But the law of diminishing returns doesn't just apply to economics, it's a mental model that can apply to

Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/ArRdS

#MentalModel #DiminishingReturns

Software #Developers Say #AI Is Rotting Their Brains

by Emanuel Maiberg, May 13, 2026

Excerpt: "The developers I talked to found AI useful for some tasks. Several developers said that it was good for experimentation, allowing them to quickly prototype an idea or to implement something in a domain they’re unfamiliar with. One developer said it was a good information interface. Specifically, he said, the AI helped him find where on the server a certain request is handled, summarize logs, or find documentation related to code changes.

"The problem all the developers I talked to agreed on is that the more they relied on AI to code, the more the skills they’ve honed for years deteriorated. This is by now a well studied phenomenon sometimes referred to as '#CognitiveDebt' or '#CognitiveAtrophy.' The idea is that people who use AI to automate certain parts of their job lose the ability to do those tasks well, therefore #DeSkilling themselves.

" 'I had some issues where I forgot how to implement a Laravel API and it scared the shit out of me. I went to university for this, I've been a software engineer for many years now and it feels like I am back before I ever wrote a single line of code,' the software developer at a small web design firm told me.

" 'It's making me dumber for sure,' the fintech software developer told me. “It's like when we got #cellphones and stopped remembering phone numbers, but it's grown to me mentally outsourcing ‘thinking’ in general. I feel my critical thinking and ability to sit and reason about a problem or a design has degraded because the all-knowing-dalai-llama is just a question away from giving me his take. And supposedly I tell myself ill just use it for inspiration but it ends up being my only thought. It gives you the illusion of productivity and expertise but at the end of the day you are more divorced from the output you submit than before.'

" 'When I was using it for code generation, I found myself having a lot of trouble building and maintaining a #MentalModel of the code I was working with,' the software engineer at the FAANG told me. 'Another aspect is that I joined late last year and [the company’s] codebase is massive. As a new hire, part of my job is to learn how to navigate the codebase and use the established conventions, but I think the AI push really hampered my ability to do that. '"

Read more:
https://www.404media.co/software-developers-say-ai-is-rotting-their-brains/

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/2vjJm

#AISucks #DumbingUsDown #BrainRot #AIBrainRot #MentalMaps #CriticalThinkingSkills #UseYourBrain #UseItOrLoseIt

"Don't mistake legibility for communication."

#design #mentalmodel

https://www.ted.com/talks/david_carson_design_and_discovery

So here’s to all of us finding those little 1% opportunities and giving future us a reason to smile.

Read the full article: Future Brent – A Mental Model: A 1% Nudge Toward a Kinder Tomorrow
▸ https://lttr.ai/AprIM

#1%Improvement #MentalModel

That means creating flexibility and space so that future Brent has more choices and less friction.

Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/ApBa4

#1%Improvement #MentalModel

And right now, as I chat with you, I'm out on a walk—because a little fresh air is a gift to future Brent’s health and mood.

Read the full article: Future Brent – A Mental Model: A 1% Nudge Toward a Kinder Tomorrow
▸ https://lttr.ai/Ao1wY

#1%Improvement #MentalModel

That little investment meant that future mornings were smoother and simpler—future Brent didn’t have to wrestle with a mountain of clothes.

Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/AozMK

#1%Improvement #MentalModel

Let me share with you a little mental model I like to call “Future Brent.” Every time I have a sliver of free time, I ask, “What can I do right now that will make things a little easier for future Brent?”

Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/Aooqa

#1%Improvement #MentalModel

Recently I've been thinking a lot about early optimization and over engineered. Maybe I just need to embrace the chaos. Instead of making everything fine, I should try to make everything works.

#LearnInPublic #MentalModel

#Wrike seems to have more #ProjectManagement features than Trello, but it overwhelms a novice—too many views, options, and settings in many places. Wrike insists I need a "Personal" project. (I really don't.) The #MentalModel of its Projects and Folders is unclear. Wrike's online chatbot hallucinated wrong pricing for me—a potential customer. 😥

#Trello is familiar, with simple, elegant, and useful interaction. Its templates quickly spin up a #Kanban #board for a new #software or #IT #project. 🩵