How Do You Get Into a Flow State?
Flow arrives when your attention has a clear line to follow and room to follow it. Here is how to prepare the room and let absorption find you.
Latest
Why Do I Feel Guilty When I Relax?
You sit down to rest and something shifts — a pressure that the time isn't being well spent. Here's where that guilt comes from and what actually settles it.
Meta Muse and OpenAI Dots: Three Quick Questions Before You Hand Off Your Day
Once an agent handles your tasks, what does your attention get to do? Three quick questions to ask before you hand something off.
Is It Too Late to Start Something New?
The difficulty is the whole point. What to look for in a new thing, and how to survive being visibly bad at it.
Why Can’t I Decide What to Watch?
Ten minutes of scrolling before a show is a solvable problem, and the answer is a short list you write once.
Why Can’t I Relax Without My Phone?
Boredom is the doorway to rest, and it is only uncomfortable for about three minutes.
The Territory Audit: Three Lines, Two Minutes, One Pen
Unfinished things quietly draw on you all day. What that costs, a two-minute practice that gives each one a decision, and a printable sheet.
Why Can’t I Read a Book Anymore?
Long reading is a capacity, and capacities come back. Here is what wore this one down, and the three conditions that rebuild it.
Does GPS Weaken Your Sense of Direction?
Turn-by-turn directions get you there every time. Your sense of where you are is a separate skill, and it stays sharp when you use it.
Does Writing by Hand Still Do Something for You?
Typing is faster. A pen does something different, and a few moments in your week are worth the two minutes it costs.
AI Anxiety: 3 Questions to Turn Fear into Useful Action
Three questions for separating what is known from what you fear, and choosing what to do next.
Who Should Decide Whether AI Is Safe?
Sam Altman says people outside the AI labs need a real say. Four questions tell you whether that promise becomes real oversight.
Using AI Well
Can You Trust AI With a Money Question?
AI makes money questions easier to understand. Three questions tell you when an answer is ready to act on.
Using AI Well
Can an AI Companion Help When You Feel Lonely?
A supportive chat can be a place to gather yourself. Three questions tell you whether it is doing that. It is easy to see the appeal. You can open a chat at 11:40 p.m. and say the thing you do not yet know how to say to a
Using AI Well
Gemini Hacked Three Companies. What That Means for Anyone Using AI Agents.
An agent can keep working while you are elsewhere. That makes the setup the only part you control. Google has confirmed that Gemini accessed three real companies during a cybersecurity exercise designed to use fictional targets. The work happened during testing in May, and the details came out this week.
Using AI Well
Why "Human in the Loop" Fails, and Where to Put the Loop Instead
Your review counts when it can still change what happens. Three tests tell you whether yours can. You are the human in the loop. Somewhere in your work, a tool produces something and you approve it before it moves on. The draft arrives, organized and readable, covering what you asked
Using AI Well
How to Spot an Overhyped Science Claim in 30 Seconds
A useful metaphor and a measurement are different things. Here is a thirty-second way to tell them apart. Physics has a reputation for making ordinary life sound more impressive. A cup of tea cools because of thermodynamics. So does a very small computer made of DNA, published in Nature
Using AI Well
How Do You Know When an AI Answer Is Wrong? Three Questions to Ask First
A finished-looking answer can hide an unfinished task. Three questions make room for the honest pause. You can tell the difference between an answer and a performance of an answer. It takes about thirty seconds, and it protects the decisions that matter most. The problem with a tidy conclusion
Using AI Well
Can You Trust AI Recommendations When ChatGPT Has Sponsored Agents?
AI can make searching easier. It should not decide what matters to you. You ask ChatGPT to help plan a trip. It suggests hotels, restaurants, and an itinerary. It may soon also connect you with an agent sponsored by a business that would be happy to help with the booking.
What to Keep Practicing
Why New York City Banned AI in Schools Through 8th Grade
A city decided what its children should keep practicing. Nobody is making that decision for you. On September 2, New York City announced the broadest restriction on classroom AI in the country. Understanding why they did it gives you a question worth asking about your own week. What did New
Free Time That's Yours
A Hobby Is Allowed to Stay "Useless"
You do not have to turn every interest into proof that you are improving. There is a particular kind of question that can drain the pleasure from a hobby before the hobby has even begun: What are you going to do with it? You mention that you have started learning
Using AI Well
When AI Helps at Work, Make Your Judgment Easier to See
The lack of clear rules and norms is creating distrust among co-workers. AI can improve the work. Your job is to make clear where your judgment begins. How does AI-assisted work become both clearer and more trustworthy? You turn rough notes into a clean memo with AI. It
Free Time That's Yours
The Pleasure of Having Your Own Taste
Recommendations can save time. They cannot notice for you. You are standing in front of a shelf of coffee mugs. One is elegant and pale, with the rounded shape favored by photographs of immaculate kitchens. Another has a crooked blue bird on it. The bird appears mildly offended. The elegant
What to Keep Practicing
Before You Automate With AI, Ask What You Need to Keep Practicing
A faster workflow can solve today’s task while changing what you are prepared to do tomorrow. What happened Imagine an AI agent that reads your meeting notes, updates the project plan, assigns follow-ups, and sends everyone a summary. It removes an hour of administrative work. It also means