You are in a meeting. Someone checks their Generative AI of choice mid-discussion and announces: "The AI says we just need to do X." Everyone nods and moves on. Congratulations, you have just solved the wrong problem.

Nothing is broken. Everything is faster, and yet something is wrong.

Generative AI has amplified our worst problem-solving habit: jumping to solutions before understanding the problem. It is System 1 thinking on steroids, magnified by the Dunning-Kruger effect: confident, fast, and increasingly wrong. We are racing toward solutions faster than ever, but they are brittle, disconnected, and often miss the point entirely.

This talk will teach you that one question changes everything: "What problem are we actually solving?" It sounds simple. It is not.

You will learn how to recognize when speed is hiding misunderstanding, how to distinguish symptoms from root causes, map consequences before committing, and slow down long enough to understand what you are actually solving for. This is not just theory; it is a practice you can apply in your next team meeting.

The best AI prompts, the smartest automation, and the fastest deployments are worthless if we are solving the wrong problem. It is time to stop optimizing for speed and start optimizing for understanding.

250 char Description:
AI didn’t make us smarter—it made us faster at being wrong. By turning answers into commodities, it rewards speed over understanding. This talk challenges teams to pause, question certainty, and ask: “What problem are we actually solving?”

Abstract:
Generative AI didn’t make us worse at problem-solving; it made us faster at exposing a habit we already have: jumping to solutions before understanding the problem.

By making answers instant and confident, AI amplifies shallow, short-term fixes that feel productive but simply hide or move problems elsewhere — an efficient inefficiency.

Based on a real moment where moving fast with AI’s help led a team to solve the wrong problem, this talk introduces the simple practice of pausing to ask, “What problem are we actually solving?” You’ll learn how slowing down briefly can prevent brittle solutions and lead to better outcomes, even in high-pressure environments.