Oct 7, 2026 · 58 min · 13 segments
David & Mike discuss AI's tendency toward distraction and how to avoid the most common focus traps, from tool tourism to infinite collaboration. #### This episode of Focused is sponsored by…
Mike SchmitzHostWell, the topic today is the distraction capabilities of artificial intelligence.
Uh, my question today is, is it going to kill all our focus? And th- what this grows out of is me teaching that Robot Builders Club and the Robot Assistant Field Guide.
Um, something I'm witnessing with people going through the course is these people get to, like, a point of exhaustion with it and frustration, and they, uh, they do find that it is a real focus damper, you know? The problem is that it's always talking to you and always asking you questions, and for a place where we're trying to tell you not to do a lot of multitasking and try to stay on one thing and build that focus muscle, it's tough when you got a little digital assistant that has nothing but questions for you.
[laughs] Nothing but questions or ideas and suggestions on what you should be doing right now.
Like, I ordered a thing and, uh, decided I didn't wanna keep it, and I told my AI, "Hey, I don't think I'm gonna keep that thing.
Uh, will you please take care of, you know, the return?" It said, "Sure." It went and looked up the receipt, prepared an email for me to the vendor asking for a return authorization.
All I had to do was press send, you know? And I'm still continually easily amazed by little things like that that it can do for me.
But it is a dangerous distraction because it ar- it arrives wearing work clothes, you know? Um, you know, you're like, "This is for the work, so I can do it." And, um, the effect of it, though, is grinding people down.
As, like I said, I see all these people who are dealing with it, and some people just literally have to take time away from it to kinda get themselves back on track.
And I think that is a, a real risk for you if you're trying to have a focused journey, but you're also trying to use this agentic stuff.
Uh, I was actually listening to a Cal Newport Deep Life podcast the other day, and, uh, he was bringing up this article that someone had written in by an Italian writer who was, uh, talking about what AI... how AI has changed the way that she does her work.
Well, the topic today is the distraction capabilities of artificial intelligence.
Uh, my question today is, is it going to kill all our focus? And th- what this grows out of is me teaching that Robot Builders Club and the Robot Assistant Field Guide.
Um, something I'm witnessing with people going through the course is these people get to, like, a point of exhaustion with it and frustration, and they, uh, they do find that it is a real focus damper, you know? The problem is that it's always talking to you and always asking you questions, and for a place where we're trying to tell you not to do a lot of multitasking and try to stay on one thing and build that focus muscle, it's tough when you got a little digital assistant that has nothing but questions for you.
[laughs] Nothing but questions or ideas and suggestions on what you should be doing right now.
Like, I ordered a thing and, uh, decided I didn't wanna keep it, and I told my AI, "Hey, I don't think I'm gonna keep that thing.
Uh, will you please take care of, you know, the return?" It said, "Sure." It went and looked up the receipt, prepared an email for me to the vendor asking for a return authorization.
All I had to do was press send, you know? And I'm still continually easily amazed by little things like that that it can do for me.
But it is a dangerous distraction because it ar- it arrives wearing work clothes, you know? Um, you know, you're like, "This is for the work, so I can do it." And, um, the effect of it, though, is grinding people down.
As, like I said, I see all these people who are dealing with it, and some people just literally have to take time away from it to kinda get themselves back on track.
And I think that is a, a real risk for you if you're trying to have a focused journey, but you're also trying to use this agentic stuff.
Uh, I was actually listening to a Cal Newport Deep Life podcast the other day, and, uh, he was bringing up this article that someone had written in by an Italian writer who was, uh, talking about what AI... how AI has changed the way that she does her work.
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