Plug In. Then Rethink the System.
Post 3 of 4 in the Grid-Level Thinking series—adopting AI isn’t the hard part. Redesigning your system around it is.
This is Post 3 of 4 in the Grid-Level Thinking series.
Catch up on the full series here.
Plugging in is easy.
It takes 30 seconds to get an API key.
It takes 5 minutes to try a prompt.
It takes a lot longer to realize that none of that matters if your system isn’t designed to take advantage of what AI can actually do.
Most people stop at adoption.
They install the tool, write a few prompts, and then… carry on like nothing changed.
They haven’t changed the way they think.
They haven’t changed how decisions get made.
They haven’t changed how information flows.
They’re just pushing the same work through a shinier pipe.
AI doesn’t become leverage until you rethink the shape of your system.
- Where do you get stuck?
- What slows you down?
- What do you keep doing manually because it’s “just how we’ve always done it”?
That’s where the redesign starts.
The hardest part of using AI well isn’t the model.
It’s the mirror.
What part of your system no longer makes sense now that you have a tool that can reason, summarize, reframe, generate, and accelerate?
If your answer is “none of it,”
you’re not thinking clearly.
Plugging in is the beginning.
Rethinking the system is the job.
Keep reading the Grid-Level Thinking series:
← Post 2: Wired for Power: Everyone Got the Current. Not Everyone Built the City.
→ Post 4: Power Without Purpose Is Just a Bill.
