Six months of heavy daily use and I am starting to notice something uncomfortable. My ability to do basic things without AI has gotten worse.
Writing is the most obvious one. I used to draft emails and documents from scratch without thinking twice. Now I catch myself staring at a blank page waiting for something to autocomplete. My first instinct is to ask the model to generate a draft and then edit it. The editing is faster, sure, but my ability to produce the first draft on my own has clearly degraded.
Problem solving is similar. I used to work through bugs or logic problems step by step, building a mental model as I went. Now I paste the error and let the AI trace through it. I get the answer faster but I retain almost nothing. Next time a similar problem comes up I am right back at square one, pasting it in again.
Even memory for small details is affected. I used to remember syntax, API patterns, configuration formats. Now I just ask every time because it is faster than remembering. The knowledge never sticks because there is no reason for it to stick.
The uncomfortable math: the tool that makes me 3x faster today might be making me significantly less capable over time. If the AI goes away tomorrow, or the pricing changes, or I need to work in an environment without it, I am measurably worse than I was a year ago.
I know the counterargument. "Nobody memorizes phone numbers anymore either." Sure. But I still know how to dial a phone. What is happening with AI feels different. It is not just offloading memory, it is offloading the actual thinking process. And that skill atrophies when you stop exercising it.
Is anyone else noticing this or am I just getting lazy?
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