The Moment Before the Prompt

I want to tell you about a specific feeling.

Not a big dramatic moment. Just a small, slightly uncomfortable one that I’m guessing you’ve had too, even if you’ve never quite named it.

You open the tool. Claude, ChatGPT, whatever you’re using. The cursor blinks. And somewhere in the back of your mind — not loud enough to stop you, just loud enough to notice — something says: I’m not actually sure what I’m trying to say here.

But you type anyway. Because the deadline is real. Because you’re behind. Because the tool is right there and it’s supposed to make this easier.

And it gives you something back. Maybe several somethings. Forty headline options. Three email drafts. A social post that’s technically fine.

And you sit there reading them, rereading them, and you realize the problem isn’t the options.

The problem was upstream.

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I’ve been thinking about this a lot since I read a piece by Rebekah Radice — she writes The AI Multiplier on Substack — called “The Skill AI Is Taking From You.” It’s one of the sharper things I’ve read about AI this year, and I’ve been chewing on it ever since.

Her argument, at its core, is this: we were told AI would take the busywork and leave us the thinking. Instead, it took the thinking too. Not by doing it for us — but by making production so frictionless that we stopped deciding what we actually meant before we asked.

When I read that, I didn’t feel surprised.

I felt recognized.

Because that slightly sinking moment — the one where you open the tool before you have clarity — I know that moment. I’ve had it. I’ve had it more than once. And what I’ve noticed is that it doesn’t feel like a crisis. It feels like nothing. Just a small skip in the process that you smooth over immediately by starting to type.

That’s what makes it worth paying attention to.

The moments that feel like nothing are often the moments where the most important choice is being made.

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Here’s what I want you to sit with before tomorrow’s post:

Think about the last time you opened an AI tool. Before you typed anything — did you know what you were trying to say? Did you know who it was for? Did you know what you weren’t willing to soften?

If the answer is yes — good. That’s the move. That’s the whole thing, actually.

If the answer is no — or if you’re not sure — you’re not alone. And this week I want to walk through exactly why that moment matters more than any tool you’ll ever choose.

Tomorrow we talk about what happens when you skip it.

Every Thursday I send out The Smart Stack Newsletter — practical, honest, no-hype AI insights for women entrepreneurs who are ready to think first and act smart. Sign up here and join us: https://carenglasser.com/#contact