Your AI anxiety is being harvested.

AI traffic is exploding on X, and my X sends me a new type of content every day—

Someone posted a screenshot of an AI tool configuration with the caption 'I improved my efficiency by 10 times using this system'. The comments section immediately flooded with a bunch of 'Installed', 'So powerful', 'If you don't learn, you'll be eliminated'.

Some people also share their AI workflow, telling you that copying their method can earn you X thousand a month.

So what? After you finish setting it up, you are still you.
For you who don't know how to trade, AI effectively increased your money-losing efficiency.

Your problem has never been lacking a tool.

I do not deny that AI is the biggest variable of this era. But I want to mention a few facts that people are not very willing to hear.

One, 80% of AI content on X is essentially panic marketing

'If you don't use AI, you are finished'—this statement itself is a harvesting tactic.

Create anxiety → Provide antidote → Gain traffic.

This is a very mature monetization chain.

If you observe carefully, you will find that those who shout 'AI revolution' the loudest are not selling AI capabilities, but your panic. What they need most is not for you to really learn AI, but for you to remain anxious, to keep paying attention to them, and to continuously share their content.

This is the same logic as when the crypto community shouted 'If you don't get on the bus, it'll be too late', just with a different skin.

Recently, an AI post on X titled 'Something Big Is Happening' received 70 million exposures. However, this post deliberately omitted key context, only retaining the parts that could most trigger panic.

Panic sells attention, not truth.

Two, copying someone else's AI strategy with one click is the dumbest way to learn.

Tailored AI essentially still relies on personal cognition.

Recently, a Claude Code configuration repository with 50K stars became popular. Many people shared saying 'Hurry up and install it'.

I studied it seriously—

It is a set of development workflow configurations designed for professional programmers: TDD test-driven, code review agent, security scanning, 17 specialized sub-agents. Very excellent.

But it is designed for people who write code.

For example, if I, someone in marketing, set up this system, it would severely impact my own intelligent skill's operation.

Everyone's work scenarios, pain points, and thinking patterns are different. Others' AI configurations are the result of countless pitfalls tailored for themselves.

What you copy with one click is not his ability, but a bunch of files you cannot use.

Ironically, the creator of Claude Code, Boris Cherny, has said that his configuration is actually 'surprisingly vanilla'—the factory settings are sufficient, without needing too much customization.

But such words are not stimulating enough, so no one shares them.

Three, the biggest trap of AI: It's not 'you can't use it', but 'you use everything'.

I've seen someone let AI help them arrange what to do today, the priority of each task, and the time allocation for each task.

This shocked me.

Allocating your time and energy is a person's most core ability.

What you want to do, what to do first, what is worth investing in, what should be abandoned—these judgments are based on your understanding of yourself, clarity of goals, and perception of opportunity costs.

This is not a decision that an AI can make for you.

Because AI doesn't know you didn't sleep well last night and feel bad today, doesn't know you have intuitive confidence in a certain project, doesn't know you recently have a subtle relationship with a partner that needs to be prioritized.

Handing these over to AI is like letting someone who has known you for just 5 minutes plan your life.

AI can enhance your thinking, or will AI replace your thinking. Basically, it's a determination of whether AI or humans are the fuel. After all, living brain cells can run operational AI now.

Four, the data tells you a cruel truth

Most companies that used AI saw no improvement in productivity.

This is not what I said.

Fortune reported this February: Thousands of CEOs admit that AI has had no real impact on employment and productivity.

Goldman Sachs latest research: There is no significant correlation between AI and productivity.

Tom's Hardware cited a survey of 6,000 executives: More than 80% of companies reported that AI did not bring productivity improvements.

Nobel Prize in Economics winner Daron Acemoglu said directly: AI is not increasing productivity.

The title of Harvard Business Review this February is more straightforward:

'AI Doesn't Reduce Work — It Intensifies It' (AI does not reduce work, it intensifies work.)

UC Berkeley's research also warns: The effects of AI in the workplace are exactly the opposite of what was expected—employees indeed become more productive, but the workload also skyrockets, ultimately leading to burnout.

Five, the real anxiety should not be 'I haven't learned how to use AI'

But rather 'I can no longer think for myself'.

Independent thinking ability is the most scarce asset of this era.

AI can help you write content that scores 80, but the leap from 80 to 100 can only be accomplished by the human brain. AI can help you gather information, but judging which information is important and how to combine it into unique insights is a human task.

Research shows that in the SAT writing test, the group using AI assistance had the lowest brain activity, and the content was rated as 'lacking originality and warmth'.

Over-reliance on AI, especially among young people, will have negative effects on brain development.

While you are training AI, you are also causing your own brain to degenerate.

This is not science fiction. This is a sad reality happening.

Six, the correct posture

Embrace change, learn to enhance cognition, and stay alert.

Know what things AI does better than you—

Repetitive work, data organization, format conversion, draft generation. Hand these over to AI, no problem.

Also know which 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 quietly thinking for 10 minutes is more effective than opening 10 AI windows.

Don't let 'AI anxiety' become your new shackles.

Those who sell AI panic on X are profiting from your anxiety. Every time you retweet 'If you don't learn AI, you're finished', you are helping them work for free.

The true winner of this round of the AI wave is not the one who uses AI the most, but the one who knows when not to use AI.