How AI-Brained Are You, Actually?
ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini... can't tell if you should ask AI or just text a friend? Six levels of AI dependence — from full analog to full cyborg.

Building your own world from the inside out and pulling people into it. Growing power quietly in the dark while regular society's rules feel contemptible. Henry Hawkins alone in that lab—that solitude built something that eventually controlled the entire Upside Down. Decades of quiet accumulation becoming the season four main event. What you build alone is harder than anything built in a group. The isolation wasn't weakness. It was the whole strategy.
In-person meetups are genuinely inconvenient. Digital connection is the preferred format—text communication is expressive and articulate; real-life encounters tend to go quiet. But someone who respects the pace and works within the preferred format opens up something surprisingly profound.
Organizational life is incompatible with this operating system. Solo work, remote only, no commute—non-negotiables. The expertise built in isolation is genuinely elite. Just like Vecna carved out his own unchallenged domain, the independent niche becomes untouchable over time. The world comes to you when the skill is real enough.
Delivery food is the one true luxury. Rent covered, gaming budget secured—done. Minimal desire means minimal expenses and more breathing room than most people realize. The ability to exist comfortably on very little is a form of freedom. When expenses are that low, the options stay open indefinitely.