Notes
A growing web of short, linked ideas about augmented intelligence — the conviction that AI is one tool for thinking, not the thinker. Each note states one claim and links to the others. Follow a thread; you won't lose your place.
How to read this: these are evergreen notes — each titled with a single claim, kept short, and linked to its neighbours. Start anywhere and follow the links. "Linked from" at the foot of each note shows what points back to it.
Thinking with AI
- AI is one tool for thinking, not the thinkerAI is the newest tool for extending thought, but it never supplies the goal, the judgment, or the responsibility.
- Augmenting a person beats automating the taskAutomation caps quality at the system's blind spots; augmentation keeps the human in the loop and raises the ceiling.
- Tools for thought change what you can thinkA new way to represent ideas does not just record thinking; it makes new thoughts reachable.
- The interface shapes what you can thinkThe same AI behind a chat box, a canvas, or a direct tool produces very different thinking.
- Structure beats freeform text for working with AIA defined shape makes an AI request precise and its output checkable field by field; freeform prose is fluent but unverifiable.
Staying in charge
- Delegate the task, keep the judgmentYou can hand an AI the doing without handing over the deciding about what matters and whose interest wins.
- Autonomy is not the same as agencyAutonomy is freedom from interference; agency is the capacity to set and pursue your own goals.
- Trust is a calibrated forecast, not a feelingTrusting an AI output should be a probability you update, not a vibe from how fluent it sounds.
Making it stick
- A page can remember what you learnProse interleaved with spaced recall prompts turns ordinary reading into remembering.
- Retrieval, not rereading, is what makes it stickPulling an idea back out of your head strengthens memory far more than reading it again.
- Spacing the practice fights the forgetting curveMemories decay predictably; recalling just before you would forget resets the clock each time.
- Knowledge compounds when it's linked, not just storedA pile of saved notes is inert; the value lives in the links between ideas that make one note reach another.
- Evergreen notes are written to evolve, not to fileMost notes are written once and abandoned; evergreen notes are atomic and rewritten over time, so they accumulate instead of rot.
Seeing clearly — and starting
- A good explanation is hard to varyA real explanation commits to specifics you can't swap out without breaking it; a fake one would fit any outcome equally well.
- Show the data; don't just assert itUnderstanding comes from seeing and poking the real thing, not from reading a claim someone made about it.
- The skill compounds, so start nowWorking well with AI is a skill built from reps, and skills compound, so a small head start widens over time.