{"slug": "the-strain-in-your-brain", "title": "The strain in your brain", "summary": "A programmer reflects on the loss of cognitive strain when reading AI-generated code or summaries, arguing that AI trades metacognition for speed and that deliberate practice—such as handwriting and coding without AI—is needed to maintain mental sharpness.", "body_md": "# The strain in your brain\n\n## Do you feel it?\n\nDo you remember the feeling? You’re reading something: something new and complex. And you’re really trying—pushing through that strain in your brain. Do you feel that anymore?\n\nIt’s a strange thing. As a programmer, it was *that* feeling that signalled to\nme that I was learning something new. When the strain dissipated, I came out\nthe other side afresh with new knowledge.\n\nWriting code pre-AI gave me that feeling. Reading the docs, or oftentimes the\nsource code of another project led to that tension. Finally figuring out how to\nwire everything right and make it *work* was cathartic. It was never really\nabout *writing the code* anyway—*reading* and forming that mental model was\nthe hard part.\n\nI recall studying the [Double\nRachet](https://signal.org/docs/specifications/doubleratchet/) algorithm\nbecause I *really* wanted to understand the Signal Protocol. I must’ve spent\ntwo days on that page. Reading, re-reading. Every time pushing past that strain\nin the brain, only to be met with it again. I grokked it eventually, and I can\nstill mostly recollect it.\n\nReading LLM-written code or a summarized document doesn’t feel the same anymore. It’s still reading, but without the strain in the brain. It’s done the churning for me. It’s pre-chewed, I just need to swallow it.\n\nSo why do this? Why subject ourselves to cognitive decline? Is it even cognitive decline? Some studies claim so, and some don’t—the jury is still out. Perhaps with every new technological advancement, we must trade a portion of our human ability.\n\nWith AI, we trade our (meta)cognition for speed. Doing things the *hard* way\ntakes time. In this business, time is measured by how fast everyone around you\nis going. And I think it’s fine—we’re clearly progressing.\n\nPersonally, I’ve been slowly bringing that feeling back by taking notes on\npaper and writing without AI. [Writing by hand is good for your\nbrain](https://nealstephenson.substack.com/p/writing-by-hand-is-good-for-your). 1\nI’m also going to try writing code by hand for side-projects. I do fear for\nthose who haven’t written code (or prose) by hand before.\n\nThis is the new normal; much like how we’ve fenced off time from our weeks to hit the gym, we just have to hit the brain gym every so often.\n\nPerhaps not yet with a fountain pen, but I do miss using one way back in fifth grade!\n\n[↩︎](#fnref:1)", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-strain-in-your-brain", "canonical_source": "https://anirudh.fi/strain", "published_at": "2026-07-29 20:22:39+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-29 21:24:59.006302+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-ethics"], "entities": [], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-strain-in-your-brain", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-strain-in-your-brain.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-strain-in-your-brain.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-strain-in-your-brain.jsonld"}}