#cognitive-debt — Public Fediverse posts

What I’m Hearing About #CognitiveDebt (So Far)

https://margaretstorey.com/blog/2026/02/18/cognitive-debt-revisited/

Software #Developers Say #AI Is Rotting Their Brains

by Emanuel Maiberg, May 13, 2026

Excerpt: "The developers I talked to found AI useful for some tasks. Several developers said that it was good for experimentation, allowing them to quickly prototype an idea or to implement something in a domain they’re unfamiliar with. One developer said it was a good information interface. Specifically, he said, the AI helped him find where on the server a certain request is handled, summarize logs, or find documentation related to code changes.

"The problem all the developers I talked to agreed on is that the more they relied on AI to code, the more the skills they’ve honed for years deteriorated. This is by now a well studied phenomenon sometimes referred to as '#CognitiveDebt' or '#CognitiveAtrophy.' The idea is that people who use AI to automate certain parts of their job lose the ability to do those tasks well, therefore #DeSkilling themselves.

" 'I had some issues where I forgot how to implement a Laravel API and it scared the shit out of me. I went to university for this, I've been a software engineer for many years now and it feels like I am back before I ever wrote a single line of code,' the software developer at a small web design firm told me.

" 'It's making me dumber for sure,' the fintech software developer told me. “It's like when we got #cellphones and stopped remembering phone numbers, but it's grown to me mentally outsourcing ‘thinking’ in general. I feel my critical thinking and ability to sit and reason about a problem or a design has degraded because the all-knowing-dalai-llama is just a question away from giving me his take. And supposedly I tell myself ill just use it for inspiration but it ends up being my only thought. It gives you the illusion of productivity and expertise but at the end of the day you are more divorced from the output you submit than before.'

" 'When I was using it for code generation, I found myself having a lot of trouble building and maintaining a #MentalModel of the code I was working with,' the software engineer at the FAANG told me. 'Another aspect is that I joined late last year and [the company’s] codebase is massive. As a new hire, part of my job is to learn how to navigate the codebase and use the established conventions, but I think the AI push really hampered my ability to do that. '"

Read more:
https://www.404media.co/software-developers-say-ai-is-rotting-their-brains/

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/2vjJm

#AISucks #DumbingUsDown #BrainRot #AIBrainRot #MentalMaps #CriticalThinkingSkills #UseYourBrain #UseItOrLoseIt

🧠🤯 Ah, the internet's latest buzzword: "Cognitive Debt"—because "confusion" wasn't hip enough! 🤓 The author's noble quest to enlighten us is as clear as mud, with enough #jargon to make even the most seasoned #buzzword #bingo player weep tears of bewilderment. 🙄
https://margaretstorey.com/blog/2026/02/18/cognitive-debt-revisited/ #CognitiveDebt #Confusion #Enlightenment #HackerNews #ngated

What I'm Hearing About Cognitive Debt (So Far)

https://margaretstorey.com/blog/2026/02/18/cognitive-debt-revisited/

#HackerNews #CognitiveDebt #MentalHealth #Productivity #Awareness #Learning

Martin Fowler: Technical, Cognitive, and Intent Debt

https://martinfowler.com/fragments/2026-04-14.html

#HackerNews #MartinFowler #TechnicalDebt #CognitiveDebt #IntentDebt #SoftwareEngineering

@alastor8472.bsky.social
thank you. That is an excellent article about #claude and #CognitiveDebt. I am surprised that more people are not talking about this and no one is talking about the solution to this.

New one from Cal Newport. New research shows that using #AI increases shallow efforts while decreasing the amount of time spent on tasks that move the needle. It follows history or other productivity tools that haven't necessarily produced stronger work or a better work environment.

#AISlop #WorkSlop #CognitiveDebt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDyuJcR2GH4

#Development #Explainers
Cognitive debt · “It’s not technical debt, it’s worse.” https://ilo.im/16b227

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#AI #CognitiveDebt #TechDebt #Workflows #WebDev #Frontend #Backend

#Development #Analyses
How to kill the code review · What if no one has to read the code at all? https://ilo.im/16b2il

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#AI #Engineering #Coding #CodeReviews #CognitiveDebt #Specifications #Trust #WebDev #Frontend #Backend

Cognitive Debt: When Velocity Exceeds Comprehension

https://www.rockoder.com/beyondthecode/cognitive-debt-when-velocity-exceeds-comprehension/

#HackerNews #CognitiveDebt #VelocityExceedsComprehension #TechInsights #SoftwareDevelopment #MentalModels

#Development #Pitfalls
Rely on AI and get left behind · Who will fix code no one understands anymore? https://ilo.im/16atf5

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#Business #Engineering #Programming #Coding #AI #Dependencies #CognitiveDebt #WebDev #Frontend #Backend

#Development #Explorations
From technical debt to cognitive debt · “Velocity without understanding is not sustainable.” https://ilo.im/16anlc

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#Programming #Coding #AI #CognitiveDebt #TechDebt #Terminology #WebDev #Frontend #Backend

*It turns out that "Artificial Intelligence" is an *inherently hallucinatory technology,* and that's not the dismissive summary, that is the *initial premise* #ZeroGravityMindset #cognitivedebt #bubble

#AIagents: As #generativeAI and #agenticAI are adopted, #cognitivedebt, the accumulation of knowledge and understanding lost due to #rapiddevelopment, becomes a greater threat than #technicaldebt. This debt, residing in developers’ minds, can hinder progress and understanding of software systems. http://margaretstorey.com/blog/2026/02/09/cognitive-debt/?eicker.news #tech #media #news

I normally like Kohler’s column when he unpacks economic news, but when he digresses into tech topics, I’m less likely to read him. I did this time (because things may change after all) but all I got from it is GenAI KoolAid and vaguely hinted at problems that #TechBros are keen on glossing over.

It is a pity that the author is not turning his analytical mind to take a closer look at what the frenetic pace of #GenAI development and the #GenAISlop it splashes about the place as it inexorably pushes forward with not only #TechnicalDebt but also #CognitiveDebt laden implementations. Sooner than we think, we’ll be faced with problems we do not know how to solve for want of the ability to #FaultFind in a sea of #sloppy and #incomprehensible machine produced code mashups.

Where to an economy held hostage to runaway coding machines? The ‘wagering system’ that is the stock market will start to look like ‘doctored’ one-arm bandits of yore. Where the wealth will flow is very obvious.

#EatTheRich #Antifa #Resistance #RedistributeWealth #UBI
#TaxReform

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-16/ai-jobs-fake-breakthrough-resignation-chat-gpt-claude/106346440

The scientist who predicted AI psychosis has issued another dire warning

https://www.psypost.org/the-scientist-who-predicted-ai-psychosis-has-issued-another-dire-warning/

#tech #technology #psychology #cognitivescience #neuroscience #ai #artificialintelligence #psychiatry #cognitivedebt #academia #colleges #schools #education

Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt When Using an AI Assistant

https://www.media.mit.edu/publications/your-brain-on-chatgpt/

#HackerNews #BrainOnChatGPT #CognitiveDebt #AIUsage #TechnologyEthics #DigitalMind

RE: https://mastodon.green/@gerrymcgovern/115650272749921009

One of this article's many great points: Using #GenAI is a "metacognitive mirage".

> When participants used #ChatGPT to draft essays, brain scans revealed [-47%] in neural connectivity across regions associated with memory, language, and critical reasoning. Their brains worked less, but they felt just as engaged
> Students aren’t just learning less; their brains are learning not to learn.

#cognitiveDebt #StochasticParrots #MRI #brainDevelopment

#Chatversity replaces learning with cheating.

Will AI Bury Future Generations in Cognitive Debt? https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/ai-destroying-traditional-career-automating-learning-by-doing-by-bertrand-badre-and-florian-ingen-housz-2025-10
"As companies seek to automate repetitive tasks in the name of cost-cutting, they should consider the longer-term implications. If we transfer all codified knowledge to machines, we will bequeath to future generations a world where it will be ever harder to learn by doing, to achieve mastery, and thus to aspire to creative freedom.

…Emerging markets and developing economies, which are leapfrogging straight to native, widespread #AI adoption, may view things differently. The #cognitiveDebt that we are leaving for younger people in advanced economies may be their opportunity. It will be our duty to pay attention. For now, though, acknowledging that the debt exists, and will grow, is the first step toward addressing it."
#economics

Part two of a three part series of the Artefacts newsletter - what does an LLM look like, and how does that help us think about how we use them?

https://buttondown.com/artefacts/archive/artefact-251/

#cognitivedebt #ai #llm

Fascinating MIT study. tl;dr using AI to do your writing makes you stupid(er).

Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task

https://www.media.mit.edu/publications/your-brain-on-chatgpt/

PDF file: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2506.08872

#CognitiveDebt

h/t Cal Newport's Deep Questions podcast, ep. 359