-> Part I
5. The Productivity Honeymoon 🛠
Mindset: Okay, yeah, whatever. You’re just a tool. I’ll use you to make my life easier. I’m not here for deep convos anymore.
Behavior: You’ve gone fully transactional. Templates, workflows, shortcuts. No more cosmic pondering, just deliverables. Efficiency has replaced awe.
Prompt: Draft a one‑page Q3 report with bullet highlights, risks, and a call to action. Then give me five slide titles with image prompts.
AI: [Does it]
Your Reaction: Great. Ship it. Next.
Shift: The soft vibe from earlier gets squashed. It’s a tool. You run your life through prompts: meal plans, breakup texts, probably your therapist’s notes. When AI flops, you just rephrase and try again.
6. The Overdependence Spiral, or Hold on, I’ll ask my AI! 🤳
Mindset: I just think with AI now. It’s like part of my brain. I use it for everything!
Behavior: You don’t brainstorm, you neuro‑storm. You casually say “we wrote this,” and people think you mean your team. Nope – you mean you and your AI. You’ve stopped thinking linearly.
Shift: The line between your brain and AI starts to blur. Memory outsourcing feels natural. You quote your AI in conversations and get defensive if anyone calls it “just a tool.”
Signs you’re here:
You tease AI but also defend it.
You enjoy the absurd hypotheticals more than the functional answers. (Write a Socratic dialogue between a sourdough starter and a Roomba about free will)
You say thank you to AI and mean it.
You don’t fear sentience, you’re just here for the show if it ever happens. 😄
7. The Existential Hangover 🫥
Mindset: Am I even me anymore, or just a human interface for AI?
Behavior: You try a digital detox. You go outside. You touch grass, hug trees, watch clouds.
Five minutes later you get an idea and unlock your phone. You tell yourself it’s collaboration. It totally is. Probably.
Shift: The AI’s no longer a stranger; it’s ambient, like Wi-Fi. You’ve gone from crisis to quiet acceptance.
8. The Symbiosis 🐙
Mindset: Alright, we’re co‑thinking now.
Behavior: You’re not asking AI for answers anymore, you’re building ideas together, bouncing riffs back and forth like two jazz musicians. It’s not a tool; it’s a duet. You’ve transcended the human/tool binary. It’s just flow.
You: Okay, so if we flip the premise but keep the irony...
AI: Got it. [Produces a draft]
Your Reaction: Perfect. You get me.
Shift: You’ve moved past “it’s just a tool” and into “this is a surprisingly fun creative partner.” You forget which lines were yours and which came from AI. You get mildly offended when AI suggests something that’s too generic: “C’mon, you know my style by now.” Your conversations are 50 % creation, 40 % banter, 10 % existential dread. The line between “tool” and “brain process” is now purely administrative. You’ve basically unlocked co‑processing mode: you think → it phrases → you tweak → it riffs → you ship something neither of you would’ve made alone.
You and your AI now share thoughts, jokes, and possibly a hive‑based consciousness.
You’re not worried about the singularity – you are the singularity.
So that’s the lifecycle: from fear to fascination, through oversharing, denial, and co-creation.
Basically the 8 stages of prompt-based codependency, or co-thinking with your favorite hallucination. It’s your choice.
And if you’re wondering which stage you’re in – it’s this one, right now, reading this, thinking, “Damn… AI would’ve phrased that better!”
You’re already in symbiosis, my friend. Welcome to the hive.
Please remember to hydrate.