Beyond the Prompt: Nathan Mauck on Thinking with AI
What if getting more from artificial intelligence isn’t about writing better prompts, but becoming a better thinker? Nathan Mauck, co-author of AI Co-Thinking, shares his thoughts on human judgment, curiosity, and learning to work with AI.
I’ve always been interested in books that make me pause and look at familiar ideas in a different way. And with artificial intelligence becoming such a big part of our everyday lives, I find myself especially drawn to conversations about how we use it.
What caught my attention about AI Co-Thinking: A Framework for Working with AI was its simple but interesting idea: perhaps the secret to getting more from AI isn’t better prompts, but better thinking.
Written by Robert Greene and Nathan Mauck, the book explores how AI can become a thinking partner rather than just another tool for completing tasks. It brings together real experiences from business, education, investing, and strategic decision-making.
I invited Nathan to share a little about the story behind the book, the conversations that shaped it, and what he hopes readers will take away.
His answers offered some interesting thoughts on curiosity, collaboration, and why our own judgment matters just as much as the technology we choose to use.
What was the moment you realized this book needed to exist?
It was more of a growing realization. Bob and I had been talking about our own AI usage and reaching out to companies and individuals to understand how they were using it and what their strategy was.
We started to see three groups emerge. There were people avoiding AI because of various concerns. There were what we called “dabblers,” who were using it like a glorified Google. And then there were power users.
At the organizational level, we also noticed a lack of strategy. There were a lot of individuals off doing their own thing, but often without a clear direction connecting those efforts.
That’s what made us feel this book needed to exist. Given how quickly AI is changing, both individuals and organizations need to think seriously about their AI strategy. A wait-and-see approach carries its own risk: you can fall behind much faster than you might expect.
What’s one fascinating story behind your book that readers won’t find in its pages?
We touch on this in the book, but there’s a little more to the story. Bob and I wrote it as what we call a “podcast in writing.”
We identified eight themes we wanted to explore, and for each one, we’d have roughly a two-hour “riff session.”
We had an agenda, but it was very much a natural conversation. We were thinking through our AI usage in real time—things we were seeing, people we’d talked to, and interesting projects we were working on with AI.
The book grew out of those conversations, which we then summarized and clarified. That was a very different process from how I write my academic articles, and even from how I would normally think about writing a book.
It was a fun way to co-author with Bob, and those conversations helped both of us clarify our thinking.
Then we brought the conversations to AI to challenge us, push our thinking further, and help us clarify what we meant.
So we were practicing the “AI co-thinking” method we describe in the book as we wrote it. That made the whole co-authoring process really interesting.
“We were practicing the ‘AI co-thinking’ method we describe in the book as we wrote it.”— Nathan Mauck
Did writing this book change the way you see the world or challenge something you once believed?
The biggest shift was probably getting clear in my own thinking about how I want to engage with AI, and what we really mean by “co-thinking.”
I’ve come to think of it as treating AI like a collaborator— someone you’re starting a business with, or a trusted colleague—and approaching the interactions that way.
It’s easy to focus on which tasks AI can take off your plate and which things you want to do entirely on your own.
That’s an interesting conversation, but I became more interested in how we can work together. How can AI help improve my thinking? And how can I bring my own thinking, and the context I know, to help it produce better results?
That back-and-forth is what excites me: what we can produce together when I’m bringing my own judgment and thinking critically throughout the process.
If readers could remember just one thing from your book five years from now, what would you want it to be?
I’m quite sure AI will look very different five years from now. That’s part of why we focused on something we think is more timeless: how we think and make decisions.
If readers remember one thing, I hope it’s that AI is an invitation to get clearer about our own thinking.
What problem are we actually trying to solve? How do we move our thinking forward? And which solutions make sense for our particular context?
The lasting part is really the human intelligence we bring to that process.
As the technology changes, being clear about how we frame problems and think through decisions will continue to matter.
Writing this book gave Bob and me a chance to work through that ourselves, and I hope it does the same for readers.
“AI is an invitation to get clearer about our own thinking.”— Nathan Mauck
What’s one question you’re still searching for an answer to, even after finishing your book?
I’m not sure I can narrow it down to one question. I’m always curious about how things work, always interested in learning more, and I enjoy hearing other people’s perspectives—on AI and plenty of other topics.
But the question I keep coming back to is: How do we encourage individuals and organizations to develop an AI strategy proactively, instead of being reactive or taking a wait-and-see approach?
I think a big part of that is encouraging people to jump into the game.
Work on co-thinking projects with AI. Learn firsthand what it can do, where it struggles, and how it fits into your work.
That experience gives you a much better context for setting your strategy.
I’m still exploring how to help people take that first step and turn what they learn into a thoughtful approach to AI.
Maybe Better AI Begins with Better Thinking
What I found most interesting about Nathan’s answers was how naturally he brought the conversation back to human thinking.
With so much attention on what AI can do for us, it’s easy to forget how important our own curiosity, judgment, and understanding still are.
I especially liked the story of how Nathan and Bob created the book through conversations, then used AI to challenge and refine their ideas. It felt like a lovely example of practicing what they were writing about.
For me, the most memorable thought from this interview is that working with AI doesn’t mean handing over our thinking. It means learning how to make our thinking better.
And that’s an idea worth remembering.
“The lasting part is really the human intelligence we bring to that process.”
— Nathan Mauck
Thank you, Nathan, for taking the time to share your thoughts and the story behind AI Co-Thinking. I enjoyed hearing how the book came together and the ideas that continue to inspire your work.