Our brains are "cognitive misers." So GenAI makes it increasingly tempting to outsource our thinking.

The less we use our brains to think and make decisions, the less capable they become, even with deep expertise

Judgment and critical thinking, the skills we need to decide when to trust AI, are among the most at risk.

Before outsourcing, ask #1. If the skill matters? #2. If you could defend the output? #3. What you'd lose?

When did you last write an important email without asking AI to improve it, if not write the whole thing for you?

For many people, it's been a while. Drafting messages. Brainstorming ideas. Preparing presentations. Even helping make a tough decision. Tasks we once did without a second thought now start with a prompt. And there's a good reason why. We're all pressed for time, and GenAI is fast.

None of this would be a problem, except that somewhere between our first dabble with GenAI and today, the handy assist became a habit. And while we shape our habits, over time our habits shape us. Not always for the better.

Our brains are wired to take the easier option. AI has paved it.

Social psychologists Susan Fiske and Shelley Taylor coined the term "cognitive misers" to describe our natural tendency to conserve mental effort wherever we can. It's not laziness. It's an intelligent adaptation that has served us well for millennia. So when our smartest thinking produces a tool that can think for us, doing in seconds what might otherwise take hours, our brains don't just accept the offer. They leap at it.

You've likely heard the catchphrase "Neurons that fire together, wire together." The more our neurons do a task, the better they get at it. Yet the flip side is also true. Just as your muscles weaken when you stop going to the gym, your brain is no exception. Use it or lose it.

The Problem: If Our Brains Aren't Regularly Thinking, They're Shrinking

Consider London's taxi drivers. To earn their license, they spend years memorizing some 25,000 streets. Brain scans show the region tied to spatial memory is larger........

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