AI Turns Work Into "Snacking": Three Habits to Reclaim Deliberate Thinking
every · x · 2026-10-07
Every quotes Jack Cheng's observation that AI makes it easy to "snack" on work — always picking the easy, low-impact task and immediately reaching for another. He caught himself sending a model to build every feature idea without asking whether the feature belonged, or whether the project deserved his time at all. Losing access to the strongest models used to interrupt that cycle, forcing ideas to wait long enough to reveal which mattered.
Now he creates that pause without hitting usage limits: 1) let a feature idea sit overnight; 2) before asking AI a hard question, write down why it matters; 3) write down your own tentative answer first. Some ideas still deserve attention tomorrow; others lose appeal once the payoff is no longer immediate.
More from AGI Musings
- Gary Marcus: AI extinction risk near zero, but catastrophe and dystopia risks loom — GaryMarcus · 2026-10-07
- PhD student laments shrinking research horizons as IceCube's 38-year path wins the Nobel — DJiafei · 2026-10-07
- Alignment Science essay traces Adam Smith's invisible hand as a cross-scale alignment pattern — sebkrier · 2026-10-07
- Guardian: Safety Cases Are the New Flight Manuals for AI, but Regulators Aren't Demanding Proof Yet — nordicinst · 2026-10-07
- Professor's classroom Barnum-effect stunt: students rated fake handwriting analysis 8-10/10 — dioscuri · 2026-10-07
- AI agent panels agreed 98.7% of the time on a logic puzzle — and were wrong in 74% of cases — alex_verem · 2026-10-07