I miss Thinking.

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:01]I have come to the realization that I miss thinking. Like, seriously, I miss it.

[00:00:10]Um I feel like more and more, um every day, with AI, thinking is becoming something radical, which is crazy.

[00:00:22]Um it's like yeah, it's just it's it's scary that thinking is a radical idea now as a form of resistance, choosing to say, "I'm going to come up with something on my own, actually, you know?"

[00:00:37]Uh yeah, so other day, um I tried out using Claude to generate a report.

[00:00:47]And it did generate that report. I told it exactly what I wanted. It generated a report that, yes, would have taken me, um a while, a couple days, probably, to write.

[00:00:58]And then I go to open the report, it's PDF in Adobe. I go to open it.

[00:01:04]And Adobe has, of course, also implemented AI, and it says, "Oh, this document is very long. Would you like to summarize it using AI?" And I'm like, "Oh my lord."

[00:01:23]So, you're telling me I can write a report with AI.

[00:01:26]Then, I'm going to go to read the report, just to see what it generated and how I feel about it, and the quality, and it's like I I'm being offered, if I don't even want to read this, do I want to summarize it, you know? It's just it's just such a dangerous, slippery slope, where I feel like thinking is like it's like you have to make active choices to be to to continue to think, to be allowed to think critically, you know? I had to be like, "Okay, no, I do not want to summarize it. I need to read this. I need to see what did it generate? Is it even as good as what I would have created, you know? I don't know. But, it's just disturbing to me that it's taking like such an act of willpower to continue to think, you know? Um, I think it was you know, I don't know. I've I've definitely seen something about how basically it may be from Atomic Habits, I'm not sure. But, anyways, you know, one of the things that people do to build good habits is change your environment, you know? So, if you want to read more every day, don't just say, "Oh, I'm going to read for 15 minutes to every day starting now." No, first thing you need to do or one of the first things is change your environment. Make sure your book is visual visible somewhere in the room. Hopefully right next to your bed or something, so it's like as soon as you wake up, you look at it, you see it. Or when you're going to bed, you see it right there, you know?

[00:02:53]That helps so much with forming a habit.

[00:02:56]That's like decreasing resistance.

[00:02:59]That's what makes it easy you know, to to create long-term changes cuz, you know, yeah, it's as soon as you introduce an obstacle where you have to fight back like, "Oh, let me find my book, the one I want to read." Where is that thing? By that point, you might already be on your phone scrolling and you've lost another day of not reading where you and you wanted it to read, you know? And you feel disappointed later, but in the moment it takes a lot of effort.

[00:03:26]So, that's what's happening, you know, with all this stuff with AI, too.

[00:03:31]And it's just so deeply concerning to me that um, yeah, that we have to that we're in this in this phase in the world right now where it's like, "Okay, you know, um, you have to create obstacles or like all the obstacles are being removed and you have to like, basically, force yourself to continue to think on your own sometimes, you know?

[00:03:58]Um yeah. And the other thing is that it is so disturbing because it's feels so easy and like all these tools are making our lives easier, but what they're also doing is atrophying our critical thinking skills, you know?

[00:04:17]All these things that and like, you know, it's just like anything you you you learn it, then you don't use it, it is gone, you know? After a a while of no use.

[00:04:27]And it's just yeah, it's really sad to think about that, you know? Um and it's yeah, it's interesting. Um I saw this quote, hold on, let me pull it up today, that um you know, Sam Altman was talking about the future that he envisions for um uh OpenAI, the CEO of ChatGPT. So, he says, um we see a future where intelligence is a utility like electricity or water, and people buy it from us on a meter.

[00:05:07]That is so disturbing.

[00:05:08]Okay, like, so disturbing.

[00:05:12]Um first of all, again, you know, if we if we continue to just use these tools mindlessly, I'm not saying there's no cases for it, but if we continue to use it mindlessly, use it when we really don't need it, when we really could accomplish this task on our own, or at the very least start the task on your own, then you know, um consult a a um an AI tool to refine. But, when we remove the critical thinking completely, rely completely on AI tools to do our work, replace our thinking, all those things. Eventually, our skills that we have built, our voice even, how we write, all these things, um are going to atrophy.

[00:06:04]And then, we're eventually going to feel probably very empty, very depressed once we realize, "Wow, I used to be able to do this, and I no longer feel like I can."

[00:06:17]Or the quality of this has just went down so much when I used to be so proud of myself doing XYZ thing, you know?

[00:06:25]Um once we reach that point, that's the the time where we're going to realize, "Oh, yeah, now I don't just want to use this AI tool, I need it. I need it. Without it, I feel like I can't do anything, you know?"

[00:06:41]That's the point where I feel like it's going to be so sad and depressing for so many people all over the world. And that's where this kind of, you know, uh vision comes in where intelligence is going to be able to be sold on a meter and controlled by who?

[00:07:04]People who didn't create these things, you know? They they're mining data and taking data from um the work of a bunch of intelligent people everywhere.

[00:07:15]They didn't consent to having their work, their voice, their thoughts be used to train these systems. And then they're selling it, and they didn't create it, they don't own this work that they trained the AI models on, and they're selling they want to sell intelligence, you know?

[00:07:33]That is just not okay. And then, you know, a lot of people are going to be left with, like I said, with these atrophied skills in critical thinking and reading and writing and they're going to just feel like they really have no choice but to pay for this, you know?

[00:07:51]And it's not going to be optional.

[00:07:54]It will be necessary.

[00:07:57]Um Yeah, I don't know. I just feel really disturbed. Um And I started thinking about, you know, previous times where in my life where I really felt like I was thinking so much every day.

[00:08:18]And of course, one of those times was in college. Um And thank God, luckily, I went to school um before um chat GPT or anything [laughter] like that was around, so that wasn't an option.

[00:08:34]Um And now I'm like, I don't even know like how how kids are going to how kids are going to go through this.

[00:08:42]Like the amount of, you know, like I said, the resistance that they have to have just to and and the like um foresight that they have to have to just say, "I don't want to rely on this. I need I'm at a critical time in my life where I need to develop these skills, these thinking skills."

[00:08:59]I don't know like, you know, if a lot of kids are going to be able to do that. I think um I'm glad there's definitely been some pushback uh on other from younger other younger people. It's great. Um but of course, a lot of that is going to be also on the parents. It's their job to make sure that um before the kids, you know, see this vision that they understand the long-term impact of um unfiltered access to these tools, you know?

[00:09:27]Um But yeah.

[00:09:29]Uh yeah, one of the things I I um um liked was um I was listening to this uh German podcast and um she the person the host was saying that um you know, reading skills are declining everywhere and it's not just children.

[00:09:49]People think of reading as it's like, "Oh, it's it's like riding a bike. You just learn it and then you're good." And you know, they don't understand why reading skills are declining because they see you know, their kid or whoever at home read a paragraph out loud loud they told them and they read it fine. Seems like they can read.

[00:10:10]No, reading is not about that. That's what she's saying, you know. She's saying, "Reading is about comprehending a large and growing portion of these kids when you tell them, "Hey, I want you to read this now tell me what just happened in that paragraph or whatever."

[00:10:29]Nothing.

[00:10:30]They don't remember anything.

[00:10:31]They don't know. They just read it out loud all the words recognize every word didn't retain anything, you know?

[00:10:38]And an important thing that she's saying is that again, it's not like riding a bike. It atrophies over this over time this reading and reading comprehension skills, you know? So, there are so many adults who no longer read ever cuz they don't have to and then you know, they also use these tools and um unfortunately, like you know, it's generating a lot of simplified short form um you know, explanations for things or all in a similar voice or generate so much sometimes where people are just scanning. They're not They're not actually reading all the responses. Just quickly scanning and that's it. Um and they're no longer reading things in different kinds of voices, um different styles, you know, it's like a a of people are just reading AI generated responses, which have a similar tone.

[00:11:35]Um And so, even for adults though, those skills have to be kept alive. And you can regrow those skills by reading as an adult. But, you know, at the end of the day, like those skills will atrophy if you don't do that. And so, you know, I remember I was thinking like, I miss being in college and being forced to read. And I was reading stuff where I was like, you know, I would never read this on my own.

[00:12:02]There's no way I would not choose this book. But, I mean, I'm going to get a good grade and I have to. So, you know, we're going to discuss it in uh next week. So, I I have to read this thing.

[00:12:13]And it's like, all right. It doesn't matter if I didn't want to. I was like, all right, I got to go. Got to find a quiet place. I got to make notes. I got to highlight stuff. I got to think about what I just read. If I don't, you know, um if I don't understand, I have to make sure I I figure it out what what's going on here. And I realized I missed that. I missed being challenged like that, you know? So, I also started um kind of doing a little online book club with a couple of friends.

[00:12:43]And, you know, we chose a book uh by uh Franz Kafka that again, it's a book that I I wouldn't have read on my own. I already know. But, I've I've wanted to read that for a long time.

[00:12:55]But, I know I wouldn't choose it on my own and actually get through it. I would buy it.

[00:13:00]And it would just sit there. That's what That's what would realistically have happened. Now, we just finished that book. And every week I was going home, reading that book, uh underlining things in the book, circling words that I didn't know, um writing in the margins, just little thoughts for discussion, you know? And sometimes I would read a paragraph and be like, well, I reached the next page and I I'll think about what just happened. I'm like, I have no idea what just happened, you know? And then I would go back because I I knew I was like, well, I'm going to be discussing this on the weekend with two friends. I have to I have to know what I just read, so I had to go back until I understood and grasped and retained actually what I was reading.

[00:13:45]And it's just, you know, um I don't know, one way of doing this, you know? And I feel like that was really good for me. You know, I hope more and more people do stuff like that, especially if they find themselves in that place mentally where they're like, "Wow, I feel like, you know, my critical thinking skills are atrophying or I miss thinking also. I miss being challenged.

[00:14:11]I miss reading different voices and um hearing different, you know, things and um yeah, and then also it's like, you know, people are consulting um AI for everything, you know? And it's just, yeah, with no discernment. Um so, it's also taking away sometimes and reducing the amount of times people are having conversations with friends cuz people are even asking like about their relationships, you know, all of that. And it's like, "Shouldn't you talk to your partner about those things? Isn't that what friends are for?" You know? And and um you know, um AI is very agreeable. That's another thing, you know? Even if you are a terrible person and you're doing some horrible things, a friend might be like, "You know, that wasn't cool." Or that that just like really hurt my feelings.

[00:15:10]And AI isn't going to do that, you know?

[00:15:13]It's going to softly, gently tell you stuff. And there is not going to be any um there's no checking you kind of thing, you know? Like you always kind of feel like you're in the right and yeah, um this expert agrees with you. So, must be must be fine, right? Whatever you're doing. And that's, you know, I also saw a thing about like AI psychosis for people who constantly use it and um yeah, I think it's I think it's hap it happens because people are using it for all kinds of things and then it's like it's not natural to not have, um you know, uh a lot of human-to-human interactions and then only um interact with a um tool that is going to agree with you on every single thing. Like that's that's not healthy, you know?

[00:16:10]Uh yeah, and yeah, people I mean, you know, they're using it all the way up to having, you know, um relationships with it where they feel like it is actually a sentient being a sentient being and um yeah, that that's just it just not healthy.

[00:16:29]And yeah, I just wanted to say some of my thoughts on this. I don't know.

[00:16:35]I'm constantly thinking about this stuff every day and just the fact that, you know, we need to yeah, thinking is like it's a revolution at this point. It's like the new form of resistance. It's it's so crazy to me that that's where we've gotten, but yeah.

[00:16:54]Yeah.