Introduction
The three essays I published this month:
From Fear to Frontier: Exploring the AI Transition with Honest Eyes (22 Dec 2025)
AI Isn’t Your Friend: Dismantling the Myth to Unlock Its Real Power (26 Dec 2025)
The New Workflow Model: From Outputers to Directors of Intelligence (27 Dec 2025)
They are an attempt to map the emotional, technical, and practical reality of living with AI in late 2025. They name the fear, strip away the illusions, and point to a new role: becoming a director of intelligence rather than a mere outputer. This 30-day action plan is the practical bridge. It’s designed for everyday people — teachers, parents, small business owners, marketers, nurses, freelancers — who have nothing more than a free chat window (Grok, ChatGPT, Claude, etc.) and a willingness to experiment. No coding, no agents, no subscriptions required. Just 30 days of deliberate practice to shift from reacting to directing.
How to Use This Plan
This is a 30-day reset, not a one-off read. Commit to 10–15 minutes a day — no more, no less. You’ll need only a free LLM chat window (Grok, ChatGPT, Claude, etc.) and a simple place to track your work: a notebook, Google Doc, or even the notes app on your phone. Do the steps in order; they build on each other. If you miss a day, just pick up where you left off — the point is consistency, not perfection. At the end of each phase, you’ll have a tangible deliverable. By Day 30, you should feel the shift from reacting to directing.
Action Plan
Phase 1: Kill the Illusions & Face Reality (Days 1–7)
Goal: Stop treating the LLM like a mind or friend. See it as a powerful, dumb pattern-matcher — even when it helps you reflect on yourself.
- Day 1–2: Read “AI Isn’t Your Friend”. Write down every time in the last month you’ve said/thought “it understood me” or “it remembered me.” Be brutally honest.
- Day 3–4: Open a fresh chat (new window, no history). Run the exact same prompt three times. Notice how the answers can vary wildly even when nothing changes. Document: “This is just statistical dice-rolling, not understanding.”
- Day 5–7: Write your personal “AI Bill of Rights” (use this below as your starting template):
- I will never treat it as a real friend or therapist. It can help me reflect and clarify thoughts, but it has no empathy, no memory beyond the current chat, and no real understanding of my life.
- I will use it for self-reflection and brainstorming, but never as a substitute for professional help. If I’m dealing with serious mental health concerns, trauma, or crisis, I will reach out to a qualified human professional. The LLM is a mirror, not a doctor.
- I will limit deeply personal disclosures and never share identifying information. No names, addresses, medical details, or anything that could be traced back to me. If I need to vent, I’ll keep it abstract and general.
- I will always fact-check emotional or advisory responses. It can invent comforting but false narratives (“You’re not alone, millions feel this way” — maybe, maybe not). I will verify anything that feels like advice or diagnosis.
- I will end sessions when I feel emotionally dependent. If I find myself turning to it daily for comfort instead of processing with humans, I will step back and reconnect with real relationships.
- I will periodically review my chat history (if saved) and delete anything too vulnerable. Even if the model forgets between sessions, the company might retain data. I control what I leave behind. Pin it somewhere you see every day.
Deliverable (by Day 7): One-page Illusion Audit + your signed Bill of Rights.
Phase 2: Rapid Domain Distillation (Days 8–14)
Goal: Learn to quickly pull a field into focus so you can direct the LLM effectively.
- Day 8–9: Pick one area you need to understand better (e.g., personal finance, marketing basics, parenting teenagers, basic supply chain). Ask the LLM: “Give me the 3–5 most important books/papers/talks that define [domain].” Pick the top 2–3 and read summaries or key sections (use the LLM to summarize if needed).
- Day 10–11: Ask: “Distil the core first principles or models of [domain] into 5–7 bullet points.” Turn it into your own one-page cheat sheet.
- Day 12–13: Apply it to a real problem in your life/work. Prompt the LLM: “Using these principles [paste your sheet], what should I do about [specific issue]?” Tweak and iterate 2–3 times.
- Day 14: Refine your cheat sheet. Save it in a note or doc for reuse. THIS IS EFFECTIVELY A SIMPLE AI AGENT THAT IS NOW WORKING FOR YOU.
Deliverable: One distilled domain cheat sheet (1 page max).
Phase 3: Flow Sensing & Prompt Pressure Test (Days 15–21)
Goal: Get better at spotting trends and forcing the LLM to deliver under real constraints.
- Day 15–16: Spend 10–15 min/day scanning 2–3 sources (X, newsletters, Reddit, local news). Write one sentence per day: “This signal might matter because…”
- Day 17–18: Pick one repetitive or annoying task (e.g., writing emails, planning meals, researching purchases). Write a clear, detailed prompt (a simple AI agent): “Act as an expert in [topic]. Here’s my goal: [state it]. Break it down step by step and give me the best answer.” Iterate 2–3 times until it’s useful.
- Day 19–20: Repeat with two more tasks. Time how long it takes vs. doing it manually.
- Day 21: Write a one-paragraph log: “What worked? What failed? How much time did I save?”
Deliverable: One-page Prompt Log (3 experiments + one trend you spotted).
Phase 4: Strategic Direction & Lock It In (Days 22–30)
Goal: Practice asking the big, bold questions and make directing the LLM a daily habit.
- Day 22–24: Pick one high-stakes question in your life/work: “What if I flipped [key assumption] in my [job/family/business]?” Prompt the LLM: “Explore 3–5 different scenarios for [question]. For each, give pros, cons, and one bold action.” Iterate 2–3 times.
- Day 25–27: Review outputs. Ask yourself: “What assumption did I miss? What feels wrong ethically? What’s the boldest path?” Pick one small action to take.
- Day 28–29: Build the habit: 10 minutes every day, frame one real question for the LLM (no fluff, no chatting).
- Day 30: Write 400–500 words: “What changed in how I think about work/AI/myself? What’s my next 30-day sprint?”
Deliverable: Director Journal (reflection + next sprint plan).
This isn’t a magic formula. It’s a disciplined reset that asks you to face the machine for what it is — powerful, fragile, and completely dependent on the quality of your input. If you complete these 30 days, you’ll likely feel the ground shift under you: less fear, more agency, and a quiet confidence that you’re no longer just consuming AI, but steering it. The path forward is uneven, and the race is already underway. Start small, stay honest, and remember: the tools will get smarter, but only you can decide what questions are worth asking. I’m still walking this road myself. If you run the plan, drop a note here — I’d genuinely like to hear what changed for you.