Message from the Editor
This newsletter started as a space for men over 40 because that’s who I am, and that’s who I know best. But over the past few months, I’ve heard from many of you—asking to share it with the people in your lives who don't fit this demographic. Wives. Friends. Coworkers. People who are also navigating this turning point in life, and looking for clarity, tools, and direction.
So here’s the shift. The AI Statesman is now for anyone over 40 who wants to stay sharp, stay relevant, and use AI to build a life that is not only efficient, but extraordinary.
The tone may widen, but it still sounds like me—grounded, intentional, and built for people who think deeply and want to live deliberately. If someone you trust is quietly wondering whether their best years are behind them, forward this edition their way. This isn’t a space for panic. It’s a space for reinvention. And it grows one invitation at a time.
Which brings us to this week’s topic.
Because sometimes, the most powerful form of reinvention isn’t about starting something new. It’s about pausing long enough to ask whether the life you’ve built still fits who you’ve become.
It’s not that anything is broken.
It’s that something feels… off.
You’ve built a respectable life. Responsibilities met. Roles fulfilled. But when the noise quiets, a subtle voice cuts through:
“This isn’t quite what I imagined.”
This edition is about listening to that voice. Not to blow up your life, but to reclaim authorship of it. You’ll use AI as a mirror. Not a hype machine. A tool that can ask the harder, more human questions. The ones that don’t show up on your calendar but shape your experience of every day.
Because being in midlife isn’t a crisis. It’s a checkpoint.
Let’s make sure you’re not sprinting down a path you no longer want.
— Chad
Editor, The AI Statesman
P.S. I'd be forever grateful if you share this newsletter with someone else in your circle. That’s how this space grows—reader by reader, conversation by conversation.
Today's podcast version should remind us that AI isn't perfect... yet.
Realignment Starts by Using AI for Bridging Intent and Reality
You can be successful and still feel like you’re in the wrong story.
Maybe you hit your goals, but they don’t hit back with meaning.
Maybe you’re proud of your career, but quietly mourning what you had to trade to get there.
Or maybe nothing is wrong, except the quiet recognition that something essential is missing.
This is the gap between intent and reality. Between the life you thought you were building and the one you’ve actually stepped into.
And the beauty of this moment? You get to realign. Not by abandoning everything, but by starting again with full awareness this time.
What If This Is Your Wake-Up Call to Realign?
Discomfort isn’t a warning sign. It’s a wake-up call.
It means you’re no longer willing to drift. It means you’re ready to design.
That quiet unease you’ve been feeling is your deeper self asking for a seat at the table. It’s not chaos. It’s clarity trying to break through.
There’s nothing wrong with you. You’ve simply reached a point where momentum must give way to meaning.
And that’s powerful.
Because when you stop operating from old defaults and start choosing your direction with intention, you stop surviving your days and start shaping them.
This is your opportunity to step into alignment. Not because something failed, but because you’ve evolved.
What AI Makes Possible
This is where AI shines. Not in its novelty, but in its neutrality.
You can use AI to ask yourself the questions no one else will. The ones that don’t fit neatly into a journal prompt or a to-do list. The ones that shake off the dust and let you see clearly again.
A well-structured prompt doesn’t just give you answers. It gives you the space to notice what’s misaligned and the clarity to shift.
This isn’t about optimization.
This is about truth. And it’s yours to reclaim.
The Prompt That Surfaces Hidden Regret
If you’ve already created your Coach persona, this is the moment to go deeper with it. You’ve built a role that knows how to challenge gently, listen closely, and reflect with clarity. Use this prompt with your Coach to uncover the quiet misalignments between who you’ve become and how you’re still living. If you haven’t built your Coach yet, you can still use this prompt as a stand-alone reflection. Just paste it into ChatGPT or Gemini to create a calm, clear-eyed companion who helps you think through what matters most.
Copy and paste this prompt in the ChatGPT project you created for The Coach:
You are my personal alignment strategist. I want to understand where the life I’ve built may be out of sync with who I’ve become. Ask me five uncomfortable but necessary questions that will reveal misalignments between my current routines, values, and unfulfilled aspirations. Then offer a summary of where regret or drift may be showing up, and suggest one shift I could make to begin realigning my present with the life I still want to live.
This prompt doesn’t waste time. It confronts the tension directly. With no judgment, it turns internal drift into visible patterns, and those patterns into fuel for change. You don’t need another framework. You need a mirror and a way forward.
Field-Tested: This Week's AI Tool
Writing a decent prompt is easy. Writing a great one is hard. Better Prompts helps you close that gap.
Paste in any instruction you’d give to ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, and it gives you back a refined version—one that’s clearer, tighter, and more likely to get the result you actually want. You’ll see stronger verbs, better specificity, and sharper structure. It’s like having an invisible editor that understands how language shapes outcomes.
Try using it on this week’s featured prompt. You’ll notice the difference immediately. Better Prompts won’t just change how you write to AI. It will sharpen how you think.
Try Better Prompts
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