The only edit AI can't do for you

We use LLMs to edit so much of our work now. A lot of us have also shifted to editing the LLM’s work, and that’s a good thing for our communication materials, our websites, our content.

What we don’t talk about much, and what AI cannot do for us, is editing our environment. That’s what I want to get into.

It's not about trying to be anything, it's about editing down to what is most important and most immediate.

Editing our environment so we get to what is essential, to what is critical in our lives and our work. The projects and experiences that actually matter to us. Same principle as Marie Kondo getting rid of what doesn’t bring you joy, or Mark Manson's "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck." It's not about trying to be anything, it's about editing down to what is most important and most immediate.

That’s what I’ve been doing over the last few weeks, and it has come with a lot of inner tension. It has created friction between me and some of the people around me. I think that friction is necessary.

I was experiencing a version of individual scope creep. I was being too generous with my time, money, and attention, and I was distracted. Editing down to clean that up and focus on what is clear and obviously necessary has been a surprising and useful process. Anyone can do it for themselves at any time.

What’s behind door number three?

There’s an Epictetus line that Ryan Holiday includes in "The Daily Stoic," about using the other handle. At any given moment there is what you are doing, or what someone is doing with you or for you. There is what you want to be doing instead, the outcome you have already envisioned. And then there is, what I call, what’s behind door number three.

Door number three is another handle altogether. Another way to hold the thing that matters to you but isn’t moving in the direction you need. Maybe a direction you weren’t even aware would serve you better. It is not the status quo where you are stuck.

I’ve been looking for these other handles. It isn’t leverage exactly, and it isn’t optimization, though optimization can be a downstream effect. It is more like shifting gears. Staying open to the upside of abandoning some current ways of being and doing my work, and some current ways of being myself.

If you could hold onto another handle in your environment right now to get more of what you want or need, what would it be?