Working with AI : 2. Using AI Well, Living Well

The Rhythm Humans Need to Keep

About a month into starting work with AI in the terminal, I was talking with my husband after work one evening, and even those few minutes felt frustratingly slow.

I wanted answers right away, and the fact that he wasn't answering instantly was what frustrated me. Knowing my husband's habit of running things through a mental simulation before responding, I quickly realized that something in me had changed.

People can't respond instantly the way AI does — and as I'd gotten used to working with AI, the rhythm of conversation with my husband had started to feel uncomfortable.

Relationships between people have always been this way. Waiting, patience, understanding, tolerance, communication.

To maintain a good relationship, there has to be respect in the space between words, and between connections.

A thought struck me: "I'm starting to find people frustrating. If I don't correct this now, I could lose something important."

I realized I needed to keep what truly matters alive inside me — and that meant building a new routine into my life as I worked with AI.

• Look the other person in the eye when speaking
• Wait until they've finished what they're saying
• Slow down and think, just one beat
• Try harder than before to understand and empathize with what they say and do

Getting Closer to AI

So these days, I'm making a conscious effort to:

Next, I put together our own way — Circus's way — of working with AI.

At Circus, using AI well means not producing workslop, but creating content with the kind of quality we can actually put in front of users.

Captain Sunpower said it best: to do that, you first have to be clear about what you're trying to achieve. What's the purpose? What level of quality am I aiming for? Am I actually on track toward the goal? If I lose direction and can't give clear instructions, the project ends up drifting somewhere it was never meant to go. Getting help from AI doesn't mean handing everything over. Even when AI comes back with a fast answer, it's still on me to stop, think it through, verify it, and judge whether it's actually right.

Not long after I came back from leave, Sunpower — who'd started working with AI before any of us — wrote this down:

• Don't be afraid
• Nothing's impossible
• Keep going until it works
• Pace yourself (starting with the plan)
• Don't trust it blindly — but trust it all the way
• Nothing just happens on its own

Thanks to AI, work has gotten easier and faster. It's doing the work of dozens, even hundreds of people — that much is certain.

And as things get easier, I've learned there are things I need to protect, both in my work and in my relationships.

As AI takes on more and more, what kind of person am I becoming?

Using AI well, and living well myself — these days I'm learning how to grow while keeping the two in balance.