Building the Practice, Not Choosing the Tool

When two of the most powerful AI models ever built launched on the same day a few weeks ago, I did what everyone else did. I wanted to know which one was better.

I get it, it’s part of the exponential pace of AI development that isn’t slowing down. But I’ve come to believe that question is a trap. And the right one could change how you grow.

The Post-Benchmark Era

Here’s something interesting happening in AI right now, the gap between top models has narrowed to the point where standardized tests can’t tell them apart in any way that matters for your daily life. We can call it the “post-benchmark era,” and I think it’s one of the most important shifts we’ve seen.

Why? Because it forces us to stop obsessing over the tool and start paying attention to the practitioner.

In the book Peak by Anders Ericsson (one of my all-time favorites), he makes the point that the difference between an expert and everyone else isn’t the quality of their instrument, it’s the quality of their practice. A Stradivarius doesn’t make you a violinist, just like a frontier AI model doesn’t make you a better thinker.

The What vs. The How

Peak performers understand that they must own the how and the why. How do you structure your learning? Why are you practicing this particular skill? When do you push harder, and when do you rest?

These are coaching questions, not technical ones. And no model, no matter how many parameters it has, can answer them for you.

I see this constantly in my own work. When I sit down with AI to reflect on a creative project, the value isn’t in the AI’s response, it’s in the question I chose to ask. The act of formulating the right question is itself a form of deliberate practice. It requires me to admit I know less than I think I do.

Sound familiar? It’s the beginner’s mind all over again. That willingness to say “I don’t know” is what opens the door, whether you’re standing in a forest with a camera or sitting at a keyboard with an AI.

Building the Practice, Not Choosing the Tool

I think what people struggle with the most with AI right now isn’t seeing how intelligent it is, it’s how to leverage it meaningfully in their own lives. Integrating it as a partner is the meta-skill that isn’t emphasized enough, if at all.

Instead, the conversation is dominated by what AI can do, which for many people only deepens the threat to their sense of individuality.

What is much more empowering is a personal assistant that knows what matters to you, that provides you with more agency, not less.

What that looks like in practice: you show up with a clear intention, not vague curiosity, but the focused attention of a musician working through a difficult passage.

You use AI as a thought partner, not a search engine—something that can reflect back what you’re actually saying, push back where you’re being imprecise, and offer the kind of honest feedback that’s hard to get elsewhere.

And you review what you’re producing, regularly, so the feedback loop is actually working for you.

The model you use for this matters far less than whether you have the right harness—a system that knows what matters to you and keeps you working toward it.

The Moment Before the Shutter

In photography, I’ve always said the most important moment isn’t when you press the shutter button, it’s the moment right before. That’s where the real creative act happens—everything after is mechanics.

AI is the same way. The magic isn’t in the output. It’s in that moment of honest self-inquiry that precedes it. What am I actually trying to learn or accomplish here? Where am I stuck? What am I avoiding?

So the next time someone asks you which AI you use, try flipping the question: What are you practicing? That’s where mastery begins, not in the choosing of the tool, but in the commitment to learn and improve.

And the work, as always, starts from within.