Virtually all the “hot tips, prompt cheats,” and other insights into AI focus on saving time. We want AI to do the work for us, so we can better spend our time elsewhere. Ironically, when I ask people how they are now spending their time, they shrug their shoulders and say, “More of the same….”
We are almost exclusively focused on one metric: efficiency. We have tools that draft emails in seconds, summarize hour-long meetings in bullet points, and generate endless reports. The idea is that if AI can do the work for us, we save minutes here and there, eventually accumulating hours we can divert into more productive tasks.
But I believe “saving time” is the wrong goal entirely. In fact, it might be a trap.
When we view things like writing and thinking as mere “tasks” to be completed, we miss the underlying reality about how human cognition works. Writing is not just a mechanism for transmitting information; it is critical in generating understanding. When we outsource the work, we don’t just lose the friction of the task; we lose the cognitive benefits that come with it.
Consider the act of writing an email that stands out, managing the meetings on your calendar, or even updating a CRM. The AI “efficiency geeks” call this “drudgery” and time wasted. They offer to automate it. But in that process, it loses all meaning, to the targets of these activities and to us.
When we look at what actually happens when you write an email, we see something different. You stare at the blank screen. You force yourself to think about the person you are addressing, what has happened, what they care about, how they might react, and the response you hope to provoke.
This is what cognitive scientists call “Theory of Mind,” the ability to simulate another person’s mental state. The time you spend struggling to write is not wasted time. It is an attempt to connect with meaning, building trust and confidence. That “thinking-doing-writing” loop is where the foundation of building the relationship.
If you prompt an AI to “write a high-impact note,” you get the message instantly, and it’s probably not bad! But you bypass the internal thinking about how to most impactfully connect with someone. You have the output, but you have lost the meaning.
In research into how our brains interact with tools, psychologists distinguish between Cognitive Offloading and Cognitive Scaffolding.
Cognitive Offloading is what happens when we use a tool to skip the effort entirely. It’s the “GPS Effect,” because we no longer have to navigate, our ability to build mental maps disappears. We become slaves to “Turn left in 250 feet.” When we use AI to generate our thoughts for us, we are offloading our critical thinking. We risk losing the ability to navigate complex situations because AI is doing the thinking for us.
Cognitive Scaffolding is different. This is using a tool to support higher-order thinking, allowing us to explore things we may have never been able to do before.
This is the most important shift. We are currently using AI as a GPS (to avoid thinking), when we should be using it as a compass to set our direction, while we maintain the ability to find the most effective route.
If the point isn’t to save time, what is it? It should be to amplify the quality of our thought. And through this, magnifying the meaning and impact to those with whom we seek to engage..
Here is what that looks like in practice:
- Don’t outsource the draft. The “Generation Effect” in psychology shows that we remember and understand information better when we generate it ourselves. Write your own messy first draft. Struggle with the logic. That effort results in your brain building new neural connections.
- Use AI for the critique. Once you have done the hard work of thinking, then bring in the AI. Ask it: “What counter-arguments am I missing?” or “Where is my logic weak?” or “What metaphor would make this clearer?”
- Synthesize. Take that input and finalize what you are doing.
In this model, you aren’t saving time. In fact, you might be spending more time. But the result is not just a generic email or a bland article; it is a rigorous, pressure-tested, synthesized idea. And the impact of that extra effort and time will stand out!
This article is an example of this process. I wrote an original draft. I submitted it to Gemini, asking for a critique as well as scientific research supporting the ideas I am presenting. This is where I leveraged the ideas of Cognitive Offloading and Cognitive Scaffolding. The AI perfectly articulated the ideas I was struggling to write about.
The danger of our current AI focus is that it treats our cognitive struggle as a time waster, something that makes us inefficient. In reality, it amplifies our ability to engage others in high-impact ways.
If we let AI do the work for us, our mental capability will atrophy. Over time, our ability to understand and connect with meaning declines. While we end up with a surplus of time, we experience a deficit of meaning. The real power of this technology isn’t found in how many minutes it saves us, but in how much deeper it allows us to go.
Let the AI organize your calendar and sort your data. But when it comes to articulating who you are and what you think? Keep the friction. That’s where the humanity is.
And isn’t that what business and selling is really about, humans connecting with humans to achieve shared goals.
Afterword: Here is the AI generated discussion of this post. Again, the way they discuss this and the examples they create is fascinating. They introduce a concept of “Is it worth it?” It’s such a powerful way to think about how we use AI. Enjoy!
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