The habit that wastes the tool
Here is what I want you to do with AI. Start looking at it as something other than a search engine. If that is how you are using it, stop doing that.
That is the instruction from this Fargo Walks clip, recorded in April 2026. A search engine answers questions. The value of AI is that it can do work.
Start with the mundane
What tasks are you doing? What mundane things are you doing with your life, every single day?
Not the big strategic stuff. The boring stuff. The report you rebuild every Friday. The reply you have typed fifty times. The scheduling, the sorting, the summarizing, the chasing.
Put that into Claude and say: make my life easier. What can you do for me?
Then challenge it
Do it. Then challenge it. Afterwards, ask: is this the best you can do?
You will see what happens. The first answer is a draft. The second one is usually the one worth keeping. I go deeper on that habit in How to Challenge AI Output Before You Trust It.
Run it today
1. List five mundane tasks
Things you did this week that you will do again next week. Small is fine. Small is the point.
2. Hand the list to AI with one sentence
Make my life easier. What can you do for me? Let it propose, do not prompt it into a corner.
3. Let it do one
Pick the task it can complete with what you gave it. Let it run.
4. Challenge the result
Is this the best you can do? Then compare the second version to the first and to your own standard.
5. Keep what saved time
If a task came back faster and good enough, it stays with AI. If not, it stays with you. Repeat next week with five more.
What this does not mean
It does not mean AI cannot answer questions. It means questions are the smallest thing it can do for you, and most people stop there.
The decision
Stop asking AI questions all day. Give it the mundane work, ask it to make your life easier, and challenge the answer.
Sources
- Jeff Fargo, Fargo Walks: Stop Using AI as a Search Engine (recorded April 7, 2026)
- Jeff Fargo, Fargo Factor Insight: How to Challenge AI Output Before You Trust It (August 2026)
Transcript
Verbatim from the Fargo Walks clip, as recorded.
Cameo tonight. Brandy Fargo on the walk with Cookie Monster Fargo. That is her name. So this is what I want you to do regarding AI is start looking at, besides using it as a search engine. Stop doing that. What tasks are you doing? What mundane things are you doing with your life? Every freaking day? Put that into Claude and say, make my life easier. What can you do for me? Do it and challenge it. Afterwards, say, is this the best you can do? You can see what happens. Go forth.
Jeff Fargo is the founder of Fargo Factor and host of Fargo Talks. Fargo Factor advises established businesses on AI Search Authority, AI Decision Systems, and selective AI-enabled implementation.
WHEN THE DECISION MATTERS
Move AI from questions to work.
Fargo Factor helps established businesses find the recurring work AI should carry, connect it to the records that make that possible, and keep judgment with the owner.
