The Hidden Cost of Convenience: Why People Are Choosing Friction Again in the AI Era
_jaydeepkarale · x · 2026-09-12
The author observes a counterintuitive trend as AI removes more cognitive effort: people are deliberately choosing the hard way again—reading physical books instead of summaries, deleting social media, avoiding phones in the morning, walking without headphones, and allowing themselves to be bored.
The core argument: some forms of friction aren't problems to be eliminated—they're exercises that keep us capable. Just as people compensated for removed physical labor with gyms, we may need deliberate cognitive exercise to preserve memory, attention, and thinking skills that AI increasingly handles for us. It's a more fundamental reframing than a simple anti-technology backlash.
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