18 hours ago
- People often imagine AI agents (executive assistants, tutors, note-taking tools) could boost productivity, but these ideas rarely materialize.
- Two main reasons: lack of a 'serious context of use' (no concrete need or goal) and internal limiting factors (executive function, intelligence, knowledge) that AI cannot easily address.
- Many who want AI tools (e.g., flashcard writers, tutors) don't actually use such systems or have no material reason to learn, so there's no needle to move.
- Internal bottlenecks like motivation, executive function, and intelligence are hard to augment externally; stimulants like methylphenidate can be more effective than AI scaffolding.
- Knowledge remains a bottleneck because without it, users don't know what questions to ask or how to judge answers, limiting AI's usefulness.