Is AI Making Me Lazy?

AI’s Doing the Work—But Who Is Doing the Thinking?

Lately, I've noticed something interesting—not just in my own work but also among friends and colleagues. AI tools like GPT-4, Claude, and Cursor have quickly become part of our daily workflow. They're amazing at drafting emails, debugging code, brainstorming ideas, and a ton more, all within seconds. It genuinely feels like we've acquired a superpower.

But here's the question: am I getting so used to AI's effortless solutions that I'm putting less effort into thinking deeply myself—and just settling for whatever average answer it gives me?

The Temptation of Easy Answers

I've caught myself repeatedly deferring to AI in situations where I usually would have tackled the task directly. Bug in my code? Paste the stack trace into AI and wait. Need a creative product name or a marketing angle? Just ask the AI. Often, the answers I get back are "good enough," and I move on without giving it much thought.

The problem? "Good enough" often isn't. I've lost count of the times I've spent twenty minutes wrestling with an AI tool, only to realize later that a focused 5–15 minute effort of my own would have solved the problem better and faster. Friends have shared similar experiences—especially with creative tasks—ending up with generic or uninspired outcomes because the AI was simply limited by its data.

Even worse, given its amazing results, there's a pull to accept AI's output as the definitive answer. I may ask AI to brainstorm Go-To-Market ideas and feel the urge to assume its response covers everything relevant. This issue intensifies with "Deep Research" implementations that give me the illusion of comprehensive analysis, as though weeks of meticulous research—with dozens of sources listed—have occurred instantly. It's extremely tempting to fully trust these responses as complete solutions. But in reality, they usually represent just one piece of the puzzle—often filled with inaccuracies and blind spots, hidden behind a mountain of data and a polished, confident tone.

The Hidden Cost of Overreliance

AI is brilliant at recognizing patterns and generating results quickly, which masks its limitations. Initially, its outputs feel incredibly impressive—like when I ask it to write a children's story, and the first few seem delightful. But the more I use it, the more I start to see the same predictable structure: introduction, conflict, cute resolution. What once felt fresh quickly becomes formulaic. And genuine creativity—those truly unique ideas and fresh insights—starts to fade into the background.

If I continually prioritize convenience over depth, do I risk diluting my creativity, ultimately converging on average, uninspired outcomes?

And long term, what happens if I keep handing off too much? Will I forget how to think deeply, solve complex problems, or create from scratch—becoming a passive recipient of AI output? Or will this shift free me up to operate at higher levels, the way calculators liberated humans from long division and let us focus on more meaningful math?

I’m genuinely torn. Underneath the convenience, I feel a quiet unease—a sense that my creative and analytical muscles are atrophying every time I outsource something I used to wrestle with myself.

When To Ask Your Brain

The solution I'm striving for now is to treat AI like a junior remote contractor—great for straightforward, clearly defined tasks where I act as the technical architect and product manager. And for more complex or creative challenges, to treat it like a smart colleague: someone to bounce ideas off, not someone whose answers I blindly accept.

When things start to feel stuck or just slightly off, instead of taking the easy road of asking GPT yet again, I need to get better at stepping back and Asking My Brain—tapping into my own insight, instincts, and experience. It’s the AI-era equivalent of "Touch Grass." Omniscient AI hasn’t taken over the world (just yet), and the most creative and exceptional results often lie outside the bounds of what the models were trained on.

I do believe the net benefits of AI will far outweigh the costs. But it is not going to be a free ride. Because the real danger may not be that AI will replace our minds—it’s that we’ll stop using them.

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Over the past year, I’ve been fully living in the AI-rena—building AI-products at warp speed with tools like Claude Code and Cursor, and watching the space evolve daily. I’ve used these tools to (in the last 6 months) develop:

• 🧠 Betsee.xyz: a prediction market aggregator that can even tell you prediction markets based on tweets.

• 📝 TellMel.ai: an empathetic personal biographer to share life stories and lessons

• 📞 GetMaxHelp.com: a family-powered tech support line powered by AI and voice

• 💬 YipYap.xyz: a thread-based community chat app

As I build and grow these products, I've sharing my experiences. Subscribe or follow me on X at @imcharliegraham

reposted from iamcharliegraham.com