In this week's Idea Surplus Disorder, we'll talk about the limits of our tools, the limits of our attention, and the quiet cost of outsourcing our thinking – and begin with a finding that reframes what AI can and can't actually do for us right now.
From there, we examine why showing more proof might earn you less trust, how our reliance on technology erodes our judgment in ways we rarely notice, and why three or four hours of real focus might be all any of us actually have in a day.
As always, I'm Matt Homann, and I'm glad you're here!
My Favorite Find:
I read hundreds of blogs and dozens of newsletters every week, and I always find more ideas than I can share. Today's favorite find is about an under-discussed limitation of our current versions of AI: as of now, they can't keep learning:
Despite our expectations, current LLMs do not learn from each other, nor do they learn when you correct them again and again. They currently do not have a robust way to remember their mistakes or corrections, nor to get smarter more than once a year when they are retrained from 4.0 to 5.0.
Every time you correct ChatGPT’s mistake, it forgets by the next conversation. Every time a robot fails at a task, it will fail the exact same way tomorrow.
This is why AIs can’t hold a real job in 2026. At this moment we lack the software genius to install continuous learning (at scale) to the machines.
A Few More Things Worth Your Time:
Burning the midnight oil? You can only seriously focus on work for just 3-4 hours at a time.
There aren't many hard-and-fast rules of time management that apply to everyone, always, regardless of situation or personality. But I think there might be one: you almost certainly can't consistently do the kind of work that demands serious mental focus for more than about three or four hours a day.
Yes, it's true we live in a system that demands too much of us, leaves no time for rest, and makes many feel as though their survival depends on working impossible hours. But it's also true that we're increasingly the kind of people who don't want to rest – who get antsy and anxious if we don't feel we're being productive.
The usual result is that we push ourselves beyond the sane limits of daily activity, when doing less would have been more productive in the long run.
Does technology trick us into thinking we're adding more "value" when we're actually degrading trust?
Technology has made it easier to pad what we present. more slides, data and "proof." But proof and trust are inversely correlated in creative work. The more you have to prove, the less they trust you. The less they trust you, the more you have to prove.
And speaking of technology, in what ways are we escalating our reliance on the tools we use?
| Cognitive Offloading | You delegate mental tasks to tools | Active choice |
| Cognitive Debt | You skip thinking for speed | Pressured trade-off |
| Cognitive Atrophy | Your reasoning weakens from disuse | Passive decline |
| Cognitive Drift | Higher-order thinking erodes imperceptibly | Unnoticed |
| Cognitive Surrender | You stop maintaining independent judgment | Capitulation |
Want to think about the future differently? Jane McConigal suggests we play the game One Hundred Ways Anything Can Be Different in the Future:
Here’s how it works: First, you pick a topic, like work, or food, or learning. Then you list one hundred things that are true about it today. The simpler or more obvious the fact, the better.
Next, you rewrite each fact, one by one, so that ten years from now the opposite is true—no matter how ridiculous, at first, the new ideas sound.
Finally, you look for clues, or evidence of change already happening today, that these ideas are plausible and realistic.
Ideas can be acted upon in four ways:
- First, you must generate the idea, usually from memory or experience or activity.
- Then you have to retain it—that is, hold it steady in your mind and keep it from disappearing.
- Then you have to inspect it—study it and make inferences about it.
- Finally, you have to be able to transform it—alter it in some way to suit your higher purposes.
This Week's Question
This week's question is inspired by Hearding Tigers by Todd Henry: What are we working on? Todd's advice:
Build a list of every project your team is working on, and define the core problem that it’s solving. Then write a one-sentence problem statement that clearly articulates what the team is trying to accomplish.
Random Things for Smart People
- Channel Surfer is a YouTube "channel guide" that looks like cable TV.
- The HTML Review is an annual journal of literature made to exist on the web
- How the spreadsheet reshaped America.
- I'm loving the Acme Weather iPhone app from the makers of Dark Sky (IYKYK).
- Every photo Curiosity Mars Rover has taken since 2013.
Words of Wisdom
Luck can find you, but it has to find you working. – Daniel Arsham
If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading. – Lao Tzu
Consensus is the process of avoiding the very issues that have to be solved. – Margaret Thatcher
The foolish person winds up doing at the end what the smart person does at the beginning. – Kevin Kelly
It is tiring to deal with someone who has made an enemy of you when you do not think of them at all. But, of course, this is often why they hate you. – Christopher Buehlman