The steroids, sneakers, coach framework I shared is missing something.
I was talking with a new friend, Ali Babool, about people outsourcing their thinking to AI. I described that as steroids, then asked how he uses it. He said he uses it to write complex code he wouldn’t be able to put together otherwise. Is that steroids?
No. Steroids, sneakers and coach all describe the intensive margin: doing what you already do, better or faster. But generative AI also expands what we can do at all, something my colleague Youngjin Yoo talks about often. So I’d add a fourth mode: wings.
Wings get you somewhere you couldn’t reach before, but you’re flying without full control. That’s real value; Ali ships code he couldn’t have written. But if it breaks, he’s still the one who has to fix it. You’re accountable for where you land, and the challenges that come with that new territory.
What can you do now with AI that you couldn’t before, and how do you check it’s right?