Getting Kinetic
NO. 09 · OCTOBER 21, 2026
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Hi— I had two conversations this week about the same thing: how much energy it takes to use AI in our work. Not compute. Yours. This time: the most productive thing you can do with AI is leave the room. | |
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A TENSION
Two things make it tiring. The first is that it’s hard to work with someone you don’t trust, and trust is still under construction here—you check everything, and checking costs more than people admit. The second is sneakier. The chat is frenetic and addictive if you let it be. It makes you feel productive, and it has its own little experience designed around keeping things moving: “Okay, we did that—want me to take the next step, which flows naturally from the work we just did?” That isn’t only helpfulness. It’s engagement design, and the meter runs on tokens. Exhausting, yes. But yet. I’ve found a way to tame it, and it isn’t a tool or a prompt trick. | |
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FROM THE WORK
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PUT IT TO WORK
The other day I handed Claude a project we had planned carefully, turned it loose and drove to see a customer. Because the plan was deliberate, I could actually let go of the work—not check my phone, not steer the chat. I was more present in that afternoon than I’ve been in a while. The machine did its job because I had done mine first, slowly. Here’s the part I keep turning over: this is exactly what the UX designers at Anthropic want. Longer runs, more autonomy, me somewhere else while the meter spins. The same design that made me more present with a customer is also very good business for them. Both things are true, and I don’t think the answer is picking a side. The answer is noticing who’s deciding where your attention goes. | |
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PUT IT TO WORK
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If working with AI is wearing you out, tell me how—I’m collecting these. And if you’ve found your own way to tame it, I want that even more. — JD and the Simple Focus gang | |
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