
Childlike
A small plane crashes deep in the Amazon. Four children survive. Forty days pass. The army searches with drones, grids, and protocols - and finds nothing.
Then a group of indigenous searchers takes a different approach.
They don’t search like soldiers.
They don’t follow procedures.
They take peyote. Not to trip - But to think like children.
And they find the kids.
That story haunted us.
Because we realized:
We’ve been valuing process and protocol - when we should’ve been thinking like children.
...We’ve been trained to follow.
......To optimize systems we don’t understand.
.........To trust that bureaucracy is the price of finding value.
But now we’re in a different jungle.
And those old maps don’t work here anymore.
Why
AI is not here to replace us.
It’s here to free us.
To liberate us from the repetitive, the bureaucratic, the soul-killing systems we’ve built around ourselves.
To give us back what we gave up in the name of efficiency:
Curiosity. Creativity. Imagination.
This era is not about control.
It’s about a return to making, building, and doing.
But freedom without direction is chaos.
That’s why every decision must begin with a human-defined objective.
No model will tell you what matters.
AI is not a god.
It’s the technology that will liberate the human spirit.
And with it, we strengthen our humanity - by building in service of others.
In this new world, builders win.
Not managers. Not approvers. Not frameworks.
The people who create value by doing.
The ones who fix things instead of scheduling another meeting.
Who ask why before they ask how.
Who stay late to make it work.
These principles exist to serve them.
Division of Labor
AI is not simply another employee.
It’s not here to think like us, feel like us, or replace us.
It’s here to take a different kind of work off our plate—and do it better.
This isn’t about man vs. machine. It’s about designing systems where each does what they’re built for.
Fundamental Strengths of AI:
Train Once, Scale Everywhere
Humans learn one at a time. AI learns once, then replicates instantly—across every channel, every team, every country.Total Recall
AI doesn’t forget. Ever. It remembers every rule, every exception, every weird case—and applies them perfectly.
No Ego. No Politics. No Personal Agenda.
It doesn’t get territorial. It doesn’t take credit. It doesn’t care who’s boss. It just does the job.
Infinite Attention Span
AI doesn’t burn out, get bored, or check its phone. It operates at full focus, 24/7.
Massive Working Memory
It can juggle thousands of data points in real time. Humans can't even hold a phone number and a thought at the same time.
Zero Variability
Same output, every time. No good days or bad moods. No fatigue. Just precision.
No Fear of Complexity
AI doesn’t flinch at edge cases or data overload. In fact, the messier the better.
Do not design for AI like you’re handing work to an employee.
Design like you’re building for a different kind of worker.
One who can do things you never could—and never should.
Let people do what people do best:
- Ask better questions
- Define what matters
- Make judgment calls
- Create, adapt, and imagine
- Decide when “done” is good enough
Let AI handle the rest:
- Repetition
- Memory
- Pattern-matching
- Multitasking
- Scale
Humans define the “why.” AI delivers the “how.”
That’s the new division of labor.
Design your system accordingly
The AI First Principles
People Define Objectives
Accountability begins with ownership of intent.Think AI First, Automate Last
Clarity and design come before building.Question Everything
Assume nothing. Especially the things that feel safest.Honor Human Creativity
Systems shouldn’t be tasked with imagination. Keep people in the loop.Embrace Play
Safe spaces for experimentation unlock breakthroughs.Use First Principles
Start from what’s actually true.Focus on Outcomes
Build what people actually need.Simplify Relentlessly
If it’s complicated, it’s broken.Create Pull
Let demand drive action.How To Start
Start where people have stopped caring - then give them a reason to.
Start where the pain is.
Where people are frustrated. Where the work is slow.
Where you’ve heard “that’s just how we do it” one too many times.
Don’t wait for permission. Don’t ask for alignment.
Start fixing.
Observe the truth behind the charts.
See how things actually work—not how someone said they’re supposed to.
Cut the waste. Challenge the legacy.
Delete before you optimize.
Before you fix or automate anything, ask: who owns the objective?
AI can’t tell right from wrong—it just executes.
Humans are responsible for deciding what success looks like, and when to stop.Give power to the people closest to the work.
The builders. The doers. The ones who make things move.
Then, let real demand pull the work forward.
Let outcomes—not rituals—be your compass.
And when the process is clear, stable, and simple - then bring in the machines.
Let AI carry the weight of repetition.
Let automation handle the handoffs, the bottlenecks, the bureaucracy.
Not so people can be replaced.
But so people can build what’s next.
You don’t need a roadmap.
You need momentum.
This is how change begins.
Not with a meeting.
But with a fix.
From Principles to Practice
These principles weren’t made to be framed.
They’re meant to be practiced.And that is why we created W.I.S.E.R.
WISER is an open-source method built by builders—for builders.
It turns these principles into action
so you can question, simplify, reimagine, and rebuild the way work actually works.
It’s not theory.
It’s a practical approach for those ready to fix what’s broken and build what works.
Copyright © 2025 AI First Principles Robb Wilson & Anthony Franco. All rights reserved.
This work is licensed for free public and commercial use under the AI First Principles Attribution License.
Attribution must include a visible link to aifirstprinciples.org.