Be less productive

We’re about two years into the “AI” era and I have to ask the uncomfortable question:

Is all this “productivity” actually helping people, you know… make more money?

There’s no question that AI has made people way, way faster. You’ve seen a million people (including me) post about their fancy workflows for pushing code, content, videos, etc.

But where’s all the revenue? To be honest, I haven’t seen it.

Not even from the people who are legitimately 10x ahead in terms of AI adoption, and are shipping high quality stuff at an insane reate.

Why?

Because doing the RIGHT thing matters more than doing A LOT of things

The (maybe harsh) truth is that the value of any idea is probably zero.

You don’t get any credit for effort. The most likely reaction to publishing an article, video, shipping a new feature etc is indifference.

I don’t mean to be pessimistic, it’s just a fact.

For example do you care that Airbnb made it easier to update your profile photo, or that Keynote now supports exporting .AVIF files? Probably not.

“But those little details add up! Even if people don’t notice, it makes them love the app!”

Sorry - as someone who’s done product for 20+ years, I wish that was true. But it isn’t.

You could ship 100 more little updates like that, and it wouldn’t create a single dollar of additional revenue.

If the value of each idea is zero, infinity times zero is still zero.

And at a certain point, doing more (even if it’s good work) is NEGATIVE value. Look how how Evernote got ruined by cramming too many features in, or how your engagement can tank if you post too much.

So doing “more” is literally worthless, unless you’re doing the right things.

Shipping 1 killer feature with PMF or 1 banger piece of content that people love, will move the needle more than literally 10 or 100 mediocre ones.

Which is why it's more important than ever to focus on ONLY the truly important things, and ignore everything else.

And AI just isn't very good at that part, no matter what the AI companies tell you. No, Claude can’t create your strategy for you. No, an agent can’t “build out an entire ad campaign” from uploading your call transcripts.

(I think this is a fundamental shortcoming, since by definition models can't reason out of distribution)

This feels like some kind of goofy platitude from a self-help book, but it’s the truth: YOU are the important part, and AI can’t replace you.

So don’t worry about being more “productive.”

If anything, most should be LESS "productive" so they have room to slow down, breathe, think and focus on doing things that actually matter.

Otherwise you’re just transferring money from your pocket to Dario/Sam’s by burning tokens!

PS - I have nothing to sell you right now, but I always love hearing from you! Reply if you want to say hi, I read all of them.