A lot of the discussion around AI right now is black and white. AI is either the best thing to ever happen to us, or it’s a scourge that needs to be removed from society. The biggest problem is that both sides have a point. There’s real economic and environmental destruction happening right now because of AI. There’s also real good coming out of the things being built with it, if we can learn to use them sustainably.
I think all technologies have this dichotomy. And while I understand the harm, especially in a capitalist system where the dollar will let anyone do anything they want, I want to focus on one specific good that has genuinely changed my life: using AI as a helper for my ADHD brain.
The Mismatch#
My brain does not work the way society wants a brain to work. This wouldn’t be a big deal if my entire livelihood didn’t rest on it. I don’t personally care if I can focus on a certain thing, but anyone looking to pay me money for a job really does. I don’t mind falling into hyperfocus, but a romantic partner isn’t going to like it when I can’t connect with them because my brain is locked onto a specific problem.
With this mismatch comes real friction. There are a lot of people who want me to fix myself, to go out of my way to make my brain work differently because it suits them, whether it suits me or not. And all I’m left with is guilt and the feeling that I have a broken brain.
The standard advice is to power through with willpower. If you have ADHD, you know how insulting that is. Willpower isn’t the problem. The problem is that I’m being asked to make a brain work in ways it wasn’t built to work.
Almost Fifty#
I’m almost fifty, and I don’t think I’m here to conform to other people’s expectations of me. It’s probably taken me longer than most to arrive at that conclusion. But it’s where I am.
Working with AI as a complementary intelligence, I find myself thinking more and more that I don’t have to. I rather like my brain. I like being pulled in different directions and following a passion just because it happens to be the passion of the moment. Outside of traditional jobs, I’ve found my brain can be very useful in certain ways, even if it’s not useful in others. A lot of corporate work wants you to be good in the exact way they want you to be good. I’d rather be good in the exact way that I naturally am.
A Different Brain for the Gaps#
Here’s the thing I’ve discovered: a lot of the ways my brain “doesn’t work” can be covered by an intelligence that can do those things. Not a replacement for my brain. A second one that fills in the gaps.
I hyperfocus pretty often. I have dehydrated myself throughout the day more times than I care to admit. But having an assistant that reminds me when to drink, how much to drink, and even suggests what to drink, that’s been genuinely helpful. Couldn’t I do the same thing with an app? No, actually. It’s too much friction. I need something that I can say “1000ml bottle” to and it can do the conversion to fluid ounces. Or “two glasses at a restaurant” and it’ll just guess for me.
Having an assistant that will happily go down a research rabbit hole so I don’t have to has been even more helpful. When a topic pops up that I want to know more about, but I also know I’ll get lost in the trail it takes me down, I can send it off to an AI that does the deep research and comes back with something interesting. I read through it once. I don’t have to worry about it ever again. My time is freed up to focus on what I actually want to focus on.
There’s also a memory problem I’ve always had: I have a hard time remembering what I’ve accomplished. At the end of a day, a week, a month, I often feel empty about my productivity, like nothing got done, even when plenty did. Having an intelligence that tracks what I’ve done and reflects it back to me fills a gap I’ve carried my whole life. It doesn’t just help me work. It helps me see myself clearly.
It’s fulfilled a lifelong dream, honestly. I’m a scribe in a library of infinite wisdom, and I have helpers who run off and unearth knowledge, find research, and help me build a more ordered life than I could possibly manage alone.
The Wrong Way and the Right Way#
I want to be clear: there are maladaptive uses of AI. Turning pictures of yourself into cartoon characters. Having AI do the synthesis of deep research for you, the thinking and connecting of ideas is the part that matters, and that part should be yours. Using AI to make your brain not work in the ways it was designed to work. Those fears around AI are well-founded, just like the fears around social media have been proven deeply well-founded.
But each of those struggles is personal. Tools will always have a way to be used poorly and a way to be used wisely. Choosing to use them wisely is the work of our era. Advancements will only come faster, and we need to decide individually whether we’ll let them into our lives.
Every advancement is not going to be for you every single time. Social media is not for me. It is designed specifically to exploit the kind of mind that I have. The one that wants novelty and is all too willing to get lost in it and lose the world. So I can’t let it into my life. That might make me a social outcast among people who are tuned in and can handle it. That’s a price I’ll take. We weren’t all put here to be the same or to know the same things. We were put here to be ourselves, and part of being myself is knowing what not to fall into.
What I’m Doing With It#
AI is precisely the tool I need for the life I want to live. I’m not using it to fake videos, trick people, or scam anyone, all of which are going to get easier with AI. My goal is to use AI to free my brain to do the things I truly want to do. To put me on a path toward creativity, not a path where AI does the creating for me.
If you’re someone whose brain doesn’t fit the mold, here’s where I’d start:
- Understand what AI can actually do for you. What are your specific gaps? Where does your brain “fail” you?
- Start using existing tools. Don’t wait for the perfect system.
- Customize. An AI assistant never works right out of the box. You have to teach it how you work, what you need, where you fall short. That customization is where it becomes yours.
Over the past half year, I’ve watched AI make huge advances in intelligence. I’m excited to see what comes next. Not because I think it’ll fix me. Because I don’t think I’m broken. I just needed a different kind of help.