Field notes, solidarity, and starter guides for all of us finding our footing through work and life overwhelm in the AI era. One step from greatness, one step from ruin—sometimes in the same hour. Curated and shared by a midlife, multipassionate mom with ADHD using AI to keep an endless circle of plates spinning in an accelerating world.
The wobble point is the tension where a plate spins beautifully right before it falls.
That feeling of being simultaneously on the cusp of something brilliant and one step from dropping every ball in your life.
For me, it’s both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. Lately, I have become well acquainted with that wobble point feeling.
I was born in 1981, right in the middle of what Anna Garvey coined “The Oregon Trail” micro-generation. That is, those of us born between the mid-1970s and early 1980s who have had an analog childhood and a digital adulthood. Our first exposure to PCs was in computer labs where we learned touch typing and strived to help pioneers cross the American wilderness via the Oregon Trail game (thus the name). I suppose now you could say we are having an artificially enhanced midlife.
Technological advances have made so many aspects of daily life easier to manage in the past 45+ years. One would hope that all of this progress would have given us more hours to rest and made life more peaceful. Yet, it feels to me that life has just gotten faster and more overwhelming as time goes by.
We can accomplish tasks much faster with technology, but the number of tasks and apps we are expected to oversee increases more and more every day. We are both more productive and more busy than ever.
Can AI free us from chains of cognitive and task overload if we can only learn to harness it? Or, will AI adoption just make life more overwhelming for most of us?
The Wobble Point Metaphor
I was talking about this paradox with a friend recently, and the metaphor came to mind of a circus performer in the center of a bunch of plates that she is spinning on thin sticks.
First, I picture the performer spinning the plates with ease, as I did in my analog childhood while balancing a few plates like school, friends, and activities. Like many kids, I had support from my parents to catch an occasional plate or give one a twirl so it wouldn’t hit the floor. The circus performer in this scenario is succeeding at her act and barely exerting herself in doing so.
Next, I picture the performer starting to sweat a bit as she advances and more plates get added, as I experienced in my digital adulthood. Living on my own for the first time, adulting added numerous new plates for me to juggle, like work, household logistics, finances, marriage, travel, and grocery shopping.
At this point, both the circus performer and I felt challenged, but in a (mostly) healthy way that encouraged me to grow. I dropped a plate here and there and became more aware of my weaknesses, but for the most part, I kept everything spinning capably.
For most Xennials like myself, the internet made it easier to adult with things like online bill pay and shopping. Social media and smartphones made it easier to stay connected but harder to stay focused. The system was evolving, but mostly still worked. I’m hearing the same is not the case for young adults starting out in today’s economy, but that is a topic for another day.
Finally, I picture the circus performer in the midlife, modern state in which I exist today. The number of plates she is spinning has surpassed anything she has ever encountered in practice or previous shows. She races from plate to plate, always at serious risk of losing them. Just as she gives one plate a top-off, she snaps around to catch another plate in mid-air. Then, she immediately dashes out an arm to save another plate in the nick of time.
From the outside looking in, the circle performer seems almost superhuman with laser-quick reflexes. Is she really keeping all of those plates spinning with only two hands? If she can do it, why can’t I?
Imposter syndrome, self-doubt, and shame creep in…
I’m not 100% sure how AI fits into this metaphor, but I imagine it serving as an extra set of eyes alerting the performer to plates needing attention outside of her line of vision. And I imagine AI adding automation that sets the plates off spinning faster than any human can spin them, thus extending their spinning times unnaturally.
Still, even with that extra assistance, the circus performer is rapidly approaching her physical and mental limits. She is awestruck by her record-breaking achievements, but also feeling increasingly panicked because she is about to collapse on the floor from sheer exhaustion, bringing the whole set of plates crashing down on top of her.
AI is helping the circus performer achieve something that previously seemed impossible, but she is losing control, and the pace is too fast for her to sustain without burning out.
That, to me, is The Wobble Point at its essence. That edge right between brilliance and disaster.
Lately, I feel like I have stepped into that circus performer’s shoes, and the Wobble Point has become my daily terrain.
Equal parts performer and field researcher, I hope to shed light on The Wobble Point by writing dispatches from inside the circus ring.
The Plates I’m Spinning: What We’ll Explore Here
Over the past decade, these are some of the various “plates” I’ve spun that I hope to explore with you here:
Parenting and pet care
Career transition, job search, and unemployment
Networking and community involvement
ADHD, anxiety, and burnout
Perimenopause and midlife health, fitness, and nutrition
Vision challenges, including dry eyes, corneal, and retinal issues
Elder care, grief, and loss
Cross-country moving and relocation
I do not consider myself to be an expert on any of these subject areas. You won’t hear me say, ‘I’ve figured it all out, and here’s my 5-step system to fix your life.’ I’m right here in the trenches with you in the messy middle, not lecturing from the finish line.
Nevertheless, along the way, I’m discovering resources, communities, do’s, don’ts, and AI experiments that help me navigate the overwhelm of this era. And I’m collecting lessons learned that would help me approach situations better the second time around. The Wobble Point is my attempt to share these tales and tips with you in the hope that it will make your journey less painful and more fulfilling.
I also hope this becomes a two-way street. Over time, I’d love for this space to grow into a real community—through comment threads, shared stories, and maybe even live gatherings.
If you are a midlife multipassionate woman trying to keep up in a world that is speeding up and a body that is slowing down,
If you are shuttling your tween from activity to activity while figuring out your shifting role in their lives,
If perimenopause has scrambled your operating system,
If your ADHD brain is both excited and destabilized by shiny new AI tools,
If your career is mid-reinvention while your body is mid-something-else—
This Substack is for you.
Note: The Wobble Point is for ALL of us finding our footing through work and life overwhelm in the AI era.
No matter what roles you hold or what season you’re in, if something here resonates or feels useful, you belong in this space.
Whatever your specific collection of plates looks like, if you are navigating your own Wobble Point, you don’t have to do it alone.
In the Works for this Substack:
Weekly Field Note Articles. Reflections from my experience along the way. What I’ve noticed, what I’m working on, what I’ve tried lately.
Monthly “So You’re Starting…” Guides. Collections of tips and resources from an experienced beginner, related to AI or the various plate areas listed above.
Restacks and Linked Content. Posts, articles, videos, etc. from fellow creators who inspire me.
Compiled Resources. Curated links to resources that have helped and inspired me along the way - e.g. books, videos, thought leaders, communities, apps, trainings.
From the Archives. Links to selected pieces from my past 20+ year content vault, eventually including:
Posts from My Career Intuition: A Journey of Self-Discovery, a blog I wrote in 2011-2012 at the beginning of my 30s, shortly before becoming a mother.
Reflections and posts from my LinkedIn, Facebook, and previous website on a variety of topics.
Older videos, karaoke covers, school papers, etc.
Previous presentation slide decks and handouts.
AI-generated deep research outputs, prompt packs, and NotebookLM studio artifacts.
Key Things to Know:
Free vs. Paid Subscriptions: Initially, free subscribers will have access to everything on the site. Eventually, if this grows, I hope to add a paid tier with live monthly gatherings, community threads, and other offerings.
Affiliate Links: From time to time, I may share affiliate links to books, tools, or resources I genuinely find useful. If you purchase through one, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Any post containing affiliate links will include a clear note near those links.
How I Make This Content: I am exploring what human authorship means in the age of AI. Every piece here begins with my own ideas, lived experience, questions, and reflections. I use AI as a collaborative partner to reduce the barriers that have previously kept me from consistently sharing my ideas, learning, and AI experiments with the world. Everything on this site has ME in it: my judgment, my stories, my voice, and, most of all, my sincere hope that something I share here might make your path a little easier.
Above all, I hope The Wobble Point will help you find:
Courage to name the mess
Curiosity to better understand it, and
Connection — so none of us have to navigate it alone.
Shared by Kimberly Renee Knowles — a Human-Centered AI Enablement Strategist who has spent 20+ years helping people find their footing in systems that overwhelm them: first, students in a university, then customers in a software stack, now all of us in the AI transition.