Note: This is an audio version of IoNTELLIGENCE Issue 58. While podcasts are usually only available to paid Community Members, this one is available to everyone today.
IoNTELLIGENCE delivers neuroscience-backed insights to help high-performers optimize their minds, harness AI, and thrive in a fast-changing world—in five minutes a week.
Upgrade Your Brain. Master AI. Be Future-Ready.
Photo by KATRIN BOLOVTSOVA
How many phone numbers can you remember?
I can recall around five—at least two of which are my own and the one that rang at the home I grew up in. This is what happens when we outsource our memories to our mobile phones. No one planned to forget those numbers; it just happened because we relied on the machine to dial them for us.
It’s an instructive analogy for the risks we run when using other mind-extending technologies. It’s especially relevant with the arrival of ubiquitous, omniscient AI.
It’s no longer a question of whether AI will impact our work and lives but how deeply and quickly. We need to learn how to use these tools strategically now, which is why I like to say that AI requires IA (Intelligent Augmentation). Those initials could also stand for “Intentional Application.”
I tracked my use of these cognitive instruments for a week and then reflected on how to collaborate with them intelligently and intentionally. When employed correctly, AI can give you new abilities, sharpen your thinking, and free you from drudge work. However, you must guard against de-skilling, dumbing yourself down, and developing AI dependency.
How can we strike the right balance between being force-multiplied by AI and not becoming reliant on it?
Taking inspiration from that canonical self-help manual from Stephen Covey, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” (“Begin with the end in mind”), here are my “6 Rules for Mastering AI.”
🏆 The 60-Second Shift: The 6 Rules for Mastering AI in 2025
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