How I Protect My Brain in the Age of AI
A personal framework for using AI tools without outsourcing your thinking
Hello everyone, what a two weeks of 2026, right?
An X post I wrote about ADHD tricks got a lot of reactions, so I wanted to share my tips about using AI without feeling dumber each day.
Long story short: I position AI beside my brain, not instead of it. Not a crutch, but a growth tool. And, I don’t treat AI as one monolithic tool. I believe each AI has its own “personality” based on how it was trained and what use cases it was designed for.
Some topics work better with GPT-based models, others with Perplexity, Claude, Grok, or NotebookLM. So instead of “one holy model,” I operate with “different tools for different stages.”
In this piece, I’ll walk you through both: my non-negotiable rules for keeping my brain engaged, and which tools I use at each stage of my workflow, from idea discovery to final edit.
Why does this matter? Recent studies show that over-delegating thinking to AI can weaken brain engagement, creativity, and critical thinking over time. An MIT Media Lab study found that…
