I Realized My Head Was Empty After Asking AI Everything

“What Did You Ask AI Recently?”

I couldn’t answer that question.

I ask it multiple times a day. Yet I couldn’t recall a single thing I asked today. I couldn’t remember what’s in my personal knowledge repository or why my current directory structure exists, or even how I manage it. The final blow was realizing that the reason I adopted that structure was simply because I had “offloaded research on AI-friendly directory structures entirely to AI”—I had no memory of why it was good or why I chose it.

Cognitive Offloading

I learned about something called cognitive offloading. Cognitive offloading refers to the act of externalizing cognitive processes—basically, relying on external aids like to-do lists or shopping memos. But lately, I’ve been externalizing not just to-do lists and shopping memos, but also online articles, search results, code snippets—absolutely everything. With AI added to the mix, the cost of externalization has effectively become zero.