AI Is the New Philosopher's Stone (and That's a Problem)

I just finished reading "Transcend" by Faisal Hoque, and honestly it blew my mind with a historical analogy that perfectly explains where we stand today.

Hoque says AI is the modern version of the Philosopher's Stone.

Remember alchemy? It was that mythical substance people desperately sought because it could turn lead into gold and grant eternal life.

Basically, it was the promise of getting everything you want without effort.

But ancient texts had one key warning:

If you're not mentally and spiritually prepared, that power corrupts or destroys you.

It's not that the stone is "bad." It's that if you use it only to avoid work, you become weak.

The BA Success and the Thin Line

I'm telling you this because I lived it firsthand.

As you know, this year I outsourced my planning for the Buenos Aires Marathon to AI.

The result? A success.

It removed mental load, optimized timing, and worked perfectly as a tool.

For executing a plan, AI is a beast.

But that's the trap. When you see it works so well for optimizing, you start getting the itch to use it to avoid effort in everything else. And that's where you go from using the tool to the tool using you.

The real danger isn't that AI is Terminator. The danger is that it becomes your Super Nanny and infantilizes you.

The Code vs. the "Magic Pill"

The other afternoon I could hear Max and Mía playing on the other side of the house. I was in front of the computer reviewing a complex SAP problem.

I had two paths:

1. Ask AI: "Analyze this SAP class and tell me what it does and how to fix it." Wait 30 seconds.
2. Read the ABAP code myself, debug it step by step, understand the architecture. Take 45 minutes.

Option 1 is the "Philosopher's Stone." Gold without effort. But Above Average chose option 2.

Why? Because if I let the machine always solve the hard problems of my work, I become a Junior with steroids.

The day the server crashes, the AI hallucinates nonsense, or the client asks for something not in the database — I'll be useless.

The value of my career isn't the final code; it's the mental callus that forms in my brain when I solve the problem myself.

The System: Detach & Devote

In the book, Hoque proposes a framework ("Detach and Devote") to not lose humanity in this dance.

I brought it down to earth for my operating system:

DETACH (Let go of toxic comfort) We have to "detach" from the idea that everything has to be easy or convenient thanks to AI magic.

• Never delegate your judgment: Use AI to find data, not to make the final decision for you.
• Never delegate the sweat: AI builds the plan (like in BA), but you have to run the 42km yourself. If you look for the shortcut in effort, you lose.

DEVOTE (Give yourself to the irreplaceable) The time you save with AI isn't to "kill time." It's to "devote yourself" to elevating your potential.

• Real connection: Look people in the eyes, listen without your phone in hand, handle a difficult conversation. Don't lean on AI to avoid being genuinely human.
• Creativity from scratch: Grab a blank sheet and create something without prompts, just to keep the muscle from atrophying. The other day I wrote by hand and my hand hurt — I realized we're atrophying even there.
• Purpose: AI doesn't have "whys" — only patterns. You decide where the ship is headed. Think of it as a compass, but if you don't know how to use one, you'll end up anywhere.

The Action: The Comfort Fast

This week, I challenge you to recover your edge.

Choose one task you normally "outsource" to technology (to AI, to Google, to GPS) and do it yourself, the old way.

• Write that important report from scratch — at least one email.
• Navigate the city without GPS for a day. Try to remember an address without Waze.
• Calculate your running pace in your head, run by feel.

Feel the friction. Feel it costing you something. That's where you're really alive.

What isn't used atrophies.

AI is the magic stone and it solves our life in many ways.

Use it to build, not to stop working.

It's not an easy decision in this world of immediacy.

But that's where the judgment that differentiates us from the rest lives.

That's how we become Above Average.

Pablo / En Producción