Reader,

Here are a few stories from yesterday and today that may apply to tomorrow.

Me and my slide rule

After my “military sabbatical” in the mid-1960s I returned to the college campus to finish my education. I decided to study engineering and was on campus when TI, Casio, and HP introduced calculators. A big question at the time was “Is using a calculator rather than a slide rule a form of cheating?”

Well, no. But yes.

Regarding exams, it was simply a tool that made precisions calculations faster and easier. I still had to think about what numbers I entered. I was not cheating.

However, as a slide-rule-trained engineer I had a “feel” for the numbers and “order of magnitude thinking” was essential. (Slide rules did not automatically “move the decimal point or multiply by orders of 10.)

Therefore, my peers and I were looking for scale and plausibility in the size of the answer and often had a sense of “that answer can’t be right, the decimal point is in the wrong spot.”

So, by using a calculator instead of a slide rule I was slowly degrading my ability to estimate plausibility. Precision increased, but judgment decreased. I was cheating myself of maintaining an important engineering skill.

My slide rule story captures the mechanism of cognitive offloading: a tool removes cognitive friction and performance improves, but an underlying capability atrophies.

What about AI today? Leaders may get precise answers but lose the ability to evaluate them.

More examples

GPS instead of paper maps

I used to drive cross-country with a bunch of maps in my car. Now is use GPS.

I’ve offloaded route planning to a “machine.” I’ve also eroded cognitive mapping (mental maps of environments) and situational awareness.

Apply this to using AI for routine decisions such as reviewing candidates for a new job. Leaders stop “mapping the system.” They follow “routes” instead of understanding terrain.

Spellcheck and autocomplete

So, you decide to “write” something on your phone, tablet, or computer instead of using pen and paper.

You are offloading spelling, grammar, and sentence construction. But you are eroding language precision and the opportunity for slower, reflective writing. Since writing is a thinking process, clarity of thought weakens when writing is aided by an algorithm.

Search engines

What happens when you decide to “Google that.” After all, you say, “I don’t need to remember this when I can just look it up”

You may be offloading fact recall and knowledge storage. However, you may be eroding your internal knowledge networks and your ability to connect ideas without prompts.

Worse yet, this weakens insight generation because insight depends on what you already carry in your head.

The paradox

A tool makes you better until it becomes the only way you can perform.

Is AI different?

My examples dealt with offloaded components of thinking: calculations, navigation, writing, and memory. AI now offloads thinking itself (interpretation, judgment, synthesis).

And that is a big deal! When I switched from my slide rule to a calculator, I still had to decide what to calculate. It was “just a tool.”

With AI the system may suggest what matters, what it means, and what to do.

Moral of the story

Slide rules forced engineers to think before calculating. Calculators allowed them to calculate without thinking.

AI risks allowing leaders to decide without understanding. Not good!

I hope you have a great week.

Bill