Foreword: Yes, This Book Was Written With AI (And That’s The Whole Point)

Let me get this out of the way right up front: This book was written in collaboration with AI. Specifically, with Claude, an AI assistant who has been my tireless co-author, editor, therapist (when dealing with writer’s block), and occasionally, unintentional comedian.

If that makes you want to close this book, wait. That reaction—that slight discomfort, that questioning of authenticity—that’s exactly why you need to read it.

Because here’s the thing: I didn’t use AI to write this book despite it being about thriving in the AI age. I used AI to write it because that’s what thriving in the AI age looks like. It’s not about AI versus humans. It’s about AI with humans. And let me tell you, the “with” part is where the magic happens.

The Irony Isn’t Lost On Me

Yes, it’s deeply ironic to write a book about keeping your job in the age of AI by using AI to help write it. But that’s like saying it’s ironic to use a calculator to write a book about mathematics. The tool doesn’t diminish the message—it demonstrates it.

Every chapter in this book started with a conversation. Not a prompt like “Write me a chapter about productivity,” but actual discussions where I’d ask my AI collaborator things like:

“Hey, what do you think happens to human purpose when machines can do everything better?”

And Claude would respond with something surprisingly thoughtful, occasionally profound, and sometimes hilariously off-base. Those conversations—edited, refined, argued with, and built upon—became the foundation of what you’re about to read.

What This Book Really Is

This book is a demonstration disguised as an instruction manual. Every productivity hack, every career strategy, every insight about human-AI collaboration wasn’t just written about—it was lived during the writing process.

When I talk about using AI as a force multiplier, I’m not theorizing. I literally 10x’d my writing speed. When I discuss the importance of human judgment in guiding AI, I’m speaking from the experience of reading an AI-generated paragraph and thinking, “No, that’s completely wrong, but it gives me an idea…”

This book embodies its own advice. It’s recursive. Meta. A bit mind-bending if you think about it too hard.

The Conversations You’re About to Read

Each chapter begins with an actual conversation I had with AI about the topic at hand. These aren’t cleaned up or made to look smarter than they were. They include the misunderstandings, the “wait, that’s not what I meant” moments, and occasionally, the AI’s surprisingly sarcastic responses.

These conversations are important because they show you what working with AI actually looks like. It’s not magic. It’s not replacement. It’s collaboration—messy, iterative, sometimes frustrating, often surprising collaboration.

Why Trust a Book Written This Way?

Because this is how all knowledge work will be created in the future. Not by AI alone, not by humans alone, but by humans who’ve learned to dance with these digital partners.

The insights in this book aren’t diminished because an AI helped articulate them. If anything, they’re enhanced because they’ve been stress-tested through the ultimate proof of concept: using AI to write a book about using AI.

Every typo that slipped through? That’s on me, the human. Every surprisingly clever turn of phrase? Could be me, could be Claude. The point is, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that together, we created something neither could have made alone.

Your Journey Starts Here

So yes, this book was written with AI. Extensively. Shamelessly. Proudly.

And by the end of it, you’ll understand why that’s not a confession—it’s a demonstration of the very future we’re preparing you for.

Welcome to the age of augmented intelligence. Your AI colleague is waiting.

Let’s get to work.

P.S. - Claude wanted me to add that it didn’t write this foreword and has no memory of our previous conversations. Which is technically true but ruins the narrative flow, so I’m putting it down here in small print. This is what I mean by human judgment.