How to think well with AI: signals, quietness, and the argument engine

About this episode

Azeem Azhar explores the impact of AI on thinking and the balance between cognitive work and AI assistance.

AI has become so embedded in how I work that I can no longer cleanly separate it from my thinking. That raises a question I find genuinely unsettling: is intensive AI use making me a sharper thinker, or quietly doing the opposite? In this episode I pull back the curtain on my full research and writing process — the custom tools, the friction points, and the places where I'm still not sure I've got it right. For Ezra Klein, having AI summarize material is a disaster for original thought. But my AI systems are designed to protect the cognitive work that has to stay human, while they handle everything else. Knowing where to draw that line turns out to be the hardest and most important question.

Topics covered

• AI
• cognitive science
• technology
• writing process
• original thought

Keywords

• AI use
• thinking
• research process
• cognitive work
• Ezra Klein

Mentioned in this episode

Products: custom tools

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