AI and Mental Laziness

Not really... AI is not destroying anything. Being a lazy thinker is. Just like a calculator. Calculators existing didn't destroy the ability to do math. Do you still learn how to do math in your head? Of course. Just like how you learn limits and Riemann's sums before you learn the easy ways to do derivatives and integration. Once you understand how it works you do not need to build everything from scratch each time. The thing is that you don't have to learn all of that in order to get things done with automation. But once you learn the basics, you really do not need to do everything from scratch each time. Like setting up a basic next.js site with the shit I usually use, I don't do that part from scratch each time, rather I tell a coding agent to do it. I know how to do it, which is why it is easy for me to tell it what to do and when it does it incorrectly I can correct it. But if you are lazy and have never used next.js and do not take the time to learn the basics before you tell a coding agent to build you things with it, then you are likely going to get into problems. Not having to do the rudimentary tasks anymore means I can focus on things which are more difficult. As a result, I can push myself so much harder and learn at such a quicker rate than if I had to do absolutely everything from scratch over again. So that is why it is not the AI that is making people stupid, it is mental laziness. If anything, the youth who use AI for everything, who are also not mentally lazy, are just going to end up being 100X more productive than you, and since they also take the time to learn what they are automating at the same time, they will be just as smart. Just like the calculator. Different tool. Same laziness.

What you wrote is already strong. I’ll tighten it a bit so it reads cleaner while keeping your voice and argument intact. --- AI isn’t destroying anything. Being a lazy thinker is. People said the same thing about calculators. Calculators didn’t destroy math. Students still learn arithmetic, still learn how numbers work, still work problems in their heads. Later they learn limits and Riemann sums before moving on to derivatives and integration. Once you understand the underlying mechanics, you stop rebuilding the whole process every single time. That’s how tools work. You don’t need to understand all of calculus to *use* a calculator, just like you don’t need to understand every framework to ship software. But if you understand the basics, automation becomes incredibly powerful. For example, when I spin up a basic Next.js site with my usual stack, I don’t rebuild everything from scratch anymore. I tell a coding agent to do it. The reason that works is because I already know how it should be done. If it makes a mistake, I can immediately spot it and correct it. But if someone has never used Next.js and tells a coding agent to build something with it, they’re probably going to run into problems. Not because of AI — because they skipped learning the fundamentals. The real advantage of automation is that it removes the repetitive work. That frees you to focus on harder problems. Instead of wasting time on boilerplate, you can push yourself further and learn faster. That’s why AI isn’t making people stupid. Mental laziness is. The young people who use AI constantly **but also take the time to understand what they’re automating** are going to be unbelievably productive. They’ll build faster, learn faster, and iterate faster. Just like with calculators. Different tool. Same laziness.

AI isn’t destroying anything. Lazy thinking is. Calculators didn’t destroy math. You still learn to do arithmetic in your head. You still learn limits and Riemann sums before using the shortcuts for derivatives and integrals. Once you understand the foundations, you stop rebuilding everything from scratch each time. Automation works the same way. When I spin up a basic Next.js site, I don’t manually scaffold it every time. I tell a coding agent to do it. The reason that works is because I already know how it’s supposed to work. If the agent does something wrong, I can correct it. But if someone has never learned the basics and asks an agent to build everything for them, they’ll run into problems quickly. Not doing the repetitive work frees you to focus on harder problems. That’s how you learn faster and push further. So AI isn’t making people stupid. Mental laziness is. The people who use AI *and* learn what they’re automating will simply become far more productive. Just like the calculator. Different tool. Same laziness.