I was listening to this talk by Hak on my way to work this morning:
While he is talking about software development, I think his main thesis applies much more broadly.
His argument is that AI is becoming the “fast food” of coding. Fast, accessible, incredibly useful… but only if you already know what a real meal tastes like. The important question then becomes: if nobody cooks anymore, who becomes the chef?
For me, the deeper insight is not about coding. It is about Systems Thinking.
The ability to hold the whole project in your head:
- the key components,
- the relationships,
- the tradeoffs,
- the intent,
- the story,
- the constraints,
- the objective.
Generating text, illustrations, presentations, code, diagrams, summaries… has become almost effortless. But polished output at scale does not automatically mean meaningful engineering, meaningful writing, or meaningful thinking.
This is one of the reasons I continue to believe so strongly in visual thinking and visual PKM. Drawing systems, mapping relationships, spatially organizing ideas, building visual storylines… these are not “extra steps.” They are the thinking itself.
Hak also makes another excellent point: AI can be used as an infinitely patient coach.
I’ve experienced this directly myself:
- while working on illustration skills,
- while writing Sketch Your Mind,
- while refining presentations and ideas.
Not as a replacement for thinking, but as a thinking partner.
This also connects strongly to a few of my videos:
-
Crafting my Pitch, Outline, Cover Art - Self-Publishing 4D PKM in 6 Weeks - VLOG Episode 3
In this video I talk about using ChatGPT to impersonate Larry McEnerney based on one of his lectures to help stress test ideas and framing. -
Two Workflows for Reading, Note-Taking, and Visual Thinking that Are Transforming the Way I Use AI
Here I explore workflows where AI supports reflection and synthesis, while keeping agency and meaning-making with me. -
Excalidraw Writing Machine: Generate articles from your Visual Zettelkasten cards in Obsidian
This workflow starts from visual layouts and connected notes created in Excalidraw, then uses AI to help transform those into structured articles.
For me, the key distinction is this:
AI can generate artifacts.
But humans still need to build the theory underneath them.
That remains the real craft.