How useful tools augment us and make us stronger

It's bad to outsource activities that are valuable on its own (like thinking, parenting, reaching out, writing or even planning your day). -Andy Masley, the lump of cognition fallacy

Consider, for example, communication. Communication is not only about the information being exchanged; it's also about the relationship between the communicators, formed but who we are and how we express ourselves. This is also relevant to the written material that is conveyed to the larger audience.

This is why we should not outsource our communication, nor our writing to LLMs: We will melt down, become greyed-out, become average, submissive to LLMs predictive statistical model and eventually - invisible by using machine "writing" for us. We quickly lose our identity and humanity.

Using LLMs for writing is the same as using permanent training wheels on a bicycle. It prevents us for growing and learning new, better, different way of expression. A LLM soon becomes replacement instead of help, depriving us of the opportunity of discovering our own voice, and who we can be and become when we stand on our two feet.

The tool's aim is to make us stronger. LLMs are doing exactly the opposite. They are making us weaker, not stronger. What is happening with the rise of LLMs is the erosion of trust. LLMs lowered the threshold for participation, but in order to be better in writing, you need to write. Same goes for thinking.

-Inspiration from Outsourcing thinking by Eric Johannes Husom, with added thoughts and considerations

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