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Assisting Idiots: How AI Handles the Busywork So You Can Focus on Strategy
Let’s be most of us are drowning in tactical crap. Emails, slide decks, meeting notes, expense reports, endless “urgent” tasks that eat our day and leave us with no energy for the work that actually matters.
Enter AI. It’s not magic. It’s not perfect. It’s not going to replace your judgment, creativity, or leadership. But it can be the best intern you’ll ever have — an intern who never sleeps, doesn’t complain, and can crank through the busywork so you can finally focus on strategy.
In Assisting Idiots, sales enablement leader turned AI strategist Steven Malmgren shares his journey from being a self-proclaimed “idiot” who hated tactical grind to someone who learned how to use AI every single day to shift from doing to thinking. With equal parts confession, wit, and practical playbook, Steven takes you through how to work smarter with AI — whether you’re a frontline worker, a manager, or sitting in the C-suite.
Inside you’ll
Why AI changes the value of work — shifting the premium from tactical execution to strategic thinking.
How to actually prompt like a pro — moving beyond one-shot “magic prompts” into iterative conversations that get real results.
The SMART Loop framework — a repeatable way to think tactically and act strategically without getting lost in the weeds or making clueless high-level decisions.
Your starter toolkit — which tools actually matter (and which will be gone before you finish this book).
Pitfalls to avoid — from app hoarding to overtrusting outputs, plus the Idiot Checks to keep you honest.
Habits to build — ways to embed AI into your workflows so it saves you time and sharpens your thinking.
Manager coaching strategies — how to stop being an AI cop and instead coach your team to self-serve with their own “Assisting Idiots.”
Industry snapshots — from sales and healthcare to finance, see how AI is already reshaping workflows across the board.
This isn’t a technical manual stuffed with jargon. It’s a field guide for professionals who want to stop drowning in tasks and start leading with strategy. Steven’s confessions keep it real (yes, he once used AI to crank out emails without proofreading and paid the price). His stories ground the advice in lived experience (including what happens when companies block public AI tools without offering a replacement). And his frameworks give you something you can actually apply tomorrow.
Enter AI. It’s not magic. It’s not perfect. It’s not going to replace your judgment, creativity, or leadership. But it can be the best intern you’ll ever have — an intern who never sleeps, doesn’t complain, and can crank through the busywork so you can finally focus on strategy.
In Assisting Idiots, sales enablement leader turned AI strategist Steven Malmgren shares his journey from being a self-proclaimed “idiot” who hated tactical grind to someone who learned how to use AI every single day to shift from doing to thinking. With equal parts confession, wit, and practical playbook, Steven takes you through how to work smarter with AI — whether you’re a frontline worker, a manager, or sitting in the C-suite.
Inside you’ll
Why AI changes the value of work — shifting the premium from tactical execution to strategic thinking.
How to actually prompt like a pro — moving beyond one-shot “magic prompts” into iterative conversations that get real results.
The SMART Loop framework — a repeatable way to think tactically and act strategically without getting lost in the weeds or making clueless high-level decisions.
Your starter toolkit — which tools actually matter (and which will be gone before you finish this book).
Pitfalls to avoid — from app hoarding to overtrusting outputs, plus the Idiot Checks to keep you honest.
Habits to build — ways to embed AI into your workflows so it saves you time and sharpens your thinking.
Manager coaching strategies — how to stop being an AI cop and instead coach your team to self-serve with their own “Assisting Idiots.”
Industry snapshots — from sales and healthcare to finance, see how AI is already reshaping workflows across the board.
This isn’t a technical manual stuffed with jargon. It’s a field guide for professionals who want to stop drowning in tasks and start leading with strategy. Steven’s confessions keep it real (yes, he once used AI to crank out emails without proofreading and paid the price). His stories ground the advice in lived experience (including what happens when companies block public AI tools without offering a replacement). And his frameworks give you something you can actually apply tomorrow.
80 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 27, 2025
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