Thinking Spaces

I’ve been thinking about how to preserve judgment in an output-driven world. Work is moving faster than ever before, but is our understanding moving at the same speed?

AI is the leading contributor.

Knowledge workers are surrendering control to work cultivated through years of acquired skills and lived experience. And people are leveraging AI to do work they couldn’t do before—designers writing code, engineers creating designs, and everyone else doing both (and then some).

It feels magical. And in some ways it is.

I was talking to a colleague and they shared a brilliant insight about “bias to action.”

The core principle behind a bias to action is to get moving and embrace reality. Don’t sit around and guess or pontificate endlessly without making progress. Do something and learn what works and what doesn’t.

But that mantra originated when output was hard, deliberate, and time-intensive.

Now? It’s as easy as spitting out a few words into an AI prompt and waiting.

Frontier models got smarter and require less of the “prompt engineering” that dominated early AI use. Now it’s about the quality of context and simple prompts to let the agent work until the task is complete.

The conversation I keep hearing is about the “Claude Says” users—people who ask Claude and forward the output without thinking critically with their own human-generated judgment.

Or, the term I use:

Meat Proxy Slop Cannon Output Factories

Maybe you’ve heard of a “meat proxy” or “slop cannon,” but I bring you this new and exciting terminology, backed proudly by an even more confusing acronym: MPSCOF

A MPSCOF is:

Someone who generates outputs from AI in an endless stream of noise without effort, care, or understanding of the work that’s produced.

And you know what happens on the other side of that output?

Nothing!

Those on the receiving end of the MPSCOF’s slop grenade respond with “looks good” or ignore it. Why? Because it’s AI-generated and almost impossible to read; because they didn’t take the time to create it; because they forwarded it without any interpretation of what it means to them.

Pick your AI poison.

I started reading Drift Into Failure by Sidney Dekker, and he talks about locally rational decisions that cause outsized negative outcomes in complex systems.

Forwarding AI output without understanding it is one example. There’s no corrective feedback loop to alter the behavior because the individual thinks they’re doing good work. And the company (system) calls it “leveraging AI” and chalks it up to a win. When the output is ignored and not corrected, we see subtle, insidious shifts in behavior of the system, which relies on a network of relationships and dependencies built on top of hundreds of daily local decisions.

That’s why I’m thinking about preserving judgment—about thinking in general. We need to create more space to think slowly in systems designed for speed to carry our understanding with the work, while maintaining coherence in the system.

I use Notion as a ledger for my thinking, but I don’t use it for the process of thinking. I explore ideas from different angles and in different tools. I sketch on paper or write in a text editor or create a detailed mind map, like an engaging conversation with the perfect thinking partner.

The tool should not dictate the thinking.

The tool should support the thinking.

Thinking Spaces are intentional environments designed to embrace friction in order to create durable, integrated knowledge and understanding.

1. The Reading Space is where you engage with external thinking to expand your perspective and knowledge.
2. The Writing Space is where you engage with internal thinking to find understanding through language.
3. The Knowledge Space is where you find what’s durable and worth keeping from the exchange of the other two spaces.

Reading Space

I read all the time. I always have a physical book (or two) near me I’m actively reading, a digital book I read on my phone and Kindle, and an audiobook loaded up for my daily walks and exercise. Books contain thousands of years of wisdom immediately accessible, in any format you want.

It’s a beautiful gift.

The Reading Space is about books as the ideal expression, but it can also be a great documentary you watched; or a TV show; or a podcast. It’s any external information that expands your perspective to improve your understanding.

You bring the world into thought so you can interpret what you encounter.

Reading is not just consumption. It’s participatory, not passive. It requires slowing down, being mindful, and interpreting the information you interact with.

Text → Highlight → Note

The representations within each space are how you move through the information intentionally to carry it through.

Text is the context. You explore the source of thinking in full—the words in a book or article; the visuals and story in the movie; the ideas shared in a podcast.

Highlight is the salience. You hear a phrase or notice a visual that catches your attention. You find the signal in the noise by tuning your intuition and listening.

Note is the reflection. You go past noticing to interpret what it means to you since the act of noticing it in the first place is an indication of its importance.

Read → Notice → Reflect

You can’t prompt insights. You can’t tell Claude to generate novel ideas that will resonate with you. You can’t ask it to share the key takeaways because those are personal to you. Meaning is an interpretation derived from one’s unique perspective of the world. You can’t outsource that. You live it.

Find your own Reading Space where you can expand your thinking and avoid the “good enough” trap in work. Explore new ideas and divergent perspectives, embrace the friction of thinking deeply, and let new information spark novel insights.

Writing Space

I write all the time. As of right now, I’ve published over 200,000 words across my blog and newsletter. I’ve been journaling daily for the past several years, and keeping personal notes across a broad range of topics and ideas.

It’s a lot.

Writing is thinking. You don’t know how well you understand something until you wrestle with the words to describe it.

It’s struggle. It’s friction. It’s tension.

In an age of decreasing friction and increasing comfort, we need that.

The elusive “flow state” happens, yes, but it’s not the norm. Or at least not for me. Or any writer I’ve heard talk about the craft of writing. You just write. Then you edit and refine until the meaning is clear.

That’s how you do hard things. You just do them. And you don’t fool yourself into thinking they’re going to be easy.

My writing process starts from different angles. My process for solving any problem and developing ideas changes depending on the context. I choose the starting point that helps me frame the idea enough to see the possible solutions. Hit a roadblock? Try viewing the problem from another angle.

Take this newsletter, for example. I may start by writing the prose; or I start with an outline; or a mind map. Each idea has different needs. I listen and pick the right one, alternating between different representations until it’s ready.

Prose · Outline · Map

The representations in the Reading Space are more sequential and linear.

But the Writing Space is different.

These representations are different ways to see the same underlying data, like viewing a line chart or bar chart. They show the same data in different ways.

Prose is the rhythm. You represent the idea into a rhythmically coherent narrative to make it understandable.

Outline is the structure. You create lists to compress the information in a unit you can use to find the structure.

Map is the relationships. You see the relationships and dependencies between the different parts of the idea.

Compose · Arrange · Connect

These conceptual representations apply beyond writing a newsletter or blog post.

You can (and should) use writing (your own) to explore ideas and interrogate your thinking. Get the words down on paper. Embrace the struggle to find the right word. Try and arrange the concept in lists. Create a mind map to understand the relationships. Alternate between each representation to view the information in new ways.

Create your own Writing Space.

When you have an idea, hear something interesting, or feel a question brewing, start writing. Don’t worry about publishing the work. It’s for you. I use my KnowFlow system as a ledger for this thinking. I jot down signals that cluster into larger inquiries I focus on.

For example, this entire newsletter emerged from thinking about my current active inquiry, Preserving Judgement, which aims to answer:

When systems make behavior easier, rewarded, or commonplace, how do we recognize when our judgment is being degraded—and what conditions preserve it?

There are 15 (!) signals I noticed and wrote that eventually related to this inquiry. Now I’m sitting down and writing about one angle of the idea here, using recent revelations about unique spaces for distinctive thinking.

I think about it, develop the idea, and share it.

Knowledge Space

I used to save everything in Notion and celebrate it as having a “second brain.”

The more I save, the more I know.

Right? Not at all.

Your second brain becomes a garage. You keep adding to it, but you never integrate it into your life. You know you put something in there, but you can’t remember where it came from or where it is. A database of quotes is like a hoarder’s nest of things you don’t need or use. You have it because you’re scared to get rid of it, or you forgot about it.

I’ve been using Notion for almost 10 years now. The tool changed drastically, but the flexibility kept me using it.

Recently, I redesigned it and got rid of all the things I don’t need. It was a relief to drop all the baggage, like the satisfaction of cleaning out the garage. I knew what was where and why it was there.

Everything serves a purpose.

I treat a lot of thinking as ephemeral units of temporary insight. You notice something, write it down, and it either:

1. Sheds light on a bigger idea.
2. Gets combined with another idea.
3. Becomes stale and naturally archives.

Acorns, branches, and leaves.

Acorns are new ideas with the potential to become something larger.

Branches connect to existing ideas to extend what’s already growing.

Leaves are useful, but temporary ideas that eventually fall away.

Notion is now my knowledge ledger. I work in dedicated Reading and Writing Spaces outside Notion, and then move the durable knowledge back into the system when it’s ready to harden.

Signal → Inquiry → Knowledge

This representation is a compression of KnowFlow, my system for moving from idea to expressed understanding.

Signal is attention. You notice the subtle hints and ideas as they arise naturally in your life.

Inquiry is investigation. You stick with something and engage your curiosity to fuel your drive to learn more.

Knowledge is understanding. You codify your learning into durable knowledge integrated deeply into your way of living.

Creating a Knowledge Space does not mean adding everything you come across. An overloaded brain (or second brain) creates noise. The goal is to develop an understanding of what you learn, and then integrate it into your life to become practical knowledge. The knowledge becomes a tool for you to make better decisions and live a more intentional life, not to sound intelligent at a party.

Thinking Modes

There are distinct modes I operate in when I’m working through ideas. I engage with each idea and move it through the modes.

And they extend across the spaces, like a cross-functional team working horizontally in a org chart of vertical disciplines.

KnowFlow moves from notice to question to test to understand to express.

Thinking Modes are a way of engaging with the idea through those steps:

1. Encounter is where you begin by coming into contact with the idea. You spend time in the Reading Space and stay open and curious to new information. The question you want to answer is what am I missing?
2. Articulate is where you shift internally to externalize your thinking. You spend time in the Writing Space and build your own mental model of the idea. The question you want to answer is what do I actually think?
3. Structure is where you find the hierarchy, relationships, and tensions that exist in the idea. You spend time across spaces to refine your mental model from a systems perspective. The question you want answer is how does this fit together?
4. Socialize is where you bring the idea out into the open to discuss, debate, and challenge it. You expose the idea to other perspectives. The question you want to answer is how does someone else see this?
5. Challenge is where you question, contrast, and challenge your assumptions and biases. You look for blind spots or hidden assumptions. The question you want to answer is what haven’t I considered?

In KnowFlow, I label active inquiries with the space and mode I’m working in. I’m thinking about Preserving Judgement in the Writing Space and Articulate Mode as I work on this newsletter. I fluctuate between the spaces and modes as I work through the topic until durable knowledge remains. It’s a flowing movement, never a static one.

Intentional, Personalized Spaces

The biggest realization I had recently is how I can build intentional spaces that fit the exact way I want to work.

A few years ago, I shipped two small web apps: FramedThoughts and SimplyWords.

FramedThoughts started as a tool to solve the problem of previewing a social post to see how it would look before posting. Then I stopped posting content and pivoted it to a screenshot tool. And then I built it again in its current state as a minimal reading application for online content to read and save passages and reflections. It’s saved on your device. It’s meant to be ephemeral in nature. Read the text, highlight what resonates, reflect on it, and then bring that into another space. You don’t throw it in the garage—you integrate it.

SimplyWords is a simple space to jot notes and ideas. You copy or clear it. That’s it. I’m thinking about building a native iOS writing app that allows you to work with prose, outlines, and maps on a single idea as distinct spaces.

In the past, I would force this into Notion for the sake of having everything in one place. But different environments for different types of work are useful. Notion should be a distillation, like an art gallery instead of a garage.

The magic of AI is enabling each of us to build digital environments and tools to fit our unique mental models. You no longer have to rely on the available tools meant to serve everyone. You can make your own. That’s where I see the power and potential of AI. It’s not for replacing thinking, but for building intentional spaces where thinking can grow and evolve. Intentional being the key word. Without intention, we drift into entropy and lose critical thinking.

Not me. I like thinking too much.

And I believe AI, and technology in general, can help expand thinking.

It begins with building Thinking Spaces.

Now, ask yourself:

Where can I spend more intentional time thinking deeply even as I work within systems designed for speed?

Find your space to think deeply.