--- title: Outsourcing thinking – Erik Johannes Husom | daily.dev description: Large language models risk causing cognitive atrophy by outsourcing thinking, particularly in personal communication, knowledge building, and valuable... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/outsourcing-thinking-erik-johannes-husom-rgiczq9do twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Outsourcing thinking – Erik Johannes Husom | daily.dev og:description: Large language models risk causing cognitive atrophy by outsourcing thinking, particularly in personal communication, knowledge building, and valuable... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/outsourcing-thinking-erik-johannes-husom-rgiczq9do og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/Rgiczq9Do.png og:image:alt: Outsourcing thinking – Erik Johannes Husom og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Outsourcing thinking – Erik Johannes Husom **[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 18 min read · 2 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Large language models risk causing cognitive atrophy by outsourcing thinking, particularly in personal communication, knowledge building, and valuable experiences. While proponents argue thinking leads to more thinking, the quality and type of cognitive tasks matter significantly. Using LLMs for writing transforms meaning, prevents skill development, and breaches communication expectations. Repetitive tasks build tacit knowledge essential for expertise, similar to how jazz musicians internalize patterns through practice. The "extended mind" concept falsely equates brain processes with external computation. Society must carefully consider which human activities deserve protection from automation based on values, not just efficiency metrics. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Don't Let AI Write For You](https://daily.dev/posts/don-t-let-ai-write-for-you-vbrxr72gu) · Hacker News · 5 upvotes · 1 comments - [How Outsourcing Your Thinking is Quietly Ruining Your Mind](https://daily.dev/posts/how-outsourcing-your-thinking-is-quietly-ruining-your-mind-pqrm0qvdp) · Medium · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [AI doesn’t need to replace humans to weaken human capability](https://daily.dev/posts/ai-doesn-t-need-to-replace-humans-to-weaken-human-capability-296acecsh) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [How to keep thinking](https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-keep-thinking-ryjkkir08) · sean goedecke · 55 upvotes · 12 comments --- Tags: [#ai](https://daily.dev/tags/ai), [#automation](https://daily.dev/tags/automation), [#llm](https://daily.dev/tags/llm), [#chatgpt](https://daily.dev/tags/chatgpt), [#ethics](https://daily.dev/tags/ethics) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/outsourcing-thinking-erik-johannes-husom-rgiczq9do) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Outsourcing thinking – Erik Johannes Husom","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/outsourcing-thinking-erik-johannes-husom-rgiczq9do","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/outsourcing-thinking-erik-johannes-husom-rgiczq9do"},"datePublished":"2026-02-01T03:40:11.118Z","dateModified":"2026-02-01T03:40:37.110Z","description":"Large language models risk causing cognitive atrophy by outsourcing thinking, particularly in personal communication, knowledge building, and valuable...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--58gMhC4P--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2012","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--58gMhC4P--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2012","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Hacker News","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Hacker News","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/hn","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/outsourcing-thinking-erik-johannes-husom-rgiczq9do","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"ai,automation,llm,chatgpt,ethics","timeRequired":"PT18M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hacker News","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Outsourcing thinking – Erik Johannes Husom"}]} ```