--- title: "Stop Shopping for AI Models" description: "The frontier AI models are all excellent — the real gap is fluency with the tools. Plus: delegate the shortlist, not the decision, and how to engineer momentum." canonicalURL: https://aaronlynn.com/force-multiplication/stop-shopping-for-ai-models/ date: 2026-08-11T14:00:00.000Z --- ![Isometric 3D scene of a craftsperson mastering one well-worn power tool at a tidy workbench while a conveyor belt of shiny identical new gadgets, one crate tagged NEW MODEL, rolls past ignored.](https://assets.aaronlynn.com/emails/newsletters/cnt-6236/isometric-mastered-tool-vs-conveyor-of-gadgets.webp) _He stopped opening the boxes months ago._{.center} ## 1. Stop Shopping for AI Models Every week someone asks me which model they should be using. Claude or ChatGPT? Gemini or Kimi or DeepSeek? Honestly, it barely matters anymore. The frontier models are all excellent, and for everyday work the differences are marginal and largely becoming a matter of preference. The real gap between two people isn't which model they are using. It's how good their tooling setup is and how well they can operate it. And by tooling, I am referring to the harnesses like Claude Code and Codex, the skills and the memory systems. The data backs this up. The [St. Louis Federal Reserve](https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy/2025/feb/impact-generative-ai-work-productivity) found that 33.5% of daily AI users saved 4+ hours a week, versus just 11.5% of once-a-week users. [Gallup](https://www.gallup.com/workplace/704225/rising-adoption-spurs-workforce-changes.aspx) found that 65% of people say AI helps them, but only 13% use it daily. The difference is largely in fluency and experience gained through usage, not through which model they are using. So stop model-shopping. If you do mostly non-coding work, grab Claude. If you do mostly coding work, grab ChatGPT Pro (Codex). If you vibecode, grab Claude. If you're a creative, maybe add Gemini on top. Then pour that saved time and energy into getting your harness, tooling and workflow set up. That's exactly what I cover in [_The Complete Claude, Claude Code & AI for Work Productivity_](https://aaronlynn.com/courses/ai-for-work-productivity/) course. ## 2. Don't Delegate the Decision, Delegate the Shortlist Making a decision used to mean running the options in your head. "Running future projection", as psychologists call it. Which art direction? Which name? Which layout? You'd try to imagine each one, picture where it led, then make a decision. AI changes that. You can now very quickly turn each of those imagined options into previews you can actually look at and share with others. I ran into this recently with a client choosing the art direction for the imagery on their website. Instead of describing styles and imagining how they'd feel about each one, we just had AI mock up several directions — different styles, dropped straight onto the design — and compared them side by side. The AI generated the options, and a human narrowed them down and made the call. And that's just about the right split. AI is brilliant at prototyping a shortlist for you, but you remain the decider. It works for naming things, designing things, creating meal plans, planning travel, thinking through big purchases — anything where the hard part was imagining the alternatives. Don't delegate the decision. Delegate the shortlist. ## 3. Momentum Is Engineered, Not Waited For Most people treat momentum like the weather — something that arrives when conditions are right, and that you sit around waiting for. Except that it isn't. Momentum is, in fact, manufactured. The snowball only rolls once you start pushing it. So your whole job is making [that first small push to start the momentum](https://aaronlynn.com/productivity/motivation/#hack-1-solar-flaring--just-five-minutes), no matter what kind of day it is. And again, here's where AI earns its keep. The hardest push is almost always the cold start: the blank page, the empty PowerPoint, the project you keep circling but never open. So don't start from blank. Have AI draft a first version, and then take over once it's moving. You're no longer starting, you're editing. And that's all there really is to building momentum. More on this in [The Virtue of Momentum](https://aaronlynn.com/productivity/momentum/). ## 4. Courses I have a range of online courses that teach business people what they need to know about productivity and AI: [**1. The Complete Claude, Claude Code & AI for Work Productivity**](https://aaronlynn.com/courses/ai-for-work-productivity/)\ A comprehensive course taking you from beginner AI concepts like prompt and context engineering, to cutting-edge AI productivity using terminal-based AI tools like Claude Code for non-coding office work. Usable with ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and other current LLMs. [**2. The AI Agents, Automations and Agentic Workflows Guide**](https://aaronlynn.com/courses/ai-agents-guide/)\ This non-technical course shows business people and non-coders how they can build and use AI agents in ChatGPT and Zapier. [**3. Next Level Productivity**](https://aaronlynn.com/courses/next-level-productivity/)\ A practical, straightforward course that teaches you how to achieve elite-level personal productivity in today's constantly interrupted world. [**4. The AI Playbook**](https://aaronlynn.com/courses/ai-playbook-for-ceos/)\ This is my longer premium course on how businesses can deploy AI tools and technology across their processes and teams. [**5. ChatGPT for Managers**](https://aaronlynn.com/courses/chatgpt-for-managers/)\ See how AI can solve complex management challenges in less than 30 seconds. Full prompt library and examples included. That's it for this week! — Aaron > Related course: AI Agents Guide — $147 — /courses/ai-agents-guide/