{"slug": "cognitive-crutches", "title": "Cognitive Crutches", "summary": "Justin Math's blog post argues that learning tools such as hints, worked examples, notes, and AI should be designed to become unnecessary, warning that over-reliance turns them into 'cognitive crutches' that prevent independent problem-solving. The post, which is an AI-assisted teaser for the author's manual writing, emphasizes that the goal of any learning tool is to build strength and independence, not permanent dependence.", "body_md": "# Cognitive Crutches\n\n*(Note: This is an AI-assisted teaser for my prior manual writing. If you like it and want to read more details about this topic/perspective, then check out my 100% manually-written blog and books!)*\n\n*Want to get notified about new posts? Join the mailing list and follow on X/Twitter.*\n\nCrutches are meant to help you walk again.\n\nNot to become the only way that you can walk.\n\nLearning tools should work exactly the same way.\n\nWhether it’s hints, worked examples, notes, or AI.\n\nThese things are meant to help you become independent.\n\nThe goal of every learning tool should be to eventually make itself unnecessary, not to make you permanently dependent on it.\n\nIf you never become able to solve problems without them, they’re no longer helping you build up your strength.\n\nThey’ve just become cognitive crutches.\n\n*Here are the 100% manually-written long-forms that this teaser is distilled from, if you want to dive deeper:*\n\n[Who Needs Worked Examples? You, Eventually.](https://justinmath.com/who-needs-worked-examples-you-eventually/)[Leveraging Cognitive Learning Strategies Requires Technology](https://justinmath.com/leveraging-cognitive-learning-strategies-requires-technology/)\n\n*Want to get notified about new posts? Join the mailing list and follow on X/Twitter.*", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/cognitive-crutches", "canonical_source": "https://justinmath.com/cognitive-crutches/", "published_at": "2026-08-17 07:00:00+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-24 03:43:34.469484+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence"], "entities": ["Justin Math"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/cognitive-crutches", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/cognitive-crutches.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/cognitive-crutches.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/cognitive-crutches.jsonld"}}