Resilient Thinking

The new core competency in the AI era.

I just finished The Comfort Crisis. The book has nothing to do with AI, but it reminded me not to let AI make me too comfortable in my work. Doing hard things physically and mentally, struggling through problems, and thinking independently are still critical for our mental well-being and growth.

AI is becoming a massive advantage in business.

But there’s a downside that hiring teams are quietly starting to notice:

Some candidates are losing the ability to think through problems without it. I heard a term the other day (Hat Tip to Chamath) that describes what I have been noticing, it’s called Resilient Thinking.

One client, let’s call them ACME Soap, noticed that some younger marketing candidates could create polished AI-generated work all day long, but struggled in unscripted situations. Brainstorming. Strategy discussions. Explaining why something would work instead of just generating output.

Another client, we’ll call them Espera Health — encourages engineers to use AI during coding exercises. But many candidates still fail because once the AI output breaks, they can’t troubleshoot the problem themselves.

That’s one of the hidden cons of AI:

It can create the illusion of competence.

You can sound smart.
Move fast.
Generate impressive-looking work.

But if you don’t understand the fundamentals, eventually it shows.

The customer asks a hard question.
The strategy changes.
The code fails.
The CEO pushes back in a meeting.

And someone still has to think.

AI is incredible when it amplifies capability.
It becomes dangerous when it replaces critical thinking, curiosity, and problem-solving.

The best candidates today are not anti-AI.

They’re AI-enabled people with resilient thinking.