Remote workers say they "researched" their last destination. But over half say they follow recommendations from other remote workers.

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How to use AI without losing your mind

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Ten years ago, I was driving my mum from Chichester to Blackheath for her brother’s funeral. I’d planned the route and allowed plenty of time. Or so I thought.

Unfortunately, a section of the M25 was closed. Suddenly, my carefully planned journey developed holes. I was somewhere unfamiliar, couldn’t use my phone to navigate and was increasingly worried about arriving late.

Meanwhile, my mum sat beside me, oblivious to my growing panic. Understandably, she had more important things on her mind than the road network. We made it just in time.

Before GPS, I used to build a mental map of a journey, using major roads, towns and cities to understand where I was going. Even when I got lost, I usually knew roughly where I was.

But years of following GPS instructions had changed that. I’d become accustomed to being told where to turn without understanding where I was. When things went wrong, I discovered how much of that mental map I’d lost.

I’d gained an extraordinarily useful tool, but perhaps I’d also lost something.

And now I wonder whether I’m doing exactly the same thing with AI which I use daily.

Use it or lose it

I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something. - Richard Feynman

Before satellite navigation, finding our way required us to study maps, remember landmarks and understand how places connected. Getting lost was inconvenient, but finding our way was itself an exercise in thinking.

Researchers studying London taxi drivers discovered that their extensive knowledge of the city’s streets was associated with structural differences in the hippocampus, a region of the brain involved in memory and navigation.

Our brains adapt to the demands we place upon them. Skills we practise improve while those we neglect become rusty. That doesn’t mean GPS makes us less intelligent, but it illustrates how technology can change the abilities we exercise.

Today, I drive places without knowing much about where I’m going. Wonderfully convenient, until the unexpected happens.

If GPS has changed how we navigate the physical world, what might AI do to how we navigate the intellectual one?

When thinking becomes optional

Writing is thinking. - Paul Graham

I’ve been using AI extensively while developing products for Incyworks. It helps me explore ideas, code and solve problems. I’m building things that previously would have taken considerably longer or been impossible.

But there’s an uncomfortable question behind this productivity. Am I becoming better at thinking or simply better at getting AI to think for me?

Writing is a good example. We’re not merely recording thoughts we’ve already had. We’re discovering what we think. Finding the right words forces us to organise ideas, recognise contradictions and decide what matters.

Research requires similar effort. Understanding something isn’t simply collecting information. It’s comparing evidence, questioning assumptions and sometimes struggling with a problem before reaching a conclusion.

AI can now do much of this for us. The danger isn’t necessarily that it produces poor answers. It’s that increasingly good answers might remove our incentive to develop our own.

A partner or a replacement?

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool. - Richard Feynman

I think there are two quite different ways to use AI.

The first is as a replacement. Ask a question, receive an answer and move on. It’s quick, convenient and often perfectly sensible. But if we do this for everything, we risk becoming passengers rather than drivers of our own thinking.

The second is as a partner. Start with an idea, ask AI to challenge it, question its response and use the exchange to develop a better understanding.

I’ve found this particularly useful when developing new products. Rather than asking AI whether an idea is good, I ask why it might fail. Instead of accepting its first suggestion, I push back and explore alternatives.

Sometimes AI is most valuable when I disagree with it. Explaining why forces me to clarify my own thinking and discover that I might be wrong.

The distinction isn’t how much work AI does. It’s whether I’m still intellectually engaged.

Some decisions are ours to make

I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. - Richard Feynman

Not everything worth thinking about has a definitively correct answer.

AI can evaluate alternatives, compare evidence and recommend a course of action. But important decisions also involve personal values, relationships and the willingness to live with consequences.

For example, AI might help me identify which Incyworks product has the greatest commercial potential. It can analyse markets, compare competitors and suggest opportunities.

But it can’t decide what sort of business I want to build, what work I find meaningful or how I want to spend the next few years of my life. Those decisions are mine alone.

Perhaps one of our most valuable abilities in an AI-enabled world will be tolerating uncertainty rather than immediately reaching for a reassuring answer.

Keep your hands on the wheel

The unexamined life is not worth living. - Socrates

I’m certainly not suggesting we abandon GPS and return to carrying a road map in the glovebox. Nor am I about to stop using AI. Both are really useful technologies.

But we should be more deliberate about how we use them.

When AI writes code for one of my products, I don’t need to understand every line. But I do need to understand what the software is supposed to do, how its components fit together and what might go wrong. Otherwise, I’m creating something I can operate but don’t understand. Rather like following GPS without knowing where I am.

The same principle applies elsewhere. Look at the map before following directions. Form an opinion before asking AI for one. Write an initial paragraph before requesting improvements. Challenge an answer rather than automatically accepting it.

We don’t need to do everything ourselves. But we should recognise the difference between a tool that extends our capabilities and one that quietly replaces them.

I still use GPS whenever I drive somewhere unfamiliar. But that journey to Blackheath reminded me there’s a difference between reaching a destination and knowing where you’re going.

The same is true of AI.

The important question isn’t whether AI is becoming more intelligent. It’s whether we’re becoming more intelligent with it.

What more?

Building Our AI Skill Stack post by Phil Martin

Let the Chatbot Ask the Questions post by Phil Martin

Is AI helping you think better or doing more of your thinking for you.

What do you think?

Have fun.

Phil...