Everywhere you look right now, it’s all about AI. Automation. Streamlining process. More efficiencies. From the Government to the Private Sector to the Third Sector. The world is about speed. Quicker answers. Quicker results. The pressure to move, to react, to get to the next thing.
I fear that in our rush to go faster, we often forget the one thing that allows us to go further.
Thinking.
Anthropic has launched Keep Thinking, its first major brand campaign for Claude.
It positions this AI Tool as a “thinking partner” - designed to push ideas forward rather than simply deliver answers.
It really chimed with me. Here’s why.
The risk with AI is that we outsource our thinking. It would be too easy to allow AI to write our words, to do our thinking.
I think at the heart of being a human is to think, to reflect, to grapple with hard problems. I think that doing this gives our lives meaning.
When we sit with the discomfort of not knowing, when we dare to listen longer than feels comfortable, those are often when insights arrive.
That’s why I love the campaign by Claude.
It places their AI as a Thinking Partner. It allows space for the human in the equation rather than the Silicon Valley data centres doing all the thinking for us.
My favourite formula is Pain + Reflection = Progress.
It’s knowing we need that time for Reflection. To stare out of the window. To do it in the shower. On a run. Time for our minds to make sense of it all.
My invite to action is simple.
Create space in your day for reflection. To percolate on ideas. To let them bubble around and make new neural pathways. Be more human by exercising your brain more.
Here’s three Experiments to Try
🚀 The 2-Minute Experiment
Before your next meeting, pause and write down the real question you want answered and what success looks like by the end of the meeting.
⏳ The 5-Minute Experiment
In your next conversation, instead of jumping in with your view, hold back. Give space. Count to ten before responding. Notice what other ideas bubble up.
🕰️ The 10-Minute Experiment
Set aside ten minutes at the end of your day. No phone. No laptop. Just a notebook. Ask yourself: What’s the one thing today I didn’t give enough thought to? Then write until you see something new.