncomfortable in the moment, it’s actually what helps us learn later, connect dots, and stretch our thinking.
There’s a psychological concept known as cognitive load theory that basically says: your brain doesn’t want to work harder than it has to–also the case with my son by the way. Which makes sense. It’s efficient, our brain is busy. But some effort is essential if real learning is going to take place.
There’s also something called automation bias—our tendency to trust the output of a system more than we trust ourselves. When we rely too heavily on tech, we start deferring our decisions, our discernment, and even our memory to a tool.
So what does that mean for how we live, learn, and listen?
It means we need to get clearer about what we can speed up—and what we shouldn’t skip.
AI is excellent for structure, for support, and for sorting.
But it can’t do the savoring.
It will never recreate the moments where you notice something new like a different tone in someone’s voice.
Or a piece of music that moves you.
Or when you hear a line from a book or play—or podcast—and it lands so deep it stays within you.
Moments like those take time. And more importantly, they take our attention.
Your brain is a pattern-recognition engine. It learns through effort, emotion, and repetition.
Our brains also crave stories, not just summaries. So when we try to go back and skip the messy middle, or bounce over the boring parts, we can inadvertently short-circuit our own memory-making process.
And then there’s our personal pal, intuition.
Those fine-tuned, tailored just-for-you instincts aren’t woo-woo magic. They are the result of a thousand tiny reps your brain has taken over time. Those messy reps.
It’s pattern, emotion, and memory—wired all together through experience.
You can’t outsource that.
If you want to keep noodling on where it makes sense to borrow our AI cyber-study partner—and where it doesn’t—check out Episode 161. I’m a student in this myself, and that podcast offers everyday scenarios where you can get by faster with a little help from your AI friend.
Otherwise, here’s your gentle nudge for today:
Try out the tools, where it makes sense to you.
Delegate the light bulb research (take it from me).
Streamline the summaries and meeting notes.
But don’t skip the parts of life where the richness is in the reading, the feeling, the remembering, the research.
Because the goal isn’t just to be informed. The goal is to be transformed.
And that takes more than speed—it takes presence, and patience.
So as you move through the week, give some tasks over to tech so your brain has more space to savor.
That’s a fantastic shortcut that can help you take care to take really good care.