Two days without AI

I used AI so much this week that I ran out of tokens and couldn’t use it for two days.

And those two days were the most productive I’ve had in years.

I was worried, how could I possibly get anything done when I worked like a Neanderthal? We don’t live in the Stone Age anymore; I could’ve just asked AI to write a post for me and get a billion likes.

What surprised me was how gamified AI usage has become. The user experience pulls you in, inviting you to use it for as long as possible. Once you complete your task, you’re asked: “That was great, want to consider a different approach too?” I never quite got to the end of any line of work, it always seemed there was room for a little more.

Honey, I promise, just one last prompt, it’s my last one, I swear.

When I saw the message “Your usage resets in 48 hours”, it was a strange feeling of triumph.

So, like a caveman, I took out a pen and paper and started writing. I wrote the articles and worked on presentations and reports I’d been putting off. I had conversations with people in which we sketched on the same piece of paper. I studied, and even wrote out a few marketing emails by hand. My hand went numb after two sentences, but I kept pushing.

I didn’t wake up anxious to check if some prompt worked out. I wasn’t waiting for an AI response before I could move, I just went from one thing to the next. When I hit something I didn’t understand, I had to learn it the hard way, read articles, watch lectures, take notes. This was all just two days.

And I even had time to type this post out by hand. I know, it defies logic.

I decided to remain in the past a little bit longer.

…and… cancel… every… single… one of my AI subscriptions.

I may not survive…

Pray for me.