A.I. Gave Me Infinite Capability. It's Exhausting.

There's a scene in The Matrix where Neo blinks and says, "I know kung fu." Hours of skill, downloaded in a second.

For the last year, that's been my actual life.

I needed a financial model, so I built one. I needed to understand zoning law, design a grant framework, structure a pitch, write code or evaluate a technical architecture. Each time, the skill arrived almost immediately. No waiting. No months spent climbing a learning curve.

I know kung fu.

It is the most capable I have ever been.

A couple of weeks into any demanding stretch, though, I'm exhausted.

The old way of working had natural stopping points. You eventually reached the edge of what you knew or could accomplish on your own. Then you waited. You waited for a team member, a consultant, a course or your own gradual progress. Those pauses were frustrating, but they also created recovery time where the brain could relax down from full throttle.

A.I. removed many of those constraints.

Now, if I have an idea at 10:00 a.m., I can often build a first version before lunch. Every problem immediately becomes another opportunity. Every unfinished idea competes for attention because almost every idea feels achievable.

Capability became abundant.

Attention became the constraint.

I see this pattern in entrepreneurship all the time.

A founder discovers A.I. and immediately starts fixing inefficiencies. Customer service gets automated. Reports get generated. Marketing content gets produced faster. Internal processes improve.

Those are worthwhile gains.

They were my first instinct too.

I built an A.I. chief of staff to organize my day, manage my task list and draft emails. Then I moved into marketing. Finance. Research. Every week I found another corner of the business that could run a little faster.

It was addictive.

Each improvement felt like finding money on the ground. Every workflow became a candidate for optimization. Every hour I saved exposed another hour I could improve.

At the same time, every new idea became another commitment. Every unfinished possibility occupied space in my head whether I worked on it that day or not. My business was becoming more efficient, but my mental workload kept growing.

Then I realized something uncomfortable.

I was using one of the most powerful thinking tools ever created to preserve the business I already had.

I was making yesterday's company more efficient.

The treadmill had a much better engine, but it was still a treadmill.

That realization changed the questions I asked.

Instead of asking, "What can A.I. automate?" I started asking, "What becomes possible because A.I. exists?"

Those questions led somewhere completely different.

At Catalyst, we've built A.I. systems that search public records, press releases and social media every morning to identify potential story leads before our newsroom starts work. Journalists no longer spend hours searching dozens of sources. They spend that time deciding which stories deserve coverage.

That project didn't simply help someone work faster.

It changed how the newsroom operates and expanded the business.

The new tool expanded our coverage into areas the A.I. could efficiently source data, and freed up writer time to create content from that new data.

That's where I now spend my energy.

I'm less interested in automating individual tasks. I'm more interested in designing work that wasn't practical a year ago.

The greatest return comes from helping an entire team download new capability and from expanding the business to previously inaccessible places.

The same shift changed how I use A.I. for thinking.

Instead of asking it to complete another task, I increasingly ask harder questions.

What business should exist three years from now?

Which assumptions deserve to be challenged?

Which opportunities am I overlooking because I'm too close to the work?

Those conversations have created more value than completing another task twenty minutes faster.

For months I worked nonstop until I was depleted. I assumed I needed more discipline. Better routines. More time away from the screen.

The answer was a better filter.

I didn't need vacations from my work.

I needed to raise the bar for what deserved my attention. Every project had to create lasting leverage, reshape how the business operated or make other people more capable. If it couldn't clear that bar, I let it go.

Something interesting happened.

The empty space returned.

The natural breaks came back. I found time to think again. Those quiet moments became opportunities to ask bigger questions, explore better ideas and keep raising the standard for where I invest my energy.

A Practical Model for Directing AI Capability

Start with leverage.
Before beginning a project, ask one question: Will this create lasting leverage, or will it simply create more work for me?

Build systems.
Prioritize work that changes how your organization operates, raises your team's capability or continues creating value after you're finished.

Protect your attention.
AI creates an endless stream of opportunities. Your time, focus and energy remain limited. Treat them as your scarcest resources.

Raise the bar.
As AI expands what you can accomplish, become more selective about what deserves your effort. The goal isn't to fill every hour. The goal is to invest those hours where they create the greatest long-term impact.

‍