Fifteen years ago, I wrote something short. In retrospect, it was probably too short for what I was trying to say. But that was a different time. The internet was a friendlier place. I could say something, get out of the way, and then a conversation would ensue. The post was titled “Social Is A Mindset.”
That old post came out of a good conversation on Twitter, back when Twitter could still consistently produce those. A good friend, Gahlord Dewald, had argued that social was a resource, not a strategy. I agreed. But, looking back at it, something was obviously nagging at me.
So I wrote: “Social is indeed a resource, but it’s not like most resources. Social is also a mindset.“
My argument then was simple. Companies that succeeded with social media hadn’t just adopted the tools. They had shifted their culture. Without that shift, social got siloed into a narrow channel, becoming about technology.
And technology, I wrote then, isn’t a strategy either. It’s still not.
I forgot about that post until last week. I’ve been tidying up old posts here, converting them from the “classic editor” to blocks, and fixing thumbnails. It’s tedious work, mostly. But it gives me a chance to read what I wrote, years removed from the moment that prompted it.
Reading it now, with everything swirling around AI, it feels familiar.
Companies are standing up AI task forces. Creating new AI roles. Announcing pilots. Treating AI as a box to be checked, a new bullet point for the board slide decks.
I’ve seen this before. So have you.
Fifteen years ago, companies adopted social and skipped the harder question. The harder question is back. And it feels harder.
The tool is visible. The mindset shift is not. You can buy an AI license, but you can’t buy the strength of will to honestly ask what this moment requires of you.
Start there.
AI Isn’t A Mindset, But It Requires One
This is where the parallel breaks down. Because AI is asking something of us that social media never asked.
Social really just changed the venue. It didn’t replace the person. They were your words. Your judgment. Your relationships were on the line. Or at least we all felt they should be.
AI can generate the words. It can do it all, actually. It can do the research, come up with the idea, structure the argument, frame the message, and then write and publish the post. All on autopilot. At scale.
And it does it now convincingly enough that the person reading it, and sometimes even the person posting it, may not notice what has shifted. The appearance of thought is there. Even the warmth can feel as if it is there.
The human who’s supposed to be doing the actual reflecting may not be.
That’s not a technology problem. It’s a mindset problem.
Humaneering As Mindset
I’ve spent years communicating something I have labeled “Humaneering.” Humaneering is the deliberate craft of creating accountable, embodied, emotionally grounded human experiences in a world where AI can mimic connection without any responsibility.
It’s simple to say. It’s becoming increasingly harder to live. Human agency, accountability, and emotional grounding have to remain ours, even as AI becomes fluent enough to simulate all three.
In 2011, the mindset I was pointing toward was a culture of genuine conversation. There was a time when I felt that might be possible. Companies that got it listened differently. Better.
With AI, the mindset I’m pointing toward is a culture of genuine accountability. To ourselves and each other. The people who navigate this well will be fiercely intentional about what remains theirs to own. The thinking. The judgment. The responsibility when something goes wrong.
This is not about how much AI you adopt. Or how fast you adopt it.
It’s whether you remain genuinely present, while all of it happens around you.
A Mindset Of Human Agency
The default is drift. I’m watching it happen in real time, in myself and in people I respect. Not from laziness, but from the quiet seduction of a tool that makes things easier, faster, smoother… until one day you look up and realize you’ve been letting it do too much of your thinking for you.
Staying human on purpose is harder than it sounds. It means slowing down in a moment that is speeding up. It means choosing accountability when delegation is just a click away. It means asking, honestly, whether the words you’re sending really need to be yours.
That’s the mindset AI requires. Not a strategy. Not a framework to be deployed and measured. A daily, deliberate decision to remain present. To keep your judgment, your voice, and your responsibility exactly where they belong.
With you.
I’m calling that Humaneering. And I think it’s the most important work any of us can do right now.
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