I was talking with my son and some of his friends about ChatGPT and Claude. A question came up: where do you draw the line?
I do not think the answer lies in which tasks we use AI for.
It lies in understanding what the effort was doing to us.
Some effort is just friction. Formatting a document. Drafting a routine note. Searching for information. Removing that effort costs us very little. Use the tool.
But some effort is how we grow.
Writing something difficult forces us to clarify what we think. Wrestling with a problem builds judgment. Working through confusion is often how understanding develops.
If AI removes that struggle too quickly, the task may still get completed, but something important may not get built in us.
That is the distinction I find useful.
Instead of simply asking, “Can AI do this for me?” ask yourself first, “What would I have learned by doing this myself?”
If the answer is very little, hand it over.
But if doing it yourself is building a capability you want to develop, perhaps stay with the struggle a little longer.
AI can save us enormous amounts of effort.
We just need to make sure it is not saving us from the effort that was meant to change and improve us.