How AI Can Actually Help Your Critical Thinking, not Hurt It

2026-01-19

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I’m deeply worried about humanity losing our critical thinking skills. We’ve seen it degrade in the social media era, and now we’re seeing people wholesale outsource it in the AI era. But what if we can actually enhance our critical thinking with AI? I’m too much of a skeptic to tackle this topic on my own, which is why I brought in Christian Ulstrup, who’s doing some truly interesting things in the AI space. We talk about how AI is changing the education space, how we work, and why we should look to classic philosophers, like Aristotle, for the answers to ...

I’m deeply worried about humanity losing our critical thinking skills. We’ve seen it degrade in the social media era, and now we’re seeing people wholesale outsource it in the AI era.

But what if we can actually enhance our critical thinking with AI? I’m too much of a skeptic to tackle this topic on my own, which is why I brought in Christian Ulstrup, who’s doing some truly interesting things in the AI space.

We talk about how AI is changing the education space, how we work, and why we should look to classic philosophers, like Aristotle, for the answers to how we should approach AI.

The Walk and Talk Framework

Want a great way to use AI? Use Christian’s Walk and Talk Framework:

Gather Your "Digital Exhaust": First, collect the raw data you've already produced.
The AI Prompt: Copy and paste your text into a large-context model (like Google AI Studio) and use this specific prompt:
1. "I want you to pose to me three extremely precise, very hard-hitting questions, all of which are independent and have different coverage, that if sufficiently answered, would yield some kind of transformative, genuinely novel, impactful insight. Please make reference to the primary source material where appropriate in the context of the question."
The "Thinking" Phase
1. Don't look at the questions yet.
2. Copy them into a mobile notes app and go for a way
3. Read only the first question.
4. Open a Voice Memo and monologue your answer. Don't worry about being polished—mumble, ask yourself follow-up questions, and grapple with the idea until you feel you've reached a breakthrough.
5. Repeat for the remaining questions.
Distill the Insight

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