You see, before AI I took thinking for granted - I had no choice to delegate it somewhere, so I just did it.

When AI got useable I started to use it more and more - delegating the thinking to get to the decisions I should make faster.

I don't do it so much anymore and that is why today I wanna write about using AI less and feeling good because of it.

1. So how to feel good by using AI less?

Let's talk about writing an email, for example. You can use AI to write a good enough email in seconds. That does not take any effort, but your task gets done. You can feel good it's done, but in reality it is a shallow victory.

You did not get better at writing emails - you just delegated the problem and something else solved it for you.

You have a choice though - you can willingly say "I will not use AI for this email today. I will write it myself". You need to put in the time and effort - even when it's a basic email.

That is what I like to call "voluntary discomfort".

Thanks to AI you have a chance to experience discomfort whenever you want just by choosing to not use AI to solve the problem for you.

2. Why would I wanna put myself into discomfort like this?

This is a question that makes sense. Why should I waste time and effort in writing this email when it can be done in an instant in a good enough manner?

Let me give you a different example to show why voluntary discomfort is an amazing tool. The example is a holy grail of all self-help gurus on the internet that will definitely solve all your problems :D - cold showers.

Let's say you are taking a cold shower every day for a few months. You are putting yourself into voluntary discomfort. You are getting used to the weird feeling and to doing something that is hard for no reason other than to suffer.

Suddenly and unexpectedly, your water company shuts off your hot water. You are put into the other type of discomfort - involuntary (forced) discomfort.

See the value in voluntarily doing things that are hard? Taking a cold shower when you are forced to will be easier for you if you're used to it.

2.1. This works in general though.

If you're used to do hard things, you will become better at doing any hard thing. The opposite also applies. If you are not used to doing any hard things, it will progressively become harder and harder to do them, until basically everything is out of your comfort zone.

If a person uses AI all the time, they are not getting better at doing the things they use it for, but they are also losing the ability to use their brains. Becoming dependent (addicted) - which is a dangerous position to be in.

3. But it's not just about using your brain more.

Yes - using your brain is a benefit. But what if the option to solve things with AI suddenly disappeared? Then this benefit becomes a failsafe against the technology itself.

That is why I also want to talk about AI becoming worse over time.

Right now AI is not profitable. It is burning investors' money and showing some income, but definitely no profits for the biggest companies - OpenAI, Google, Meta and X. The way that AI from these companies works right now is not sustainable.

AI will have to start making money at some point. Let's talk about how:

3.1. How could AI make money?

For me there are two ideas that first come to mind: Advertising and Data collection.

Advertising: Let's say you are looking for a frying pan and you naturally go to ChatGPT to do your market research. Let's say Tescoma is paying OpenAI some money for advertising spots. It makes sense that the best way to advertise using AI would be to answer the prompt with "These are some good frying pans, but the best choice for you is this frying pan by Tescoma!".

This is a hypothetical scenario, but I feel undisclosed advertising could be a real threat from AI.

Data collection: Then there is data collection and this is a problem of security online overall - if you talk with AI about personal stuff, it might eventually keep tabs on you and know your occupation, problems, what are you looking for, etc.

Let's hope the EU will be here to protect us from this excessive data collection when it will matter, but this is also a threat from AI.

Would you use an AI that does this? Or is it better to have a failsafe in the form of a brain that can do anything without delegation to AI? :D

4. Closing thoughts:

I'm not trying to scare you (or myself). I wanted to show that not using AI is not only good for you, but also a way to be safe from this technology getting shittier.

Not using AI made me happy to use my brain. Made me appreciate the challenging thoughts and solving problems just by myself. It has the potential to let me truly think for myself and not be influenced by the popular opinion.

It also makes me feel good to know I could have done it in an easier way, but chose to think for myself - in a way it challenges me to do something hard just because.

I still use AI in some cases:

- Programming basic parts of applications is faster

- To use as a better Google for searching to answers for questions

But as the time flies by, I have realized something. When it comes to deep thinking, a much better choice than AI is to just take a pen and paper and write your thoughts on there. This forces you to stop and think about the problem - exactly the best headspace to realize something you would not realize otherwise.