Sonia Cabral

Academic note: I have tried to be serious as a scholar, teacher and colleague since 1980s. In doing so I have constantly searched for productivity hacks — things that enable me to be more effective at being serious. Little things, like finding the right time of day to do research and to do teaching, or seeking ways to absorb needed knowledge like lectures at Great Courses or New York Review of Books or TLS. I moved from Word Perfect to Word, I have tried Palm Pilot, Blackberry, iPhone, I had a luggable portable computer that I traded in for laptop, and I used computer programs to take notes but switched back to notebooks and pen, and now use Kindle Scribe rather than ReMarkable. I try, I experiment, I assess. I read books in physical form, electronic form and audio. I watch YouTube and listen to podcasts all to help with lectures and papers. I used to search physically in libraries now I search online. My point is simple — I have always looked for ways to augment my skills and improve productivity. AI and LLMs are NO different in my experience. They don’t think for me, but they help speed up search and information gathering. I still have to exercise judgment, absorb what I need, and execute in a lecture, in writing, or in meetings with students and colleagues. The best productivity hack in my career is face to face dialogue with PhD students about ideas. These conversations are infinitely more interesting to me than me prompting Chat or Claude about material. Even working with a student on a difficult problem or struggling to understand concepts is more intellectually rewarding. Maybe I am doing it wrong, or maybe everyone else is describing their experience wrong. Modern AI is not the Palm Pilot, nor early versions of Netscape Browser (BTW, Browzine is a good hack for journal article access). But its not like having Kenneth Boulding, James Buchanan or Gordon Tullock as a teacher either! Its not like having been mentored by Don Lavoie and Karen Vaughn, or first inspired by Hans Sennholz, or arguing about economics 24/7 with Dave Prychitko and Steve Horwitz, let alone working closely with Israel Kirzner and Mario Rizzo for almost a decade, or teaching and learning from scores of PhD advisees at GMU. It just isn’t. Don’t buy the false narrative. It is not a substitute, it is a tool. You need to learn how to use the tool effectively to increase YOUR productivity as a scholar, teacher, and colleague. So invest in it, but at the end of the day you will have to be the one who uses the tool effectively or poorly. YOU, not the machine make the final judgement call.