So Much Noise
What AI, Easy Answers, and Lazy Brain Are Quietly Costing You.
My father taught me to read a road map.
We were traveling from South Carolina to visit my grandmother in North Carolina and he walked me through it. Odd numbered interstates run north and south. Even numbered routes run east and west. Pay attention to the road signs to know where you are. You have to think to reach your destination.
That was the standard in our home. If I asked for the definition of a word, I was told to look it up in the dictionary. If I needed facts, they led me to the Encyclopedia. Independent thought and problem solving were not suggestions. They were values.
I have carried those values my entire life. And lately I have been thinking about what it costs us when we stop.
One day after school I quizzed my middle daughter on how to get home. She could not tell me. It was not that she lacked the ability. She simply did not pay attention because she never needed to. When pressed, she resisted. She did not want to think.
I called it Lazy Brain.
So I started training her. Road signs. Directions. Paying attention to where she was and how she got there. Before long she could direct our route to and from school. Now she navigates us on vacations. By foot or by car. By land or by sea. She finds her way around the United States, Asia, and Europe as she travels the world.
Thinking for yourself opens up a world of possibilities that relying solely on tools will rob you of.
I was skeptical of GPS when it first appeared. Not because the technology was not useful but because I understood the long-term ramifications of this machine thinking for me. So I proceeded with caution. I scanned the route ahead. I took screenshots of the turn by turn instructions. I stayed aware of alternative routes. The tool served me. I did not serve it.
Not everyone takes that approach.
When I was majority owner, managing partner, and President of a wheelchair transportation company, I watched my drivers take longer routes because the GPS told them to. What made it so confounding was that these were natives of the area. They knew better. But they followed the GPS anyway without thinking. Without questioning. Without using their own knowledge.
Those memories stayed with me and I now have the same concerns with AI.
There is so much noise out there telling you who to be and how to move, it gets difficult to find your own way. There is a growing belief that if you do not use AI in all its capabilities you will be left behind. The fear creates anxiousness and leads to compliance. People are blindly accepting what AI produces as truth. Trusting it has been fully vetted. Relying on it as the authority.
And so people are no longer writing their own work. AI does it. No need to read deeply. AI will summarize. No need to think through a problem. AI has a solution waiting. With so much coming at you, it’s easier to rely on tools and let your brain rest. But at what cost?
Continue feeding the beast while draining the natural resources we were given? Or choose another path forward?
There has to be a balance.
Here is what I know to be true. Anything designed to make life easier that simultaneously diminishes your capacity to think critically is not in your best interest. Yes, the convenience is real. And the cost is real too.
When focused attention is no longer valued, the ability to make clear decisions erodes. Living with purpose becomes harder to access. And life begins to feel foggy in a way you cannot quite explain.
That fog has a source.
People near and far will attempt to make you doubt your own knowing to advance their agenda. Tools will offer you ease in exchange for your independence. Be wise. Use what serves your long term purpose and release what quietly drains it.
Pay attention to your emotions as a warning system. Your intuition as a navigation tool more sophisticated than any GPS ever built. Your body holds data that no algorithm can access. And your mind when exercised and trusted is the source of the clarity, purpose, and impact you were created to produce.
Your brilliance is not in the tool. It is in you. Stay vigilant. That is how you quiet the noise.