If you're applying AI like everyone else, you're already playing the hardest game.

Most people treat AI like a magic button. Plug in a prompt, cross your fingers, hope for genius output. Then they wonder why their results are mediocre.

Here's what I've learned watching teams struggle with AI adoption: The technology isn't the bottleneck. People are. The real limit?

Too few people can ask good questions and think clearly about the answers.

I'm willing to die on this hill: most of the workforce operates at first-order thinking. They react to what's directly in front of them but rarely ask, "What happens next?"

Second-order thinking is what separates people who are actually productive with AI from people using it to generate cocktail recipes based on their Hogwarts house.

I see this gap everywhere. Engineers who can't probe past basic prompts. Creative thinkers who ask sharp questions but drift when processing answers. The rare few who can do both? They pull 10x the value.

Good questioning isn't about sounding smart. It's about seeing the real problem and focusing on what matters. Clear thinking means cutting through AI's noise to extract what's useful.

The people who crush it with AI treat it like a thinking partner. They probe. Refine. Stay focused on outcomes. They spot hallucinations and ask better follow-ups.

It's not about prompt hacks. It's about mental clarity.

Here's the upside: most people never develop these skills. Which means the advantage goes to those who do.