Over the past 6 months, I’ve found myself defaulting to using AI to write the first draft of my weekly newsletters and LinkedIn posts. 

When I come up with a new idea for a new post, I will open ChatGPT and use the microphone to give a long, detailed prompt outlining exactly what I want to write and why it matters. ChatGPT already knows my tone of voice, writing style, and how to make the posts sound just like me. The content typically comes out solid, then I spend a few minutes editing so that it sounds EXACTLY like me. The casual reader would never know that I used AI to write the post.

I’ve always valued productivity, and have used many tools to ensure that I maximize efficiency during my workday so I can have as much high quality time with my family as possible. I teach productivity tools including the 12 Week Year, Eisenhower Quadrant,and relentless focus on RGA’s including saying no to distractions and busywork. So naturally I would use AI to become as efficient as possible at work. 

But there’s a major problem which I’m noticing in myself, and I am pretty certain that I’m not alone. My ability to stay focused and do “deep work” has diminished significantly since I’ve been using AI. For example, I used to write my newsletters in about 60 minutes without using AI. When I tried writing my newsletter last week without assistance from AI,  it took me almost two hours. The simple reason is that I haven’t been exercising my brain as often, and if you don’t use it, you lose it. 

A bit of neuroscience may help describe what’s going on. The pleasure center in the brain (Nucleus Accumbens and VTA) is the core reward center which releases dopamine when we experience something enjoyable. This area gets stimulated when we scroll on our phones, check sports, play video games, shop online, or do anything that provides immediate gratification. For anybody curious about what constant dopamine does to the brain, watch this.

When we get immediate answers to hard questions or tasks, the pleasure center also gets stimulated. Hence why people are now getting addicted to ChatGPT and other AI apps – because they get immediate gratification from immediate answers. 

Meanwhile, another part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex is responsible for problem solving, executive functioning, storytelling, future planning, and emotional regulation. The part of the brain is where deeper, higher level thinking occurs. If the prefrontal cortex doesn’t get used often, it will begin to atrophy and regular work will feel much “harder” than usual, resulting in anxiety, restlessness, and boredom when trying to do deep work such as writing. 

Because it feels so painful (and boring) to problem solve and think on our own, many people are now outsourcing their “thinking” to ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or other AI tools. There is a name for this; it’s called “Cognitive Offloading. And when your brain stops thinking on its own, it atrophies. 

MIT recently researched this, and the results are quite alarming. Participants who exclusively used AI to help write essays showed weaker brain connectivity, lower memory retention and a fading sense of ownership over their work. This study suggests that too much use of AI increases cognitive decline. 

If this worries anybody, there’s good news. The brain is neuroplastic, and what fires together, wires together. So as we begin to use our brains more regularly, new neural pathways form and we begin to get smarter. This is why I’m committed to writing all my newsletters without using AI moving forward. 

There’s more good news in all of this – AI can actually make us MUCH smarter when we use AI to “expand” our thinking, rather than replace our thinking. For example, before writing this newsletter I wanted to explore whether research had been done on the topic. I turned to AI and found the MIT study, along with other supporting evidence which helped me formulate my thoughts and ideas for this newsletter. 

When we use AI to expand our thinking, give new perspectives, accelerate learning, or act as a “cognitive partner,” we can actually become way smarter, much faster! 

So the danger isn’t in using AI to expand or multiply your own thinking; the danger lies in using AI to replace your thinking. 

❌ AI makes you dumber when:

• You start with AI
• You copy/paste outputs
• You avoid thinking
• You outsource your own creativity

✅ AI makes you smarter when:

• You think first, then use AI to expand your thinking
• You challenge the output and make it your own
• You refine your original ideas
• You use it to expand thinking, not replace

In this week’s video, I share how you can use AI properly to make sure you aren’t getting dumber. And for those who watch the video, you will see a giant flamingo in my backyard which I hope will brighten your day. You can watch it here. 

PS – this newsletter took me exactly 40 minutes to write. Since it’s longer than 3,000 characters, I can’t cut and paste it directly to LinkedIn. So I’m going to use ChatGPT to shorten the content and create it as a Linkedin post. This is a great example of using AI for efficiency on a task that doesn’t require deep thinking, and I’m all about it.