2025-34 Your Weekly Upgrade: Mastering Your Mind in the Age of AI

Welcome to Your Weekly Learning Capsule!

This week, we’re diving into a powerful theme: upgrading our internal operating system. The world is changing at an unprecedented pace, with artificial intelligence rewriting the rules of work and life. But the most advanced tool we’ll ever use is the one between our ears. How do we master our own psychology to navigate this new landscape, make better decisions, and build a fulfilling life? Let’s explore the timeless principles and cutting-edge insights that can help us thrive.

Part 1: Mastering Our Inner World — The Human Operating System

Before we can master external tools, we must first understand our own wiring. Many of our struggles aren’t moral failings but features of our unique neurological and psychological makeup.

Working With Your Brain, Not Against It

Do you ever find yourself frozen, unable to start a task you know you need to do? According to a brilliant breakdown on Understanding and Overcoming ADHD Procrastination, this isn’t laziness—it’s often “ADHD paralysis.” The ADHD brain needs a hit of dopamine *before* starting a task, not after. The key is to stop fighting this reality and start working with it. By identifying your “procrastinator archetype”—be it the Overwhelm Avoider or the Dopamine Chaser—you can apply targeted strategies, like rewarding yourself *before* you begin, to generate the spark you need.

Mentoring question: Reflecting on the different procrastinator archetypes, which one resonates most with your own experiences, and what is one small, ‘ADHD-friendly’ hack you could try this week to work *with* your brain instead of against it?

This principle of understanding our internal mechanics is a universal cheat code. As explored in Life’s Cheat Codes: Embracing Simplicity, progress comes from applying simple but powerful psychological truths. Our decisions are 90% emotional, our memory is a rewriteable story, and our brains need sleep to literally clean out metabolic waste. The path to a better life isn’t complex; it’s about accepting what we can’t control, mastering what we can (our actions), and compounding tiny daily improvements.

The Power of Mindset and Mental Models

How we think shapes our reality. A beautiful story about A Beggar’s Transformation illustrates this perfectly. By shifting his mindset from a taker to a giver—offering a simple flower in exchange for money—a beggar transformed his self-perception and, ultimately, his entire life. He became a businessman in his own mind first. This reminds us that success begins with an internal shift toward creating and exchanging value.

We can accelerate this shift with powerful mental models. Instead of only planning for success, try The Power of Inversion. Ask yourself: “What would guarantee my failure?” By identifying and avoiding those critical pitfalls, you clear the path to success. It’s how WWII analysts saved planes not by reinforcing where they were hit, but where the planes that *didn’t* return were hit.

Similarly, we can supercharge our decision-making with The Two-Way Door Framework. Most of our decisions are reversible “two-way doors” and should be made quickly to gather feedback. We waste precious mental energy treating them like irreversible “one-way doors.” By classifying decisions correctly, we can act faster and save our deep thinking for the few choices that truly matter.

Mentoring question: Think about a recent decision you’ve been struggling with. Is it a ‘one-way door’ or a ‘two-way door’? If it’s a two-way door, how would classifying it as a ‘hat’, ‘haircut’, or ‘tattoo’ change the speed and confidence with which you approach it?

Guarding Against the Enemies Within

While building good habits, we must also guard against the bad ones. As Carlo Cipolla’s essay, explored in How Not to Be Stupid, brilliantly argues, avoiding stupidity is more important than seeking intelligence. A stupid act is one that harms others while bringing no gain to yourself. It’s an irrational net loss for everyone. By being vigilant, especially under stress, we can avoid these costly, destructive mistakes.

This vigilance extends to the smallest of compromises. The Parable of the Cat tells of a monk whose entire spiritual quest was derailed by a series of escalating needs that all started with one small, seemingly harmless decision: getting a cat to solve a rat problem. It’s a powerful warning that small indulgences, if unchecked, can quietly lead us down a path we never intended to walk.

Part 2: Navigating the External World — The Age of AI and Human Connection

With a more robust internal OS, we can turn our attention outward. The dominant force shaping our world is artificial intelligence, a tool that is both a massive opportunity and a potential threat to our cognitive skills and careers.

The AI Revolution: Promise, Reality, and Opportunity

First, let’s look at the hype versus the reality. The promise is a $236 billion “Super Agent Economy,” where autonomous AI agents act as invisible employees, transforming months of work into minutes. But the real-world implementation is challenging. As research from the Victorian Public Service shows, AI’s Productivity Promise is often undermined by high costs, poor data quality, and the need for so much human oversight that the gains are nullified.

Furthermore, is AI truly thinking? A fascinating paper from Apple, titled The Illusion of Thinking, suggests that LLMs are masters of pattern mimicry, not genuine reasoning. They wear a “reasoning mask” that falls off when faced with novel, complex problems. This is supported by an MIT study showing that using ChatGPT for a creative task reduces brain activity, putting users on “autopilot.” The warning is clear: we must balance AI’s use with unaided deep thinking to keep our own cognitive skills sharp.

So where is the real opportunity? It’s not just about using AI, but about building systems with it.

The $3 Trillion Service Opportunity: A massive market is emerging for ‘AI-First’ service agencies that use automation on the back end to make traditional businesses like marketing or recruiting hyper-efficient and scalable.
The Secret is the Prompt: The magic behind powerful tools like Claude Code isn’t a secret model; it’s incredibly sophisticated prompt engineering. Mastering AI Context Engineering—giving the AI the right memory, tools, and data—is the key to building reliable systems.
Build the Future: For those ready to dive in, platforms like n8n are rapidly adding features for building dynamic agents, and Microsoft has released a fantastic, free Generative AI for Beginners course.

Mentoring question: Considering your own industry, what is one repetitive, high-value service that could be significantly automated with AI to create a more scalable business model?

The Irreplaceable Human: Focus, Leadership, and Connection

As AI handles more technical and analytical tasks, our most valuable skills become uniquely human. As mathematician Po-Shen Loh argues in Thriving in the Age of AI, our future depends on thoughtfulness, empathy, and the authentic desire to create value for others.

This means developing skills AI can’t replicate:

Deep Work: The ability to focus intensely without distraction is a superpower. Mastering Deep Work, as Cal Newport explains, is a trainable skill that allows you to produce elite-level work in less time.
Proactive Leadership: The shift from a senior developer to a true Tech Leader happens when you move from being a reactive “problem solver” to a proactive “problem finder,” anticipating future challenges and connecting them to business value.
Authentic Connection: In a world of digital noise, genuine relationships are paramount. We must learn to recognize and counter common manipulation tactics and avoid the toxic habits that lead to loneliness in old age. True connection requires consistency, effort, and emotional stability.

Final Thought: The Ultimate Upgrade

The path forward is clear. We must embrace new technologies like AI not as a crutch that makes us weaker, but as a lever that amplifies our uniquely human strengths. By upgrading our internal operating system—sharpening our focus, improving our decision-making, and cultivating empathy—we can not only survive the age of AI but thrive within it, building careers and lives of meaning, connection, and profound success.

Reflecting on the different procrastinator archetypes, which one resonates most with your own experiences, and what is one small, ‘ADHD-friendly’ hack you could try this week to work *with* your brain instead of against it?
Considering your own industry or area of expertise, what is one repetitive, high-value service that could be significantly automated with AI to create a more scalable business model?
Reflecting on Cipolla’s definition of a ‘stupid action’—one that harms others with no benefit to yourself—can you identify a time when, under stress or distraction, you made a decision that fit this description, and what could you do to avoid similar irrational mistakes in the future?
Reflecting on the 80/20 principle, what is the 20% of your activities that produces 80% of your stress or unhappiness, and what is one small step you can take this week to reduce it?
In your own work or learning, how do you distinguish between having a genuine understanding of a concept and simply mimicking a process you’ve memorized?
When you embark on learning a new skill, how do you distinguish between getting better at the training exercise itself versus developing a transferable, real-world ability?
Considering the new dynamic conversation and error handling features, how could you redesign one of your existing automated workflows to be more robust and provide a better user experience?
Think about your last month at work. How much of your time was spent reacting to immediate problems versus proactively identifying and addressing future challenges for your team or the business?
Considering a current or potential AI automation project, which of the five mindset principles (e.g., data pipeline design, AI specialization) presents the biggest challenge for you, and what is the first step you can take to address it?
Reflecting on these manipulation tactics, which one resonates most with your past or present experiences, and what is one small, actionable step you can take this week to reinforce a boundary related to it?
Considering the trade-offs between a new, potentially revolutionary technology like sodium-ion and a mature, proven one like lithium-ion, how do you personally balance the allure of significant cost savings against factors like proven reliability and peak performance when making a major purchase like a car or home energy system?
Based on the principles of repetition and detailed examples found in Claude Code’s prompts, how could you improve the reliability of a key function in an AI agent you are building or using?
Beyond in-person interviews, what other strategies could your team or company implement to verify a candidate’s genuine skills and problem-solving abilities in the age of AI?
How does reframing flexibility from a passive ‘stretching’ activity to an active ‘strength-building’ one change your approach to your own mobility goals?
Considering the potential for early, accessible AI-based health predictions like this, how might it change our personal approach to long-term health planning and preventive care?
After reading that vacation can be a test for workaholism, reflect on your last significant break from work. Were you able to fully disconnect, or did you feel a persistent anxiety or compulsion to check in? What might this suggest about your own work-life boundaries?
In what area of your life could you shift from a ‘taker’ or ‘receiver’ mindset to a ‘giver’ or ‘exchanger’ mindset, and what small item of value could you begin to offer?
Consider a significant goal you’re currently pursuing. Instead of asking ‘What do I need to do to succeed?’, apply inversion and ask, ‘What actions or inactions would guarantee my failure?’. What one or two critical pitfalls can you now actively work to avoid?
Think about a recent decision you’ve been struggling with. Is it a ‘one-way door’ or a ‘two-way door’? If it’s a two-way door, how would classifying it as a ‘hat’, ‘haircut’, or ‘tattoo’ change the speed and confidence with which you approach it?
What is the ‘cat’ in your own life—a small, seemingly harmless indulgence or distraction that might be slowly diverting you from your most important goals?
What is one repeatable, clearly defined process in your work that you could delegate to an AI agent to free up your time for more strategic or creative tasks?
Of the deep work strategies mentioned, which single habit of distraction is most interfering with your focus, and what specific ritual could you create this week to begin training your brain to ignore it during a scheduled work block?
Considering the challenges of data quality, implementation costs, and the need for human oversight highlighted in the article, what is the single most important ‘groundwork’ your team or organization needs to complete before you can successfully leverage AI for genuine productivity gains?
Based on the course outline, which specific lesson, such as ‘Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG)’ or ‘Integrating with Function Calling,’ addresses a current challenge or opportunity in your work or personal projects?
Reflecting on your own relationships, in which areas could you consciously invest more consistent effort and emotional stability to strengthen your connections with others?
Reflecting on your own work, how can you intentionally create a balance between leveraging AI for efficiency and engaging in unaided, deep thinking to sharpen your own skills?
Given the upcoming Spatial Planning Reform, what specific steps could you take now to assess the risks and potential of your current or future land investments before the 2026 deadline?
Considering the different types of exercise mentioned—yoga, walking, resistance training—which one could you realistically incorporate into your routine to potentially improve your sleep, and what would be your first step to get started?
The speaker uses AI not just for answers, but as a tool to build his own mental models and ‘simulate the world.’ What is one complex topic you’re interested in, and how could you use AI as a research assistant to explore multiple, even conflicting, viewpoints to deepen your own understanding rather than just seeking a simple summary?