It is late July 2026 as I write this. A year ago I had several AI subscriptions running at once. Perplexity for research. A multi-model hub for “access to everything.” A couple of niche writing tools. I told myself this was rigor — using the best tool for each job. Mostly it was just tab-switching dressed up as strategy.
Here’s what that year actually taught me: the AI industry keeps selling a story where the endgame is one enormous, all-knowing black box that does your thinking for you. That story is wrong, or at least beside the point. What’s actually changed is something quieter and more useful — a single person can now move across disciplines that used to require a team. You don’t need to have memorized a citation style or a syntax spec to work like someone who has. The AI handles the narrow technical execution; you supply the judgment, the taste, the “does this actually make sense” instinct, because you are the one who has a soul inside.
But that only works if the tool gets out of your way. And that’s where most of my stack failed me.