#cognitive debt
Senwitt pages tagged cognitive debt — blog posts, answers, glossary terms, research, and more.
- blog
The Anthropic coding-skill study: what developers should actually take away
Anthropic's 2026 study found AI-assisted developers scored ~17 points lower (50% vs 67%) on an immediate comprehension quiz when learning a new library. A careful read of what it does — and doesn't — show, and what developers should change in their daily practice.
- blog
Is ChatGPT making you dumber? An honest 2026 answer
What the published evidence actually supports — the MIT cognitive-debt preprint, the Stanković critique, the broader cognitive-offloading literature, and the honest framing the headlines miss.
- blog
Seven ways to keep writing sharp while using ChatGPT
A practical seven-item playbook for writers who use ChatGPT daily and want to keep their own voice. Grounded in the published cognitive-debt and cognitive-offloading research.
- blog
How to stop relying on AI for writing — a working playbook
A practical playbook for writers who want to keep their own voice while still using AI productively. Six concrete rules grounded in the published cognitive-debt research.
- blog
How to use ChatGPT without losing your edge
The MIT cognitive-debt paper documented what daily ChatGPT use does to the cognitive surface underneath your work. Four habits that consistently work — and the daily-practice block that ties them together.
- blog
The morning ritual for knowledge workers in the AI era
AI changed what mornings cost knowledge workers. The old pre-work block — coffee, reading, the first deliberate thinking of the day — is now competing with the ChatGPT tab. A 2026 morning ritual that survives.
- blog
Is ChatGPT actually making students lazy? Sorting the evidence
A close read of the MIT cognitive debt study, Cal Newport's New Yorker essay, and The Conversation's earlier coverage — and what the evidence actually supports about ChatGPT and student thinking.
- blog
What the MIT cognitive debt study actually shows (and what reporters keep getting wrong)
A careful read of the 2025 MIT Media Lab cognitive debt study — what it tested, what it found, what coverage often overstates, and what it means for daily practice.
- glossary
Cognitive debt
Cognitive debt is the gap between what AI helps you produce and what you actually encode while producing it — coined by the 2025 MIT Media Lab study on LLM-assisted essay writing.
- answers
Is ChatGPT making me dumber?
Probably not 'dumber' in any general sense. But sustained AI use does measurably reduce certain practice signals — and that has a real answer.
- route
AI cognitive debt — what the MIT study says.
The MIT cognitive debt study explained.
- route
For writers.
Brain exercise for writers.
- route
For ChatGPT users.
Brain exercise for heavy ChatGPT users.
- route
Your Brain on ChatGPT.
Kosmyna 2025 deep dive + Stanković 2026 critique.