Being in the AI industry now for nearly a decade, often friends and coworkers have asked me how do you keep up with all this? Can you recommend somebody to follow to stay on top of the latest news? What models are you using? For a long time, I took pride in being able to answer these questions. Over time, especially within the last few months, the speed of releases and innovation from companies like Anthropic, Google and OpenAI have pushed anyone’s ability to keep up. Even as someone who is studying this industry daily, the speed of change causes AI fatigue. For a while, my passion carried me past this fatigue.
There was a time recently where none of this passion mattered. I was dealing with a level of stress I hadn’t experienced before. I started experiencing insomnia multiple days a week. I would wake up at 1 in the morning with my mind racing through thoughts of the news I was reading or experiences happening throughout the day. In addition to sleepless nights, I started experiencing chest pains during the day.
After months of Dr visits and different medications, I finally found a doctor that ruled out most medical concerns. One of the last tests was a chest scope, where they were looking into the chest pain pains that I was having. Thankfully, everything came back normal. After coming out of a procedure, the Dr sat over my bed and wanted to talk to me. You could tell he was still working out what theories he might have which might explain some of my health issues. He looked deeply into my eyes and asked me two simple and impactful questions: What are your needs?” And “Do you have boundaries?” These have stayed with me and impacted me daily. His theory was that the stress of my job was getting to me, and I needed to make some changes in my life. At that moment, I knew I needed to make some changes.
Instead of spending so much time trying to keep up with every new AI release, I’ve started to see the role it should actually play in my life.
Not as something to track. Not solely for my work.
As a partner.
The shift for me wasn’t about realizing I was behind and I needed to catch-up. The “aha”, was that AI could take on some of the mental load I’ve been carrying.
Not just helping me move faster, but helping me think more clearly. Helping me sort through ambiguity. Helping me handle the day-to-day pressure that comes with my job and life.
The times I’ve felt most overwhelmed weren’t because of AI fatigue from the speed of change. I was overwhelmed because I lacked clarity of my own “why”.
AI as a Thinking Partner, Not a Tool
Now I’ve started using AI less like a tool, and more like a collaborator. I’ve stopped relying on AI tools to give me one shot answers, but instead use the tools to think through problems and solutions.
The value isn’t in pre-built workflows or perfect prompts. The value is in how quickly you can bring an idea, a problem, or a moment into motion. Here’s one real example I am giving friends and family now from my own experiences recently of where AI is becoming more of a thinking partner.
Interview coaching with NotebookLM
Background: Looking for a new job can be stressful. Especially when you have a full-time job. The prep work needed, the research, the customizations of your experience to the role you’re looking to apply for can be overwhelming. I’ve been a long time user of NotebookLLM, but mostly for research and synthesizing long text documents or YouTube videos. I really hadn’t done much personalization or tailoring of prompts for my own specific training or learning.
The Shift: When I was preparing for new roles, I used Google NotebookLLM to maximize the time on my commute. Preparing for interviews can be a lot of hands-on keyboard in front of a machine, and I needed to rethink my approach. I needed a collaborator.
The Partner: I uploaded my resume and the job description to the app, and NotebookLM generated a podcast with two AI agents discussing the role, my background, and my potential fit. Then I did something different: I interrupted it. I started asking my new “coach” questions. Where am I weak for this role? What questions should I expect? How would this interviewer challenge me? As I learned who I’d be meeting with, I added them into the context of my AI generated podcast.
The result wasn’t just better answers. It was better awareness. Now, I was preparing with the full picture, and it worked. I was confident and prepared throughout the interview process.
The starting points for this work transformed entirely. What used to take days took minutes. But more importantly, it closed the gap between insight and influence. Now I am using this approach daily. With Claude, Claude Cowork, Claude Code, Obsidian, and many others. The tool is important, but the mindset shift is the bigger lift.
Where this goes
I used to think AI would make me more productive. It did. But what matters more is this: it helps me find more purpose in how I solve problems. Those questions my doctor asked still sit with me: Do you have boundaries? With AI, that becomes: What role should this actually play in your life? Not: How do I keep up? The answer for me was this: AI is valuable when it closes the gap between a problem and clarity. When it moves me from stuck to seeing a path forward. That’s when it becomes a thinking partner instead of just noise. If AI becomes about better thinking, faster learning, more creative problem solving, and greater personal agency, it changes everything.
