The pyramid graphic below represents the hierarchy of cognitive work across all sectors of the economy—how millions of humans around the world apply their brainpower for 8-12 hours every day.
As we move up the pyramid, we ascend from mechanical, repetitive tasks at the base (low-cognition), toward more fluid, intuitive, and creative capacities at the peak (higher-cognition).
uniquely human
These are the most valuable and hardest to replicate abilities—the essence of being human.
Creativity & Imagination
- Dreaming up new ideas, stories, art, music, and inventions.
- Thinking beyond constraints and exploring the unknown.
- Creating entirely new paradigms, concepts, and solutions.
Intuition & Emotional Intelligence
- Trusting gut instincts, reading between the lines, and making nuanced decisions.
- Understanding emotions, empathy, human connection, and social dynamics.
- Navigating ambiguity and adapting to unpredictable situations.
Philosophical & Ethical Reasoning
- Considering moral dilemmas, societal impact, and the broader implications of actions.
- Debating values, purpose, and the meaning of existence.
- Weighing context, nuance, and long-term consequences.
Complex Problem-Solving & Innovation
- Tackling challenges that require multi-dimensional thinking.
- Connecting disparate ideas to create new solutions.
- Thinking laterally, holistically, and iteratively.
Discovery & Exploration
- Pushing boundaries of knowledge through curiosity and experimentation.
- Embracing serendipity, wonder, and the thrill of the unknown.
- Seeking out new frontiers in science, technology, art, and philosophy.
collaborative & decision making
Tasks where AI assists, but human oversight and decision-making remain critical.
Strategic Thinking & Planning
- AI can provide data-driven insights, but humans set goals and direction.
- Creating long-term visions and adaptable strategies.
Design & Iteration
- AI can generate prototypes and ideas, but humans refine and judge aesthetics, usability, and meaning.
Teaching & Mentoring
- AI can provide information, but humans offer wisdom, inspiration, and personalized guidance.
Judgment-Based Decisions
- AI can present options, but humans apply ethical, emotional, and contextual judgment.
Personalized Care & Service
- AI can enhance efficiency, but human care, empathy, and relationship-building remain central.
all that stuff
The tasks that will be entirely automated by AI, liberating countless hours of brainpower.
Administrative Work
- Scheduling meetings, sending calendar invites, setting reminders.
- Booking travel, organizing itineraries, and managing expenses.
- Filing documents, maintaining records, and managing databases.
- Sending follow-up emails, answering routine queries, and processing forms.
Information Management
- Searching for relevant information online or in databases.
- Sorting through emails, messages, or reports to find key details.
- Summarizing articles, papers, or reports into digestible insights.
- Compiling and presenting information for meetings or updates.
Data-Driven Tasks
- Entering, processing, and categorizing data into spreadsheets or systems.
- Analyzing trends, generating charts, and creating reports.
- Fact-checking and cross-referencing information.
Content Production & Typing
- Writing basic reports, summaries, product descriptions, or templated emails.
- Creating social media captions, standard blog posts, or simple marketing copy.
- Transcribing notes, interviews, or meetings.
Logistical Coordination
- Tracking shipments, managing inventory, and coordinating deliveries.
- Planning workflows and organizing task assignments.
- Ensuring deadlines, appointments, and processes are on track.
Customer Service & Support
- Responding to frequently asked questions and troubleshooting simple issues.
- Processing refunds, returns, and order updates.
- Directing inquiries to the appropriate person or department.
Supply Chain Management
- Monitoring inventory levels and managing stock replenishment.
- Tracking shipments and coordinating delivery schedules.
- Analyzing supply and demand data to forecast needs and optimize logistics.
- Managing vendor relationships and processing purchase orders.
While they seem small in isolation, the amount of time we spend on all that stuff adds up to numbers that are almost incomprehensible.
We’re talking about billions of hours of collective brainpower consumed every day around the world by mundane work that essentially amounts to “mental clutter”.
There’s nothing inherently bad or evil about this category of work—but that’s not the point.
The point is that, as humans, our brains are designed to do a lot of other things. Things that most people don’t currently spend a lot of time doing because they are consumed by all that stuff.
Artificial Intelligence
Now imagine if we put the entire bottom tier of our cognitive pyramid into a box and permanently sealed that box shut. Never to be opened again.
All that stuff is done—forever.
That’s what Artificial Intelligence represents.
It’s happening in a messy way, and it’s not happening overnight, but we’ve essentially offloaded the entire bottom tier of our cognitive pyramid to this one technology that we refer to as AI.
Again, whether that’s good or bad is not the point here. That’s just what’s happening.
Why It Matters
Imagine all of society as representing a single, vast brain—millions of people, each with a unique variety of thoughts, skills, interests, talents, and strengths.
Each person is like an individual neuron, connected to other neurons within the brain, working in harmony to learn, grow, build, survive, and solve problems together.
The output of this collective brain represents the economy, and is what ultimately drives humanity forward through its innovation, discovery, and progress.
Language, electricity, computers, art, music, culture, transportation, currency, internet, cell phones, medicine, cities—everything we have and everything we’ve ever achieved as a species is the output of our single collective brain. Including Artificial Intelligence.
So imagine…
What would happen if we removed all the clutter from that brain?
What would happen if the billions of individual minds around the world that comprise our collective brain were no longer consumed by countless hours of work that only leverages a tiny fraction of their innate cognitive potential?
That’s what AI does for us.
AI isn’t just a productivity boost for individual people or a tool for hacking the existing system that we’ve conditioned ourselves to accept as reality—it represents a cognitive revolution.
A turning point for how the entire system is defined.
By offloading our entire low-cognition workload, society is freed to go deeper into everything that makes us uniquely human—our ability to imagine, innovate, connect, build, play and explore.
The goal isn’t to just do more of the same thing, faster and more productively—the goal is to push the boundaries of our collective potential and recognize that in a world where machines can handle the mechanical and mundane, the greatest untapped value lies in doing what only humans can do.
If the output of our collective brain is what drives humanity forward, what sort of innovations, discoveries, and progress will be made when billions of hours of collective brainpower and attention are redirected towards our higher level abilities?
This is the essence of all that stuff is done: with AI handling the foundation, humanity has the breathing room to think, dream, and explore the peak of our cognitive pyramid on a scale we’ve never experienced before—that exploration is the new frontier.