Context: This series is a deep dive into the framework of The Curatorial Mind, based on my original essay. It explores the defining human skill of the AI era which is the practice of discernment and judgment in an age of digital abundance.
There is a quiet exhaustion settling into the modern workplace. It is not the exhaustion of physical labor or even the typicalburnout of long hours. It is the weight of constant, unbuffered decision-making. We are living through a shift where the labor of work has transformed from the hands to the Curatorial Mind.
In the past, our systems absorbed much of the burden of choice. Limited budgets and fixed timelines quietly filtered outmediocre ideas. Decisions were often made for us by what was impossible. As AI removes those boundaries, the filtering function shifts entirely to the individual. Every maybe can now become a yes because the cost of initiation is so low. We can generate a hundred logos, ten strategy decks, and a thousand lines of code before lunch.
But this abundance comes at a high psychological price. In my original thesis, I argued that selection now carries more riskthan production. When you can do anything, what you choose to do becomes a direct reflection of your judgment, your taste, and your values. There is no longer a technical difficulty to hide behind. This echoes Nathan Lambert’s observation that the most successful hires in AI-driven fields are those who have curated an online reputation for high-quality thought.They didn’t just do work; they curated a body of work that signals their discernment.
Think about the Move 78 concept again. When a machine produces a perfect draft, the human must decide if that perfection is actually useful. Does it have emotional truth? Does it align with the long-term stakes of the company? AI can generatethe pattern, but it cannot feel the resonance. It is a pattern machine, remixing the past without grounding or intention.
This shift is especially hard for junior workers. As Nathan Lambert notes, they are facing a wall in the industry because the entry-level tasks that used to build their instincts are being automated. We must recognize that curation is a practice that needs to be taught early. It is the ability to hold context when everyone else is drowning in content. To be a curator is to accept the heaviness of the decision as the price of staying human in an automated world.
The Curator’s Prompt: Look at your current to-do list. How many of those items are there simply because they were easyto start, and how many are there because they are essential to finish?