Author: jiayi Jiayi
AI is exploding with traffic on X, and my X feed sends me a new type of content every day—
Someone posts a screenshot of an AI tool setup, captioning it "This system increased my efficiency 10x." The comments immediately flood with "Installed," "So powerful," "Will be left behind if I don't learn this."
Others share their AI workflows, telling you that copying their method will earn you X amount per month.
And then? After you install it, you're still you.
For someone who doesn't know how to trade, AI effectively increases your efficiency at losing money. Your problem was never a lack of tools.
I don't deny that AI is the biggest variable of our era. But I want to state a few facts that people aren't keen to hear.
1. 80% of AI content on X is essentially fear-mongering
"You're finished if you don't use AI"—this statement itself is a harvesting tactic.
Create anxiety → Provide a solution → Gain traffic.
This is a very mature monetization chain.
If you look closely, those shouting the loudest about the "AI revolution" aren't selling AI capability,they are selling your panic. What they need most is not for you to actually learn AI, but for you to remain perpetually anxious, keep following them, and keep sharing their content.
It's the same logic as the crypto world yelling "get on board now or it's too late," just with a new skin.
Recently, an AI post on X saying "Something Big Is Happening" got70 million impressions. However, this post deliberately omitted crucial context, keeping only the parts most likely to induce panic.
Panic sells attention, not truth.
2. Copying someone else's AI strategy with one click is the dumbest way to learn
Tailoring AI ultimately depends on individual cognition.
Recently, a 50K star Claude Code configuration repository went viral. Many reposted saying "install it now."
I studied it carefully—
It's a development workflow configuration designed for professional programmers: TDD test-driven, code review Agent, security scanning, 17 dedicated sub-Agents. Very impressive.
But it's designed for people who write code.
For example, if I, someone in marketing, install this setup, it would literally interfere with the operation of my own smart skills.
Everyone's work scenario, pain points, and thinking patterns are different. Someone else's AI configuration is the result of them stumbling through countless pitfalls to create something tailored for themselves.
With one click, you're not copying their ability, but a bunch of files you can't use.
More ironically, Claude Code's creator, Boris Cherny, said himself: his configuration is actually "surprisingly vanilla"—the default settings are sufficient, not much customization is needed.
But that kind of talk isn't exciting enough, so no one shares it.
3. AI's biggest trap: Not "you can't use it," but "you use it for everything"
I've seen people ask AI to plan their day: what to do, the priority of each task, the time allocation for each task.
This shocked me.
The allocation of one's own time and energy is a person's core competency.
What you need to do, what to do first, what's worth investing in, what should be abandoned—these judgments are based on your self-awareness, clarity of goals, and sense of opportunity cost.
This is not a decision an AI can make for you.
Because AI doesn't know you had insomnia last night so you're not in good form today, doesn't know you have an intuitive confidence in a certain project, doesn't know your relationship with a certain partner is微妙 (delicate) and needs priority handling recently.
Handing this over to AI is like letting someone who just met you 5 minutes ago plan your life.
The key distinction is whether AI enhances your thinking, or AI replaces your thinking. It's essentially my criterion for judging whether AI or the human is the fuel. After all, living brain cells can now run operational AI.
4. The data tells a brutal truth
Most companies that use AI see no productivity improvement.
This isn't me saying it.
Fortune reported in February this year: Thousands of CEOs admit AI has had no practical impact on employment and productivity.
Goldman Sachs latest research: No significant correlation between AI and productivity.
Tom's Hardware citing a survey of 6000 executives:Over 80% of companies report no productivity gains from AI.
Nobel laureate in economics Daron Acemoglu stated bluntly: AI is not improving productivity.
Harvard Business Review's headline in February was even more direct:
"AI Doesn't Reduce Work — It Intensifies It"
UC Berkeley research also warns: The effect AI is producing in the workplace is the opposite of what was expected—employees did become more productive, but the workload also skyrocketed, ultimately leading to burnout.
5. What you should truly be anxious about is not "I haven't learned to use AI yet"
But rather "I've already forgotten how to think for myself."
Independent thinking is the scarcest asset of this era.
AI can help you write 80-point content, but the leap from 80 to 100, only the human brain can accomplish. AI can help you gather information, but judging which information is important and how to combine it into unique insights—that's human work.
Research shows that in SAT writing tests, the group using AI assistance had the lowest brain activity, and their content was evaluated as "lacking originality and warmth."
Over-reliance on AI, especially among young people, can negatively impact brain development.
While you're training AI, you're also letting your own brain atrophy.
This isn't science fiction. It's a悲哀 (tragic) thing happening right now.
6. The right posture
Embrace change, learn to enhance cognition, and stay清醒 (clear-headed).
Know what things AI does better than you—
Repetitive tasks, data organization, format conversion, first draft generation. Hand these over to AI, no problem.
Also know what things you do better than AI—
Strategic judgment, relationship maintenance, creative intuition, value trade-offs, time management. These abilities require you to practice repeatedly, not outsource to a model.
Not every problem needs an AI solution.
Sometimes turning off all tools and thinking quietly for 10 minutes is more effective than opening 10 AI windows.
Don't let "AI anxiety" become your new shackles.
Those selling AI panic on X are profiting from your anxiety. Every time you share "you're finished if you don't learn AI," you're working for them for free.
The real winners of this AI wave are not those who use AI the most, but those who know when NOT to use AI.
