Welcome to Exponential View, the show where I explore how exponential technologies such as AI are reshaping our future. I've been studying AI and exponential technologies at the frontier for over ten years.
Each week, I share some of my analysis or speak with an expert guest to make light of a particular topic.
To keep up with the Exponential transition, subscribe to this channel or to my newsletter: https://www.exponentialview.co/
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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.
I covered:
00:00 - Is AI worsening our thinking?
02:35 - Ezra Klein on AI and the death of original thought
04:02 - Cognitive offloading vs cognitive surrender
09:20 - Signal detection at scale
11:06 - Why I use several AI personas to scan for different insights
13:37 - AI tells me what NOT to think about
16:25 - The value of quietness
19:07 - Small notebooks, small ideas
20:01 - Writing reveals what you don't yet know
23:24 - The golden thread
25:20 - Speaking drafts aloud
28:05 - How I stress-test my arguments before publishing
29:35 - Using AI to stress-test my own house views
31:44 - Stylometer: my AI style and grammar tool
33:10 - Did AI make the thinking better?
For more on this week’s topics, subscribe to my newsletter https://www.exponentialview.co/
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Where to find me:
Exponential View newsletter: https://www.exponentialview.co/
Website: https://www.azeemazhar.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/azhar/
Twitter/X: https://x.com/azeem
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