/AI11h ago

Graham Neubig, OpenHands chief scientist, prefers keyboard shortcuts for email and Slack but relies entirely on AI for coding

He finds manual interfaces faster for rapid context-switching.

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#100Graham Neubig
Yonatan Belinkov
Original post
Graham Neubig@gneubig#100inAI

I'm a heavy user of @Superhuman for email, @linear for scheduling, and @SlackHQ for chat.

One interesting note is that all have AI features that I use very little or not at all. Instead, I'm a heavy user of keyboard shortcuts that let me pull in relevant context, make decisions, and respond as quickly as possible.

OTOH, for coding and other heavy work I use AI as much as I can and mostly don't use manual shortcuts.

It's a kinda interesting bifurcation, where traditional UX>>AI for tasks that require fast context switching, and AI>>traditional tools for in other domains.

I wonder if there are any resources or HCI research tht take a look at this?

6:21 PM · Jun 6, 2026 · 4.9K Views
Sentiment

Positive users favor keyboard shortcuts over AI for fast context switching because shortcuts deliver known speed without extra questions, while some see AI features as adding workflow noise.

Pos
66.7%
Neg
33.3%
3 comments with sentiment.
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Yonatan Belinkov@boknilev

@gneubig @Superhuman @linear @SlackHQ What’s the benefit of Superhuman for email over a traditional email client?

Graham Neubig@gneubig

I'm a heavy user of @Superhuman for email, @linear for scheduling, and @SlackHQ for chat.

One interesting note is that all have AI features that I use very little or not at all. Instead, I'm a heavy user of keyboard shortcuts that let me pull in relevant context, make decisions, and respond as quickly as possible.

OTOH, for coding and other heavy work I use AI as much as I can and mostly don't use manual shortcuts.

It's a kinda interesting bifurcation, where traditional UX>>AI for tasks that require fast context switching, and AI>>traditional tools for in other domains.

I wonder if there are any resources or HCI research tht take a look at this?

5hViews 191Likes 1Bookmarks 0
Ishaan Sehgal@ishaansehgal

@gneubig @Superhuman @linear @SlackHQ @slashyemail keyboard shortcuts ftw

10hViews 134Likes 1
Strata@ChainZenit

@gneubig @Superhuman @linear @SlackHQ Keyboard shortcuts are still king, AI mostly just adds noise to the workflow.

11hViews 120
jax@jaxsthetics

@gneubig @Superhuman @linear @SlackHQ makes sense - those tools are built for speed and the AI features probably slow you down more than help

curious if this changes once AI can actually predict what you need before you ask for it vs just reacting to prompts

10hViews 97
Azael@theazaelov

@gneubig @Superhuman @linear @SlackHQ shortcuts over AI makes perfect sense when speed is the goal

ai still asks questions shortcuts already know the answer

9hViews 41