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What AI Can’t Read for You, And Why That’s the Point
15/08/2025
Yesterday I posted a tip about reading and learning faster with AI. That part got a lot of attention. But to me, the real point was something else. It's about how I work with the 20 books I've got piled up. And how I actually do something with what I read. Someone messaged me, thinking I just upload a book and turn that into content. That's not it at all. It's not about feeding someone else's work into AI and calling it a day. I do use AI in this process, but only as a tool to develop my own thinking. I don't outsource insight. I build it myself.
When I read, I take notes. Sometimes it's a quote, but often it's more like a spark—something that connects with what I'm already thinking about. I write that down, often in a messy way, with bits of reflection or brainwaves added in. Those fragments are where the value is. That's what I feed into AI. Not to create something new out of nothing, but to sharpen what's already forming.
This is important to me. Not just because I like AI, but because I believe we need to use it responsibly. That means you don't take other people's ideas and reshape them as if they were your own. I've had my own work copied. Sometimes entire trainings. Once, someone took all my brand keywords and pasted them onto their own site, in the same order. It's unsettling, but apparently part of the time we live in.
If that's true, then let it at least push us to go deeper into our own identity. For me, that identity is rooted in how I've had to move through the world. I've had to be resilient since I was fourteen. I've built strategies to create a good life, on my own terms. That's taken creativity, discipline, and a lot of empathy—traits that are not just part of my work, but part of who I am. They show up in my mentoring, my courses, my art, and even in how I read a book.
Because of how my brain works, I've developed two ways to stay focused and turn reading into something tangible. The first one starts with a notebook. I read, I jot things down. Then I read those notes out loud to myself, often adding reflections as I go. I record that, transcribe it, and feed the transcript into AI tools. That gives me a structured bubble of content to work with. I don't use that to generate something automatically. I use it to refine my own thinking.
The second method skips handwriting. I open Notion and start a 'meeting' with the book. I read, talk to the text, respond with my own insights, ask myself questions. Sometimes I record quotes, sometimes just thoughts. I prompt myself, not the AI. Later, I transcribe that recording and use the transcript in a similar way.
In both workflows, AI only comes in after I've already started thinking. It doesn't lead the process. It helps me go a layer deeper, make connections I might not have seen, or challenge an idea I'm working on. I'm not using it to speed through books. If anything, I read more than I did before. But with more focus, and with a clearer sense of what I want to take from it. But I read with more intensity. I show up differently. And because of that, I remember more. The things I learn stick. I've noticed that working this way improves long-term memory and retention. It's active learning, not passive scrolling.
Three years ago I had three solo exhibitions. All of them were created in co-creation with AI. Not with a single prompt and an image generator, but through layered processes involving my painting, photography, Photoshop work, and constant feedback loops. I also used early GPTs to help mental health professionals create materials for young people who had lost a parent. These weren't AI outputs. They were collaborations, built with care and intention.
That's the same spirit I bring to how I read and learn. I don't (necessaril only) care about going faster. I care about being present while I work. And I'm not interested in automation for its own sake. What I'm after is a way to grow, to think clearer, to create from a real place, that nurtures creativity and creating meaningful things. You don't get that by skipping steps. You get it by listening to your own thoughts and giving them the space to grow.
And that's really what I wanted to say. I don't use AI to extract. I use it to reflect. I read more, I learn better, and I get more out of the books I've already chosen to spend time with. That's the only way it makes sense to me.
Plot twist: We keep asking whether AI will make us less human. But maybe the better question is: are we willing to stay human while using it? AI FOR MORE HUMANITY!
That's where the real work begins.
If this sparked something for you, feel free to share it with someone who's got a quiet, dust collecting stack of books waiting for them.