How to Use AI to Accelerate Your Mind
We are drowning in information. Yet we are starving for understanding.
The modern world requires us to learn faster and adapt quicker. We must also synthesize complex ideas on the fly. The traditional response to this pressure is to skim more. We listen to podcasts at double speed and rely on surface-level summaries. This is a trap. It creates the illusion of knowledge. This is the “passive recognition” warned about by cognitive psychologists. It lacks the substance of deep comprehension.
True expertise is not about memorizing facts. It is about building robust mental models that allow you to navigate novelty. Elite thinkers do not just absorb information. They actively deconstruct it. They stress-test it against reality. They connect it to what they already know.
Until recently, this rigorous process of active engagement was a solitary and mentally taxing pursuit. You had to find your own analogies. You had to police your own biases. You had to seek out your own critics.
Enter AI.
Most people use Large Language Models like ChatGPT or Claude as shortcuts. They ask for summaries or template emails.
They use AI to avoid thinking.
I argue here, we should use AI to accelerate thinking.
We can view AI not as an oracle that spits out answers. We should view it as a tireless and infinitely knowledgeable cognitive sparring partner. It is designed to force us into the active learning zone. We can apply the timeless principles of deep understanding to the capabilities of AI. These principles include the Feynman Technique, Socratic questioning, and mental models. This allows us to create a learning feedback loop of unprecedented speed and power.
Here is the golden rule of using AI for learning: Never use AI to replace your cognitive load. Use AI to increase cognitive leverage strategically.
If the AI is doing the heavy lifting of synthesizing and connecting, you are not learning. You must design prompts that force you to do the work. The AI acts as the coach, the critic, and the simulator.
Here are four ways to turn AI into a cognitive force multiplier, prompts included!
Technique 1: The Socratic “Red Team”
The source article emphasizes two critical but difficult mental habits. These are “First Principles Thinking” and “Falsification.” First Principles Thinking involves stripping an idea down to essential truths. Falsification involves actively trying to prove yourself wrong.
Our brains are wired to avoid this. We prefer reasoning by analogy. We tend to do what everyone else does. We also suffer from confirmation bias. We seek only information that supports our existing beliefs. Doing the hard work of dismantling our own cherished assumptions is psychologically painful.
AI has no ego. It has no qualms about hurting your feelings or challenging your intelligence. It is the perfect “Red Team.” This is an independent group that challenges an organization to improve its effectiveness.
Do not sit in a room trying to imagine why your ideas might be flawed. Instruct an AI to ruthlessly dismantle them.
This forces you to defend your understanding from the ground up.
How to execute
Don’t ask AI if your idea is good. Ask AI to prove why it is bad.
Draft your current best understanding when learning a new concept or developing a strategy. Paste that into the AI. Demand it act as a highly intelligent and skeptical debate opponent.
The “Red Team” Prompt Strategy
“I am going to present my understanding of [Concept/Strategy].
I want you to act as a ruthless and skeptical debater. I also want you to act as a master logician. Your goal is to destroy my argument. Do not be polite.
Specifically, I want you to provide the following.
Three logical fallacies or weak assumptions underlying my thinking.
Two historical examples where similar logic failed drastically.
The single strongest counter-argument that I have failed to address.
Here is my position. [Paste your text here]”
Why this accelerates your mind
Reading the critique from the AI will trigger an immediate defensive reaction in your brain. That response is good. It means you are engaged. You cannot rely on surface-level knowledge to counter the points made by the AI. You are forced to go back to the source material. You must verify facts and fortify the foundations of your argument. This process transforms a fuzzy notion into a battle-tested concept rooted in first principles.
Technique 2: The Infinite Analogy Engine
Legendary investor Charlie Munger famously argued that you must have a “latticework of mental models” in your head to understand anything. You need to grab the big ideas from physics, biology, history, and psychology. Then you must apply them to your current problems.
If you only have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. But you might understand concepts like “critical mass” from physics. You might understand “evolution by natural selection” from biology. You might understand “incentive structures” from economics. This helps you see the world in high resolution.
The difficulty lies in acquiring this polymathic knowledge. Most of us don’t have the time to get degrees in five different fields just to understand one problem better.
AI is an instant polymath. It has read the textbooks of every major discipline. You can use it to generate cross-disciplinary analogies on demand. This allows you to perform “structure mapping” from known fields to unknown ones instantly.
How to execute
You might be stuck on a complex topic in one domain. Force the AI to explain it using mental models from a completely unrelated domain that you already understand.
The “Latticework” Prompt Strategy
“I am struggling to deeply understand the concept of ‘Network Effects’ in technology businesses.
I understand basic biology and epidemiology. Please explain Network Effects to me using analogies strictly from those two fields.
For example, how is a product achieving critical mass similar to a virus hitting its ‘R-nought’ threshold? How do competing networks resemble invasive species competing for resources in an ecosystem?
Draw clear parallels between the biological concepts and the business concepts.”
Why this accelerates your mind
This technique utilizes “elaboration.” This is a highly effective study method. You create more neural hooks for the new information to latch onto by forcing connections between disparate fields. You aren’t just memorizing a business definition. You are embedding the concept into a deeper and universal framework of how systems grow and compete. You will recognize similar patterns in the future not just as a business trend. You will see them as a fundamental law of nature.
Technique 3: The Interactive Feynman Technique
The Feynman Technique is perhaps the most famous learning hack in existence. It states that if you can’t explain something simply, you don’t understand it. The article suggests explaining a concept to a rubber duck or writing it out for a hypothetical 12-year-old.
The weakness of the traditional Feynman Technique is the lack of feedback. A rubber duck nods along. It never points out that your explanation of “fractional reserve banking” just skipped a massive logical step. You can delude yourself into thinking your simple explanation is accurate when it is merely reductive.
AI solves this by acting as an interactive student. It doesn’t just listen. It asks clarifying questions that expose your ignorance.
How to execute
Do not ask the AI to explain a topic to you. Tell the AI that you are going to teach it. Instruct it to adopt a specific persona that requires simple and clear language.
The “Simulated Student” Prompt Strategy
“I want to test my understanding of how CRISPR gene editing works. I am going to explain it to you step-by-step.
I want you to act as a bright and curious 12-year-old student. You have no prior knowledge of biology beyond a 6th-grade level.
I will provide my explanation. Do not just summarize it or say ‘good job.’ Instead, I want you to ask me three follow-up questions based only on what I just told you. These questions should focus on areas where I was vague. They should highlight where I used jargon without defining it. They should point out where I made a leap in logic that a 12-year-old wouldn’t follow.
Ready? Here is my explanation. [Your explanation goes here]”
Why this accelerates your mind
This is the ultimate forcing function for active recall. The AI might ask, “Wait, you said the ‘guide RNA’ finds the spot, but how does it know which spot to find?” You will immediately realize if you actually know the mechanism or if you were just parroting a buzzword. The ensuing struggle to articulate the answer simply is where the real learning happens. It closes the loop between thinking you know something and actually being able to transmit it.
Technique 4: The “Pre-Mortem” Simulator
The stoics and modern thinkers like Charlie Munger advocate for “Inversion.” Instead of asking, “How can I succeed?” you should ask, “What would guarantee failure?” Then you avoid those things. It is often easier to avoid stupidity than to seek brilliance.
Doing a thorough “pre-mortem” on a project or a learning goal is difficult in practice. We are naturally optimistic about our own plans. We have blind spots regarding potential pitfalls.
AI is excellent at simulating detailed and narrative scenarios. It has vast amounts of data regarding how things usually fall apart.
How to execute
Define your goal clearly. Then ask the AI to write a detailed post-mortem from a future where you failed miserably.
The “Pre-Mortem” Prompt Strategy
“Current Date: January 1st. Target Date: July 1st. My Goal: To become conversational in Spanish in six months.
I want you to use the ‘Inversion’ mental model. Let’s assume it is now July 1st. I have completely failed to reach my goal. I can barely order a coffee.
Write a detailed narrative ‘post-mortem’ explaining exactly how I failed. Don’t just give generic reasons like ‘you didn’t study enough.’ Give me specific behavioral failure modes. What ineffective study techniques did I rely on? What specific distractions derailed me? What uncomfortable parts of the learning process did I avoid that led to this failure?”
Why this accelerates your mind
The AI will generate a list of highly plausible failure points. It might suggest relying too much on gamification apps instead of speaking practice. It might mention failing to schedule dedicated study blocks. You can create a learning plan that proactively defends against these threats by visualizing the specific mechanics of failure.
It turns abstract anxiety about failing into a concrete checklist of what not to do.
From Oracle to Partner
The tools for building deep understanding include decomposition, pattern recognition, mental models, and relentless feedback. These have been known for centuries. But applying them consistently has always required immense discipline and mental energy.
AI lowers the energy threshold required to apply these rigorous methods. It doesn’t do the learning for you. It creates the friction. It provides the feedback. It offers the frameworks necessary for you to learn deeper and faster.
You must shift your paradigm to accelerate your mind.
Stop treating AI as an oracle that provides easy answers.
Start treating it as a partner that provides difficult challenges.
The goal isn’t to get to the end of the text faster. It is to have the text rewire your brain more effectively.
You move from being a passive consumer of information to an elite and agile thinker by using AI to force active engagement that widens and deepens your intellectual reservoir.
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What a post. Thoroughly enjoyed