This podcast touches on AI.
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podcast → touch → AI
My fiancé works at Anthropic.
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fiancé → work → Anthropic
Last season on the Platformer podcast, we explored what AI means for jobs — including the risk that huge numbers of them might soon go away.
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numbers → explore → them
For our follow-up miniseries, I wanted to ask a more practical question: what can any of us actually do about it?
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any → want → it
Over the coming weeks, I'll be talking with people who can help us map which AI tools and strategies might help us keep your advantage at work — for now, at least.
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us → come → work
I've known David for about as long as I've been a tech reporter, and over that time he has become the tech press's chief productivity correspondent.
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he → know → time
He worked with David Pogue at the New York Times, edited at Wired, wrote the personal technology column for the Wall Street Journal, and served as editorial director at Protocol before returning to The Verge.
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He → work → Verge
Today he is now editor-at-large, co-host of The Vergecast, and author of Installer, his weekly guide — and the most delightful newsletter I read each week — about what to download, watch, and try.
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I → read → what
More recently he has launched Version History, a show about the defining products from tech's past, from the hoverboard to Vine, and what they can teach us about its future.
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they → launch → future
Like me, David is a fiend for testing new productivity tools.
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David → test → tools
He estimates that he has personally installed, used, and abandoned some 200 to-do apps — a number limited, he told me, "by the number of them that exist — not by the number of them that I'm willing to try."
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I → estimate → that
(He had actually switched notes apps the day we recorded our conversation.)
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we → switch → conversation
All that tinkering has left him with a usefully unromantic view of the current moment.
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tinkering → leave → moment
"We're in a moment where everyone has decided that everything about how we do everything is about to change," he told me.
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he → decide → me
"But actually, none of it has changed yet."
In David's telling, the returns on AI at work have so far been fairly modest.
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returns → change → work
It's really good at the busywork of daily life — converting a folder full of files, clearing a thousand marketing emails out of your inbox in 45 seconds, or finding you a plumber.
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It → convert → plumber
What it can't do consistently is exercise good judgment about what matters to you.
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what → exercise → you
When David set AI loose on his primary inbox, it "started getting almost everything wrong," he said — fooled by senders who make every message sound like a five-alarm fire, in what he suspects is the beginning of annoying new attention hack.
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he → set → hack
But what I found most refreshing in our conversation was his message to anyone who is feeling left behind by the AI era.
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who → find → era
"I think staying ahead is wildly overrated," he told me.
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he → think → me
"This idea that everyone is selling — that you have to either get on the AI train or get left behind — is pernicious and frankly wrong."
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you → sell → train
His advice is straightforward and narrow: offload the dumb tasks, keep doing the work that builds your understanding, and when the hype starts to feel overwhelming, find-and-replace the word "AI" with the word "software."
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hype → offload → word
"It's just software, and that's OK," he said.
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he → say → ?
But you should treat it like software."
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you → treat → software
A long excerpt of our conversation is below, edited for clarity and length.
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excerpt → edit → clarity
Listen to the entire conversation wherever you get your podcasts — just search for Platformer — or watch it on YouTube at youtube.com/caseynewton.
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you → listen → youtube.com/caseynewton
And let us know what you think — we welcome your feedback at casey@platformer.news.
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we → let → casey@platformer.news
David, most people try to minimize the number of new apps they install.
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they → try → apps
You go out of your way to find new ones.
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You → go → ones
Give us your sicko credentials up front: how many to-do apps do you think you've personally installed, used, and abandoned?
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you → give → apps
If you made me pick a number, it's probably somewhere in that range.
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it → make → range
And that's limited by the number of them that exist, not by the number of them that I'm willing to try.
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I → limit → that
If there were 400, you would have installed 400.
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you → be → 400
, the very first thing I downloaded in the App Store was Evernote, which tells you something about who I am as a person.
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I → download → person
Especially as my professional life has gotten busier, and my personal life has gotten busier next to my professional life, it has gone from a thing I do because I think it's interesting to a thing I do both because it's interesting and out of deep necessity to remain a person.
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it → get → necessity
We're in a moment where everyone has decided that everything about how we do everything is about to change.
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we → decide → everything
But actually, none of it has changed yet.
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none → change → it
So we're in this complete chaos phase of trying to figure out what the future of any of this stuff is before any of it has settled.
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any → try → it
Let's dive into the chaos a bit.
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's → let → chaos
You're infamous for a perpetual quest to find the best notes app.
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You → find → app
…and 240 more, not listed.
