I watched a friend plan a trip recently — routes, restaurants, all of it. When someone asked why they weren’t just using ChatGPT, they said: “Because I enjoy it.”
Simple answer. But it’s a question we’re not asking enough.
Our default these days is to optimize everything. Automate. Minimize friction. Move faster.
But armed with a couple decades of hindsight, maybe the new game is deciding what’s actually worth keeping human.
We’ve been here before. When smartphones and the ubiquitous internet arrived, we didn’t really know what we were giving up.
We thought we were gaining access, ease, productivity. And we were. But we also lost:
Boredom — the kind that brings fresh ideas and stillness
Presence — the micro-moments of our days spent on screens: the elevator rides, meals, and checkout lines
Attention spans — the mental bandwidth to stick with a long-form article, book, or intellectual pursuit
Nobody decided to give those things up. It happened bit by bit, then all at once. The pull was strong and the cost was invisible. Until it wasn’t.
Now look around. Romance moved to apps. Friendship moved to DMs. Shopping left the mall. Books and long-form articles became Instagram carousels and X threads.
Everything got shorter, faster, more digital. We’ve gained a lot, but we can’t pretend we didn’t also lose a little something along the way.
AI feels different. Not because it’s more dangerous (maybe it is, maybe it isn’t), but because we’re watching it arrive in real time. We can see it coming.
With social media and smartphones, we outsourced pieces of our lives to algorithms without really noticing: relationships, awareness, attention, time.
Right now, with AI, we’re conscious of it.
So as we approach yet another disruptive technology coming at us full speed, we need to take a beat and ask the question.
Not whether AI is good or bad, but: what do you want to keep human?
Because AI will take whatever you give it. It’ll plan your trips, write your emails, summarize your books, replace your creativity. It’ll save you time.
But what are you doing with that time?
If it’s just more consumption, you’re not upgrading — you’re trading one thing for another.
Here’s the move: get clear on what you want to keep human and what you’re willing to outsource.
Protect the things that make you feel alive — even if they take longer. Automate the stuff that drains you.
Because AI is forcing us to ask: what does it even mean to be human? What’s worth preserving?
We didn’t get to ask those questions with smartphones and social media — now we do. So make the choice and decide what’s sacred to you.
Use the tools, but don’t let them use you.
If not us, who?
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