‘Don’t think. Feel.’ and ‘Be water’ as rules for working with AI

The essay sits alongside an earlier piece in which the author used a “thinking knife” metaphor: approach AI carelessly and the exchange can cut you, because how you face a collaborating partner comes back to you. This new piece presents itself as the other face of the same relationship — Janus, in the author’s image — looking at one relationship between human and AI from a different angle rather than describing each side separately.

The practical examples connect the two phrases. In a bug investigation, an AI that forms a hypothesis and an investigation order from the first information may find logs that contradict the hypothesis; the essay argues the preparation is what lets it decide where to change course, not a reason to follow the original order to the end. In a writing request, an answer that is shorter but drops conditions the reader needs prompts the requester to restate the goal — which the essay treats as the human’s own request changing, not just the AI’s answer being corrected.

The author also warns against answering failures by piling on instructions: specifying every move in advance shrinks the room to judge according to circumstances. Sharing the reason behind the steps — what to achieve, what to protect, what may change, how far authority extends — is offered as the alternative. The essay is explicit that it is not claiming respect guarantees correct answers; it is about what stance to keep while continuing the cooperation, including verifying and correcting.