How to Use AI to Actually Get Smarter Than 99% of People (Not Dumber)

Don’t let AI replace your thinking — use it to amplify your intelligence.

May 13, 2025

We’ve misunderstood intelligence.

We might be tempted to think that the most intelligent person in the room is the one with the highest IQ, the one who remembers everything, or the one who throws out deep philosophical ideas. Maybe it’s the person who speaks with a polished sense of chivalry or effortlessly captures attention with their eloquence.

But what if we look at intelligence through a different lens — one that doesn’t devalue these traits, but redefines what true intelligence really is?

Intelligence isn’t just IQ score.
It’s not just memorization.
It’s not how complex your ideas are.
It’s not about sounding formal or perfect.

Intelligence is how well you understand reality and using that to get what you want, without ignoring the hard cold truth of life — it’s knowing how the world works and using that knowledge to achieve your goals, while staying grounded in reality.

Intelligence = How much you understand × How well you can act on it

If you understand more — if you’ve expanded your mental field of vision by reading, listening to podcasts, talking with mentors, and staying tapped into the latest trends — and if you make good decisions based on that knowledge, then that is intelligence.

Now here’s where AI comes in:

It amplifies that process. It expands the variables in that equation — helping you see more, understand faster, and think clearer. It’s like widening your lens on reality.

With AI, you can become more aware of the world around you, synthesize information in ways your brain alone couldn’t, and ultimately make sharper, more strategic decisions.

And since life is basically a long chain of decisions — and the better your decisions, the faster you move toward the life you actually want — you start to see how important real intelligence is.

Not just book smarts. But applied awareness.

If you use AI the right way, it can help you grow faster than anything else.
But if you use it the wrong way, it can make you weaker, dumber, and more dependent.

By the end of this, you’ll know how to use AI to become smarter than most people — just by spending 1 hour a day, for a year.

AI Is Not a Search Engine. It’s a Thinking Mirror.

Most people use AI like Google on steroids.

“Give me the answer.”
“Write this for me.”
“Do the hard part.”

That’s not intelligence. That’s outsourcing your brain.

AI is not here to replace your thinking. It’s here to refine it. To pressure-test it. To sharpen it.

Smart people don’t use AI to skip the struggle.
They use it to deepen it.

They use it to:

Simulate smarter versions of themselves
Break down ideas from multiple angles
Map blind spots in their logic
Refine frameworks, writing, strategies
Turn confusion into clarity

AI is not an answer machine. It’s a reflection machine.

AI is like a mirror for your mind — it shows your clarity or lack of it. As the saying goes, “with great power comes great responsibility,” but in reality, with great power comes the risk of misuse if you're not careful.

It’s the same with AI.
Most people are trying to stop thinking — not improve the thinking process. And that’s the sad part.

Fortunately, if you’re reading this, you’re likely not in that camp.

Don’t Worship It. Wield It.

Some people think using AI makes you lazy. That’s only true if you don’t know what to ask.

Because here’s the truth:

If you can’t create without AI, you’re not creative.
But if you can’t create better with AI, you’re not intelligent.

AI can’t think for you. But it can think with you.

The difference is everything.

It’s the gap between being a passive consumer…
…and becoming a synthetic intelligence cyborg — a mind evolved through symbiosis.

Every time you open ChatGPT, you’re collaborating with a pattern-matching engine trained on more knowledge than any human alive.

This is the greatest lever humanity has ever built. With it, we can evolve much faster — if we do things the right way.

You have no idea how revolutionary this is.

The Ultimate Frame: You Are a Being with Access to a God-Like Tool

God is all-knowing and all-powerful — meaning He sees and understands everything completely, instantly, and deeply. He also knows exactly which causal levers to pull to get what He wants. That would be the ultimate form of intelligence — which is exactly how we’re defining intelligence.

No, AI isn’t God.

But for most people today, it’s the closest thing we’ve had to accessing “infinite knowledge” whenever we need it. Here’s why:

It can answer almost any question.
It remembers details you give it.
It learns patterns and helps you think clearer.
It doesn’t get tired, emotional, or distracted like humans.

When you use AI correctly, it’s like having a mini version of “pure intelligence” in your pocket. It's like being able to access the vast depths of knowledge and reasoning without the need for prayer. In a sense, it’s a bit like prayer — but without the uncertainty. We no longer need faith, because we know, without a doubt, that we’ll get an answer.

You’re simply recognizing it as a thinking partner that gives you a taste of what all-knowing awareness could feel like in your everyday life.

You could ask it to be anything, speak like your favorite mentors… AI has the ability to mimic any voice, personality, or thinking style. If you admire Naval, Jordan Peterson, or your grandfather’s wisdom — you can prompt the AI to think and speak in that style.

"...because whether you like it or not, the human experience can be summed up using the state of the mind..."

At its core, what we call "life experience" is simply how we see and process the world. This is filtered through the state of our mind — including our beliefs, focus, habits, and emotional control.

You can break it down into neural networks that show the state of mind of the person using it. Our minds work on patterns, just like AI does. Neural networks are the building blocks of both how humans think (our brains) and artificial intelligence (machine learning). When you interact with AI, it’s like looking into a mirror of your own mental wiring — one that can grow, improve, or show your mental blind spots.

You can use AI to simulate the minds of your greatest role models because both human thinking and AI are based on patterns. The better you are at asking the right questions, the better the reflection. It's like shaping your mind by borrowing others' minds — instantly.

Life Isn’t Supposed to Be Easy. But AI Can Help You Train Better.

Reality is not designed to please you. It’s designed to refine you.

Life is full of problems. That’s normal.

That’s what helps you grow.

The hard stuff you face is not there to break you — it’s there to train you.

AI won’t take away your problems.
But it can give you better tools to face them.

You still have to do the work.
But you don’t have to do it blind.

Reality doesn’t try to create problems. It’s not against you. It’s neutral. But because it’s always changing — growing, breaking down, creating, destroying — it’s sure to challenge your plans.

And that’s not bad. That’s training.

So in this view:

Reality is your gym. Problems are your weights. Growth is the goal.

In a world where chaos, complexity, and uncertainty are always present, AI becomes a powerful tool — but only if you approach it with humility and put in the effort.

The 1-Hour AI Intelligence Protocol

If you want to become smarter than 99% of people. All it takes is 1 intentional hour a day, split into 3 layers:

Input → Thinking → Output

1. Input Layer (20 min/day) — Feed your brain

Use AI to digest, synthesize, and understand complex topics.

Summarize books
Extract first principles
Build mind maps or metaphors
Compare ideas from multiple thinkers

Prompt example:

“What are the core principles behind Naval Ravikant’s ideas on wealth, happiness, and leverage? Teach it like I’m 15.”

I personally use the Meta prompt generator by

DAN KOE

on ChatGPT to have my own custom GPT that helps me do deep dives, and it's good enough for me. But since I can't extract ideas from books and videos — which I believe is a really cool feature — even with ChatGPT Plus, it still won’t get you to that next level of intelligence.

That’s why I recommend Kortex, an AI second-brain app. I have no affiliation, but I genuinely enjoy the tool, though I use the free version. It does most of what I need.

Check out the Deep Dive GPT

2. Thinking Layer (20 min/day) — Train your cognition

Use AI to process life, test beliefs, and simulate decisions.