We are all getting lazy. In the world of AI, we get more summaries than ever. Articles, meetings, books, papers, everything arrives pre-digested.
Every summary inserts an intermediary. Someone, or something, read the material first and decided what mattered. Their biases and interpretations now sit between you and the source. You are one step removed from the actual thing, and you rarely notice the step.
And yet, one step removed is also better. There is so much content I want to process, and not all of it deserves my attention. I only have so many intellectual bytes to spend every day. The step is a guard on my attention. Without it, everything walks in.
So I use summaries on purpose, as a pre-processing filter. Like the back cover of a book. The summary tells me what a thing is and whether it deserves more of me. The ones I like, or feel curious about, get the full treatment. I read the actual thing. The rest I let go without guilt.
The rule I follow is simple. Match the source to the stakes. Low stakes, the summary is fine. High stakes, or high impact, I read the actual material, not the summary. Summaries for quick overviews. Deep dives when it is warranted.
In the end, I rather not be one step removed from the source if that topic or conversation matters. The step is a good guard. It is a bad master.