How Betty Crocker Proved You Don’t Want AI To Do All Your Work For You

In 1950, a food company discovered something strange about human nature. It changed everything we know about effort and success.

In the 1950s, General Mills had a problem.

Their new cake mix was perfect. Just add water, stir, bake. Foolproof. Fast. Everything the modern housewife wanted.

Nobody bought it.

They brought in psychologists to find out why. What they discovered changed everything we know about human nature and effort.

The housewives felt guilty. It was too easy. Where was their contribution? Their skill? Their sense of creation?

General Mills made a counterintuitive decision. They made the product harder to use. They removed the powdered eggs and required fresh ones. Suddenly, women had to crack eggs, measure oil, add milk.

Sales exploded.

That single egg represented something profound: the human need to contribute meaningfully to our own success.

We think we want things to be easier. We do. But we also need to feel we've earned our outcomes.

IKEA discovered this too.

People pay more for furniture they assemble themselves, even when it's objectively inferior to pre-made alternatives.

The labor creates love.

The effort creates attachment.

The struggle creates value.

Empty Victories

AI offers us the ultimate "just add water" experience.

Push a button, get a blog post. Click here, generate a marketing campaign. Let the algorithm handle your strategy, thinking, creativity.

It's seductive. It's convenient. It feels like progress.

But it's the same trap the cake mix fell into.

When the machine does everything, what's left for you?

Not the satisfaction of creating something meaningful. Not the deep understanding that comes from wrestling with problems. Not the confidence that builds when you solve challenges yourself.

Just dependency.

It’s challenging to avoid this.

And it’s why I don’t sell tools. I teach frameworks and processes so that my clients don’t become morons.

Be the Chef, Not the Cook

A cook follows recipes. A chef creates them.

When I teach people to use AI in their business, I teach them to be chefs, not cooks.

Yes, I show people the easy buttons. The shortcuts that save hours. But that's just the starting point.

Most people want to be cooks, just following the AI recipe someone else gave them. Push this button, get that result.

The real training is about becoming the chef.

Learning to define what you want before you prompt.

Understanding the fundamentals that help you refine what you get back.

Define + Refine

These are the skills that separate dabblers from experts.

Anyone can push a button and get generic output.

But can you craft a prompt that captures your brand voice? Can you refine the output until people can't tell you used AI at all?

The Choice That Defines You

You can let AI do your thinking, make your decisions, create your content.

Step back and become a consumer of machine-generated output.

Or you can become the conductor of your own AI orchestra, understanding when to push the easy button and when to get your hands dirty with strategy and human insight.

The first path leads to dependency. The second leads to mastery.

The people thriving in the AI learned to define what they want clearly and refine what they get relentlessly.

AI amplifies whatever you bring to it. Bring shallow thinking, get shallow results. Bring deep strategy and creative vision, get breakthrough outcomes.

What are you bringing to the mix?

The entrepreneurs who will dominate the next decade aren't the ones who eliminate effort, they're the ones who focus their effort on what matters most. If you want to learn how to be one of them, I'm here to help.