AI writes it, AI reads it. And your thinking disappears in between
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There is a document sitting in your inbox right now. Fifteen pages. Maybe twenty. Someone spent time on it, or at least, something did. You know you need to read it. You know you probably won’t. And somewhere, the person who sent it is wondering why nobody responded.
This is the quiet crisis nobody is talking about loudly enough.
The document inflation epidemic
AI has made it effortless to generate text. Beautiful, structured, confident-sounding text. And people are using that power generously. Too generously. Documents that could fit on one page now arrive as fifteen. The bar for “done” has shifted, and not in a good way.
More pages feel like more effort. More effort feels like more value. But that feeling is a trap. Length is not depth. Volume is not thinking.
The irony nobody mentions
Here is where it gets truly absurd.
I now use AI to summarize the documents that others used AI to write. We have built a closed loop: a document laundering machine where AI inflates on one end and AI compresses on the other. No human is actually reading anything in full anymore. The content bounces between two machines while the real thinking quietly evaporates. And yet we keep sending each other novels.
What this actually costs us
The deeper cost is clarity. When real decisions are buried under pages of padding, accountability disappears. Nobody can point to the argument because nobody can find it.
A long AI-generated document can hide the fact that the author never thought deeply about the problem at all. Length becomes a disguise, and a very convincing one.
Just show me the prompt
I started using a new phrase with my team: Just show me the prompt.
It sounds simple, but it carries real weight. If you used AI to write a document, your prompt is the truest artifact of your thinking. A sharp, specific prompt shows that you understood the problem. A vague prompt shows that you did not. Asking for the prompt cuts straight to what matters, faster than reading twenty pages ever could. It is not rude. It is the most respectful thing you can do with someone’s time.
What good looks like
Set expectations early. One page is almost always enough. Two pages should be a conscious choice. If someone sends you twenty pages, ask for a one-page summary before you invest your time. That is not laziness, that is good judgment.
When you use AI yourself, prompt it explicitly for brevity. And reward teammates who communicate with precision. Volume for its own sake helps nobody.
Reclaim your attention
Your attention is the scarcest resource you have. Do not hand it over to documents that were generated for the appearance of effort rather than the transfer of ideas.
Push back. Demand clarity. And the next time a massive document lands in your inbox, try asking one simple question.
Just show me the prompt.
As usual, I will list some of the best articles I read on the Internet. I will keep a list of the best articles (currently >900) at https://www.digital-product-management.com. These are today’s picks:
Cross-Functional Teams vs. Teams of Functions: Distinguish between superficial functional silos and high-performing cohesive units.
AI Menu: Definition of Prompts, Skills, Workflows, and Agents: Categorize AI capabilities by autonomy levels to avoid building the wrong products and ensure measurable financial returns.
Irrational Intelligence: The Shadow Organization and AI: Explores the structural similarities between organizations and AI. Highlighting the informal human dynamics that drive actual decision-making.
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