Artificial wisdom; fake reading list; Congress’s librarian sacked: Newsletter 21 May 2025

Newsletter 95. How AI could extend the productive careers of millions. Plus recommended fake books to read, nonfiction writing tips from fiction, three people to follow and three books to read.

AI: Aging intelligence

I’ve gotten pretty used to the way my brain works.

Based on decades of historical evidence it’s quick, retains almost everything, is creative, makes unexpected connections, and sees patterns well. It’s good at math and good at writing. It finds humor in nearly everything. And it’s terrible at remembering names and faces, but hey, we all have weaknesses.

The challenge lately is: it’s not the same as what it was.

It’s still as good as ever at being creative, making connections, seeing patterns, understanding math, and finding humor. It’s worse than ever at remembering names and faces. It’s a step slower, and it definitely does not retain everything.

The fact that I’m aging doesn’t make me special. All of us do it. (Yes, even you, dear reader, will eventually get older.) In work situations, the result is almost a cliché. You have the crusty old person with loads of experience, surrounded by bright, agile young minds that see the older workers as out of touch. We all know the young minds will inherit the leadership roles, but when should the rest of us step aside?

Many my age (66) are retired and doing little more than playing golf, dandling grandchildren, schmoozing about sports, and visiting lots of doctors. That’s fine for them, but it is not enough for me. (It would also drive my wife, who has her own career and friends, nuts.)

The Wordle is not enough to keep me going. I need to work. I want challenges that matter. I want to get paid for a unique set of skills and hard work.

AI is a huge help.

I can still understand business and technology. And I can still write (10 million words or so over 50 years will do that). What AI has done is to extend my shelf life. I can converse with it about approaches. I can use it to find facts, which I am good at checking for accuracy (and it’s much better at that Google). I can use it when the word I need is on the tip of my brain — it will find it in second when my brain might take a minute or five, which keeps my flow going. It’s pretty good at finding weaknesses in my arguments and places where what I’ve said is too similar to what others have said.

I’ve done my part, too. I have certainly developed habits that will extend my productive life and make sure I can still do what I have always done.

For example, I take extensive notes in video and in-person conversations to help me remember. That helps; so does an AI-powered search of those notes. (Some people find that video transcripts are helpful; for me it is the opposite: taking my notes is far more effective.)

I write agendas and follow-ups. I share detailed emails and write memos about decisions my clients and I must make. Documenting things has multiple benefits: it keeps me and my collaborators on the same page, it helps me remember everything, and it’s easy for AI to search.

I post a lot on LinkedIn and react to what others have posted. That keeps me connected. It also keeps me in touch with what everybody is talking about.

If you’re not learning, you’re dying. I’m endlessly curious and am all over the latest political, tech, and AI trends.

I write constantly. That keeps the tool sharp and gives others something to react to. (It will also, eventually, become the basis of an AI bot of my knowledge, but that’s in the future.)

AI is about to extend the productive life of an awful lot of people like me. It’s basically a prosthetic. Some older people with balky knees wear a knee brace to play tennis; this is the same thing for the brain.

LLMs like ChatGPT are ideal for this. The interface is plain language, spoken or written, and that interface tolerates and works around imperfect inputs. It has access to all of the world’s information. It accommodates to different styles and learns people’s needs and tendencies. It’s cheap, and getting more powerful and cheaper. It runs on any device and is accessible from anywhere with a connection (and likely, with some workarounds, soon on devices without connections, too).

All the talk about AI from “power users” is about extending people’s strengths. But there is not enough discussion about extending people’s ability to be productive. Smart older people like me will be able to leverage our experience for longer. People with serious impairments will be able to contribute more for longer.

This isn’t about keeping people alive longer: it’s about maximizing human potential.

I’m not going away, and with AI help, I’m not perceptibly slowing down. And there are a lot of us like this.

This is way more fun and interesting than golf.

News for writers and others who think

The Chicago Sun-Times newspaper printed a summer reading list. All of the authors on it were real. Two-thirds of the books were fake. Seems like an opportunity for somebody to write the books that, although recommended, don’t exist yet.

According to LinkedIn executive Aneesh Raman writing in the New York Times, entry-level jobs are becoming much harder to get, due to both AI and global trade uncertainty. Could this be a lost generation of workers? His recommendation: “Redesign entry-level jobs that give workers higher-level tasks that add value beyond what can be produced by A.I.”

In Jane Friedman‘s blog, Amy L. Bernstein writers that nonfiction writers should crib techniques from fiction. Amen. Unless the people and stories in your nonfiction book come alive, no one will keep reading it.

Trump fired Carla Hayden, the head of the Library of Congress (which, as it sounds, is part of the legislative branch, not the executive branch). As Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “There were quite concerning things that she had done at the Library of Congress in the pursuit of DEI and putting inappropriate books in the library for children, and we don’t believe that she was serving the interest of the American taxpayer.” For the record, the Library of Congress doesn’t allow children and is not a lending library.

Three people to follow

Sandy Carter , ex-IBM and Amazon leader and current COO of Unstoppable Domains.

Kelley Hippler , smart, empathetic, long-tenured sales leader.

John Hagel , insightful author and futurist.

Three books to read

The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want by Alex Hanna and Emily M. Bender (Harper, 2025). A contrarian view of AI as a big tech conspiracy.

The Great Nerve: The New Science of the Vagus Nerve and How to Harness Its Healing Reflexes by Kevin J. Tracey (Avery, 2025). A well-established medical innovator explains how microchips and the nervous system may revolutionize medicine.

The Experimentation Machine: Finding Product-Market Fit in the Age of AI by Jeffrey Bussgang (Damn Gravity, 2025). Perhaps the first credible startup book for AI-enabled founders.