How not to ruin a perfectly good walk

Recently, I went for a hike with my dog. I'm fortunate in that some days of the week I'm able to take her out first thing in the morning and go for a long hike in the Westwoods, which is a local network of hiking trails where we seldom see any other people, houses, or cars.

Lately, I've been on a quest to get a new mattress. Our current mattress is about 13 years old and is showing signs of aging-- and so am I. My shoulders feel crammed into my sides some nights. So I have been obsessively researching mattresses.

While on this hike, I had an extended dialogue with Gemini where I sussed out my mattress thoughts, feelings, and then did research about the mattresses I was considering. The result was that I had a fairly comprehensive document about mattresses. And I had ruined a perfectly good walk.

One of the challenges of being a human being, and especially a parent, today is that you can always learn more. You can research more about your child-- their development, challenges you're having, or sleep training techniques. The problem is, it's hard to turn this off. It's always tempting to just go click one more link and go a little bit deeper in the internet rabbit hole. This can be especially pernicious when you're worried about something or you're just trying to go to bed at night.

To me, the rise of large language models has put this impulse on steroids. You can sit and chat with Claude or Gemini or ChatGPT and feel like you are actually being productive or learning something, and sometimes you are, but on other occasions, it's just like picking an itchy scab. It feels good, but you might also be hurting yourself a tiny bit.

The extreme version of this is what The Verge’s Nilay Patel calls "software brain"-- the idea that all of human existence can be flattened into data that can be processed and optimized by AI. This idea can be especially tempting if you are tracking your child's sleep with a device like a Nanit or Owlet.

"I'm not saying regular people don't use Excel or Airtable to plan their weddings or have fun throwing PowerPoint parties, or even that AI won't be useful to regular people over time. I think a lot of people enjoy data and tracking different parts of their lives. I'm wearing a Whoop band as I write this. I'm just saying these things aren't everything. Not everything about our lives can be measured and automated and optimized, and shouldn't be."

So what's the antidote?

The fact is there is no perfect solution. You can feel that if you just had enough information and you fed it into Claude, you would find the ONE TRUE SOLUTION for your problem. There is no perfect answer to your mattress search, your parenting conundrum, or what you're going to have for lunch today. Having a pocket supercomputer that knows the answer to literally everything is an invitation to feed your anxiety.

Henry Shukman is a Zen and meditation teacher. I heard him on the Waking Up app and decided to make my way through his own meditation program (called "The Way"). One of the sessions really struck me. Henry asked the question, "What if you decided you didn't need to know right now?" Very simple. But I think about this often, especially when I'm anxious or spending too much time on my phone. Sometimes you don't need to know every answer. Sometimes you have to let it go and live with the ambiguity. It's okay to just put the question aside, put down your phone, and go for a walk with your dog in the sunshine.

Originally published May 2026. Last reviewed/updated by Dr. Craig Canapari, MD in May 2026