A bit of psychology on our geopolitics, world affairs and finance website
AI is very helpful. But if we rely on it completely and choose everything, for our homework, for our work, whether as a student, journalist or investor with the help of Chat GPT or DeepSeek, this impairs our intelligence, because we thereby renounce our cognitive abilities, we become cognitively indebted to AI and become addicted to the machine answers. We gain short-term convenience with AI and lose intellectual capacity in the long term.
The calculator would have done the same thing to us back in the day: nowadays, only a few people can calculate quickly in their heads – most of them immediately open a corresponding app on their smartphone. What a pity. The same happens with our muscles: cars, escalators, electric bicycles and similar wonderful achievements make us quasi-disabled.
Social networks play a particularly important role in the decline of cognitive functions in young people and adults. You could say that this has led to cognitive debt spiraling out of control for many people:
① scrolling has replaced reflection. Content is digested quickly and without in-depth processing;
② algorithms decide what a person sees, what we think and what we remember;
③ the constant switching between different stimuli weakens the ability to concentrate;
④ poor memory – the content of social media is fleeting and the brain cannot make deep connections between information items;
⑤ independent thinking disappears – instead of forming your own opinion, you reproduce someone else’s opinion.
Cognitive debt does not have to be negative if it is managed sensibly and consciously. Managing cognitive debt is about restoring the balance between technological convenience and an active mind. It’s not about fighting technology – it’s about consciously using it to avoid losing your cognitive abilities. The keys are:
① the balance between the use of AI tools and active thinking;
② practicing cognitive functions despite the availability of artificial intelligence technologies;
③ reflecting on what we delegate to AI and why.
Examples for investors:
① instead of analyzing a company’s quarterly report yourself, use an AI that instantly summarizes the data most important to you. It’s convenient, but can undermine your ability to draw financial conclusions and see nuances.
② instead of relying on ready-made data (e.g. with Gurufocus.com) for a company, calculate it yourself: P/E (price earnings ratio) ROE (return on equity). This will strengthen your financial memory and show what is really behind “attractive indicators”.
③ instead of relying on the ready-made report from analysts’ websites that summarize CPI inflation reports etc., read such a report yourself and then create your own report manually: What has changed in the data? What could be the implications for the market?
④ you use an AI tool that recommends buying a technology company. The reason? “High growth rates, positive market sentiment, attractive P/E ratio.” Instead of blindly clicking “buy”, stop and ask yourself questions: What does “positive sentiment” actually mean?” Do I know where the P/E ratio comes from and is it really low in this sector? With these questions, you will start to deepen the analysis: read the company’s financial report, compare it with competitors, evaluate the market dynamics. Essentially, you will make a more informed decision and perhaps even reject the AI recommendation as too superficial
⑤ let’s say you look at an investment platform 20 times a day – checking price changes, alerts and analyst commentary. Each click gives you a dopamine injection: “I’ve gained 1%, I’m on the right track!” Then challenge yourself. In 5 days: don’t enter the investment platform, don’t read AI analysis, don’t react to market alerts. Instead: Read a report or article carefully. Write down the most important things. Think about whether what you have done can influence your investment.
Essentially, this is how you restore cognitive control instead of impulsive solutions. You learn patience, start to plan ahead. This is what proper investing and many other aspects of life are all about.
