Work hard, become an idiot

AI is here, let's level up — for real this time

Welcome to Heartdrive. In this post, we’ll talk about overload vs wisdom, and how to make the most of our new tools. Welcome!

The AI revolution is here and we have a choice: will we replace the time we gain with even more work (like we usually do), or will we use it to become wise?

What do I mean by wise? I mean accessing our “System 3” — the deeper part of us that just knows. The one we never have time to listen to. Because we’re too busy being busy.

In Daniel Kaumann’s book “Thinking Fast and Thinking Slow”, Daniel introduces two systems:

• System 1, which lets us make rapid, instinctual and emotional decisions,

• System 2, our slower, deliberate, rational thinking, beyond the snap decision.

Our strategic decisions should arguably be made with System 2. Getting there requires to step away from the screen, but it’s doable.

And I’m here to say that even beyond that, there’s a more important one that I’ve found:

• System 3, our deeper intuition and access to wisdom, where insights come to us, rather than being logically deduced.

And it’s this System 3 that really requires the stillness, the gaps, and less busy-ness in our lives. Or else we’ll never hear it.

How to become an idiot

I’m now on my third run as Founder and CEO, and for me, the trap of personal productivity is always present. There’s always someone to help or a problem to solve. Always another email, meeting, or project. Let’s dig in!

But it’s not serving me anymore and when I fall into the overdoing, it’s ruining my access to System 2, and more importantly, to System 3 — which is true intuition.

So in designing a company for the third time, I decided to be deliberate about not asking for weekend and evening work, not creating a hustle culture. I just want people to feel good. For their sake. And for the company’s.

They’ll make better decisions this way because they’ll have access. Access to themselves. To their inner faculties that allow them to hear the whisper of “no”. And the whisper of “maybe later” or “this does not matter” or “let’s just be kind”. Making sure these whispers make it all the way to the frontal cortex.

So that we may breathe.

When we’re so busy doing, we don’t stop and watch the roses. We forget about gratitude and don’t see our own growth.

We miss all the great ideas along the way.

The great ideas that could make us superhuman, finish the project in record time, deliver something truly new, really help someone, etc. The great ideas that can slash months — sometimes years — off of a project.

But we rarely get there. Because we work so hard, we become overwhelmed, thinking everything is important, everything is urgent, every thread needs to be read, we never say no, and we never think originally.

In short, we become like idiots.

Counter corporate culture

So to counter this idea of “work harder, get faster results”, I encourage my team to join our weekly meditation session. I schedule long “no meeting” blocks in my schedule. I get out in nature to access deeper awareness (and get some motion in!) during “work time”. I trust the people around me and ask them to access their intuition to find answers.

I also work without my computer. I’ve learned to redefine work from only counting when it’s in front of the screen, to happening… wherever I am. Maybe in the pool. Maybe while riding a train or a bike. Wherever insights happen.

So as the AI revolution takes us to new places and new opportunities, let’s allow ourselves to also become new humans. Humans who have access to our intuitive faculties, our regular stillness, humans who have the patience and stability to live without our screens for an extended period of time.

Humans who come up with ideas so grand, and so right, and so beautiful, that even AI couldn’t imagine them.

This will take time. We’ll have to learn to do nothing. But it’ll be an enjoyable nothing.

And we’ll be way more impactful doing it.

Let’s leave the “industrial age” behind, and enter the era of “only meaningful work”.

And so it is. 🙏

Blessings,
Jon