FOMO, AI, and the Infinite Buffer Problem

I see a lot of people thinking of AI as a solution to avoid missing out on meetings or email responses. While this isn’t necessarily a bad idea, it can be problematic if the time saved just gets spent on more meetings and emails. The challenge is the Infinite Buffer Problem: in organizations of a current size, there is no end to the amount of potential meetings and emails. It doesn’t matter how efficient AI makes you, you will never get to the end. In fact, I have a suspicion that if we continue to go as fast as we can, we’ll actually generate even more meetings and communications.

Even with AI, there is no such thing as a free lunch. We still need to prioritize our time, choose what to respond to, and which meetings we can’t make. We still need to say no and face our fear of missing out.

If you struggle to let go of every meeting, check out the “low information diet”. This is designed to break the addiction to the 24/7 news cycle, but I find it applies quite well to the world of work. If you miss a meeting where something important happens or you are needed, rest assured that someone will tell you.