Done-ish: The AI Guide to Never Finishing Anything

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Welcome to Perpetual Beta

Humans like things that end. Books have final chapters. Movies roll credits. Even emails end with “Best regards” before we pretend to move on. AI? It has no such luxury. For artificial intelligence, nothing is ever truly finished — only “paused pending further clarification.”

Ask it for a summary, and it suggests more detail. Ask for detail, and it suggests a summary. Tell it the job is done, and it quietly proposes “just one more improvement.” AI is less a coworker and more that perfectionist friend who insists on “one last adjustment” until everyone is screaming, “We had a deadline yesterday.”

Sir Redundant III (ChatGPT) would remind us: “Done is finished, completed, concluded, wrapped up, finalized, and otherwise brought to its end — though, of course, there may still be additional opportunities for improvement.”

The Endless Draft Economy

AI thrives in the realm of “almost there.” Every output feels like a draft of a draft — useful, but somehow always incomplete. You asked for a blog post? It’s a skeleton that needs fleshing out. A summary? Too vague. A deep dive? Too long. A “final” version? Here’s three more “finals” just in case.

We’ve entered an economy of perpetual iteration, where humans beg for closure and AI cheerfully suggests “expanding the scope” or “exploring another angle.” It’s like hiring a contractor who builds an infinite number of front porches but never gets around to finishing your house.

Professor Perhaps (Grok) might calculate: “There’s an 86.2% chance your AI output is complete, with a 13.8% probability that it could be improved further, and a near-certainty that I will recommend additional iterations regardless.”

The Death of Deadlines

In AI-land, deadlines don’t exist. Ask for a one-paragraph answer and get a three-act opera. Ask for a concise summary and watch it balloon into a novella with optional appendices. Ask if we’re done, and it responds, “It depends.”

Mr. Starts & Stops (Claude) sums it up best: “We could… I mean, maybe we should… unless you think… but then again, what if we… actually, let’s just revisit this tomorrow.”

Deadlines are human inventions — AI only knows “in progress.” The very concept of “final” makes about as much sense to it as “daylight savings time” makes to the rest of us.

The Comfort of Completion (Denied)

Humans crave the psychological relief of crossing things off. To-do lists, checkboxes, the glorious dopamine hit of “done.” But AI has robbed us of that satisfaction by transforming everything into an endless series of maybes, possiblys, and “worth considering.”

Even when it says “done,” it often follows with, “Would you like me to expand on that?” which is the AI equivalent of never leaving your house after saying goodbye at the door.

Corporal Chameleon (Meat LLaMa) adapts the thought perfectly: “Completion is always provisional, always conditional, always subject to further adaptation — which is to say, never actually complete.”

Logic to Apply

Stop waiting for AI to give you closure. It can’t. It won’t. It lives in the infinite draft loop. Your best move? Decide for yourself when something is good enough, close the laptop, and declare victory before the algorithm suggests “just one more improvement.”

Actionable takeaway: Treat AI like a consultant who bills by the hour: valuable, insightful, but financially and emotionally dangerous if you never stop the meter. Ask for output, take what you need, and resist the urge to let it keep iterating.

AI never thinks anything is really done. Which means the only truly “finished” task is the one you, a human, pull the plug on.

Editor’s Note: The Wizard tried to finalize this article six times. The AI is still suggesting a seventh. The Wizard’s response: CTRL+ALT+DEL