“Keep the Robots Out of the Gym”

I keep finding myself thinking of this short essay from Daniel Miessler:

Think very carefully about where you get help from AI.

I think of it as Job vs. Gym.

  • If we’re working a manual labor job, it’s fine to have AI lift heavy things for us because the actual goal is to move the thing, not to lift it.
  • This is the exact opposite of going to the gym, where the goal is to lift the weight, not to move it.

He argues for identifying gym tasks (e.g. critical thinking, problem solving), and for those use just your brain (with minimal AI assistance, if any).

My primary metric for this is whether or not I am getting sharper at the skills that are closest to my identity.

The whole essay (2-min read) is worth checking out.