source:: https://every.to/thesis/sailing-against-the-current-of-frictionless-ai https://every.to/context-window/why-you-need-productive-friction Problem -- [[Automation streamlines tasks but inhibits mastery by elimination productive friction]] [[Productive friction fosters learning, taste, and judgement]] Solution: 分而治之 > The world divides in two. On one side: utility, stripped of mystery, measured in speed, cost, and precision. Frictionless. On the other: meaning, full of ambiguity, judged by story, risk, and personal intent. AI is conquering the first. It should. Let it drive the bus, draft the forms, color-correct the photo, and sand some of the rougher edges. Then you can focus on what matters. Preserve friction where it counts, not as nostalgia or high-minded purism, but as method and meaning. This approach will better prepare us to work successfully in the AI age. Offload the boring. Keep the stakes. similar:: [[Real knowledge is earned, only abstractions can be borrowed]] > In this emerging world, proof of work replaces credentials and titles. **What matters is what you've made or shipped, not what degrees you have or where you got them.** A teenager building their own thriving app; a Shopify intern candidate proactively pitching themselves; a student provocatively challenging university administrators. This is friction made manifest. **Knowledge gained from this kind of experience cannot be prompted into existence; it must be earned.**