AI makes it possible to produce an extraordinary amount of material in very little time. The person receiving it still has a stubbornly human amount of attention (how dare they!). [Insert soemthing about context windows].

When I pass a large volume of AI output to a colleague before doing the work of understanding it, I have usually moved the effort downstream. Somebody else now has to find the argument, test the assumptions, remove the repetition and work out what I actually wanted them to notice.

That is unhelpful. More than that, it is inconsiderate.

So I don’t do it anymore and neither should you.

Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.
Often attributed to U.S. Navy SEALs; the precise origin is unclear (apparently)

The saying is often associated with U.S. Navy SEALs, although there does not appear to be a reliable attribution to one original speaker. Its lesson is useful here: rushing produces errors and friction; deliberate movement creates a rhythm that is faster in the end.

The bottleneck has moved

Before generative AI, producing the first draft was often the slow part. Now the scarce work is judgement: deciding what matters, what is true, what is missing and how the result should be communicated. I have heard this repeatedly from people I consider to be riding this wave with skill and flair.

We should slow down at that point.

Read the output. Challenge it. Follow the implication you would rather ignore. Ask whether the problem deserves deep thought. If it does not, it may not deserve doing at all.

I find it useful to turn the unstructured mess into a few clear pillars:

  • The problem — what is happening, for whom, and why it matters.
  • The evidence — what we know, what we only suspect, and what contradicts us.
  • The choices — the genuine options and their consequences.
  • The next move — the smallest useful decision or action.

AI can help perform that compression. It can group, compare, question and rewrite. Good compression makes the thinking easier to carry while preserving the nuance that matters.

The volume of material we can generate is no longer impressive. Something someone actually thought about and distilled into clear, actionable points is now premium - so get good at that.

And bringing it back to the title…

Move slowly enough to understand the work. Make it smooth enough for somebody else to use.