1. No rush!
If it’s important, it’s gonna be around in a week or 2 months, just with fewer bugs. In hindsight, I try new tools ~2-6 months after they come out. (Said another way: the energy required to be in the 99th percentile of early adoption vs 90th percent is astronomical, and the benefit is marginal.)2. Schedule hands-on time
I schedule 10 min to actually try it hands-on in a real use case in my real work. This usually makes me usually be the only person in the room to actually have tried it. (Emphasis on real, work use case. If I don’t have one yet, see point 1 above.) The goal isn’t to know all the buzzwords, it’s to have a deep intuition for when something is useful and when to reach for it.3. Follow newsletters and podcasts, not social media
Writers and podcasters are relatively more incentivized for depth and quality. (The only social media I follow is through curated email aggregators. Udi Menkes has a great, free GenAI PM aggregator I’ve been reading for about a year. Let me know if you recommend any others! These curators spend time on socials, so i don’t have to.)4. Only watch content that has live demos
The higher % screenshare in the podcast, the better. Claire Vo, Peter Yang, Marc Baselga/Ben Erez, Greg Isenberg, Colin Matthews and Dan Shipper keep a high bar here by interviewing real people using AI for real at work.The bottom line
I hope those help! I love how Karri Saarinen, founder of Linear, put it:“My gauge for what is hype and what is real is often measured by how close the person is to actually using the technology productively and realizing its value.”➡️ As someone with real work to do, you can be this person. Take your time.
If you want to go deeper on implementation and adoption, I offer live courses and workshops.