Self-Awareness

The internet has evolved. We transitioned from a 1:1 human connection to a digital noise factory. Now, we are entering the age of probabilistic models. Interactions have shifted from distant connections with real humans to endless loops with models that simply mimic human characteristics.

Among all these transitions, we must ask ourselves… what is real?

The Illusion of Competence

Knowledge and the ability to execute are not the same thing.

I once hired a “genius.” He was a walking encyclopedia. He knew philosophy, he knew science, he read constantly. On paper, he was undeniable. He had a strong worldview, passed every test, and crushed the interview. We thought we had hired a star.

Three months later, reality set in.

Knowledge is not skill.

He had the information, but he couldn’t translate it into value. He possessed the map, but he couldn’t walk the terrain.

It took me years to reflect on this experience, but it highlighted a growing danger in the modern world.

The Knowledge Dilution

What scares me is that this “knowledge dilution” is becoming the standard in the AI era.

In the old days, we had to dig. We searched through results, we read books, we made judgments. We assessed validity. We struggled.

The struggle was the point.

Now, we get a quick, organized, probability-based answer. We are fed the conclusion without the process of “digesting” the work.

Human nature is lazy. We take the shortest path possible. We forget that the process matters. We forget that the outcome is merely a possibility that exists after we have trialed and errored.

Of course, business is about the outcomes. This isn’t about the business, it is about us, myself, you, and our future self.

If you remove the friction, you remove the growth.

The Tool Trap

This avoidance of friction leads us to seek shortcuts in our workflows, too. We replace the struggle of creation with the simulation of productivity.

There is a subtle form of procrastination that feels like work. It is called “tool fatigue”. It is the endless cycle of switching between apps, migrating data, and customizing interfaces in the hope that a new tool will unlock your potential.

We have all been there. You spend four hours color-coding a calendar for a week you haven’t lived yet. You migrate your entire life from one system to another, convinced that a new interface will finally unlock your potential. You tweak themes, organize sub-folders, and restructure your hierarchy for the tenth time this month.

It feels productive. It feels like you are building a system for success.

But you are just playing house.

While you were busy customizing the aesthetics of your workspace, you didn’t write a single word of value. You didn’t ship a product. You didn’t solve a problem.

The time spent migrating tools is often greater than the time saved by the new tool.

Does this sound similar to you in the AI era?

Being self-aware means recognizing when you are using tool fatigue to hide from the actual work. It is the ability to stop and say, “Does this change actually matter? Or am I just avoiding the discomfort of creation?”

Focus on the goal. Choose the tool that gets out of your way. When you are truly self-aware, you make changes only when the friction of the current tool stops you from executing—not when a “game-changing” app appears on your feed.

Reclaiming The Process

Our ancestors invented pen and paper for a reason. It is one of the greatest inventions in history, a tool that translates abstract thought into tangible language.

It is a self-discovery process. It forces you to process information before you create it.

In the AI era, the power of the tool does not imply you have the skills. It just means you have a charged battery. Until the battery runs out.

You need a workflow that prioritizes self-awareness. You need time to reflect on what you are actually learning. You need to blend the physical world with the digital world.

I set out with a few simple goals:

1. Maintain the writing experience: Integrate deep work with a digital workflow.
2. Segregate knowledge: Keep some things private, make some things public.
3. Ensure interoperability: Work on business or content without being locked into a silo.

My Protocol

When I realize it I was in the tool trap, I spend years to reconfigure my workflows, keep it miniumalistic, and focus on the process of creation. I have built a workflow that blends the analog and digital worlds, allowing me to maintain self-awareness while leveraging technology.

Here is the workflow I built to bridge the gap between consumption and creation.

• Supernote: Minimalistic. Lazer focused on note taking. No noise. Just a focus on the writing experience.
• The Three Buckets: My thoughts are organized into three folders. Private, Public, and Drafts in the Supernote. These are actually Obsidian vaults.
• The Sync: These folders sync to my laptop using syncthing-fork.
• The Garden: The Public vault is part of my site’s Digital Garden. This is where I put self-aware notes on subjects I have learned. They are organized in a way where my site can pickup in Github, self-publish when they are out of draft mode.

I create a library for my future self to revisit. I automate the maintenance so I can focus on the important things in life. Tools becomes the portal, being designed to be out of my way to focus on writing, focus on learning and reading.

Understand this: the tools are just temporary interfaces for a permanent mind. Some are offline for focus. Some are online for leverage.

The interface is fluid. The process is adaptable. But the knowledge is the anchor.

The self-awareness is the constant.

The Return to Reality

This workflow isn’t just about organizing files. It is about organizing your mind.

When you stop outsourcing your memory to the cloud and your thinking to an LLM, you gain the space to actually create.

Being self-aware is what makes creativity possible. It is the process of connecting the dots with human intent. It is the act of making sense of the world instead of just consuming it.

The machine can predict the next word. Only you can decide if it matters.

Don’t let the AI do the thinking for you. Build your own way to become self-aware.