The Mind Still Needs Friction
A short Authbition episode about outtakes, cognitive offloading, GPS, AI, and trying not to outsource my mind
This week’s episode of Authbition is a short one.
I only embarrass myself twice.
Once in the first minute.
The second one?
Wait for it.
I recorded the opening while I was out on a Saturday morning bike ride. I thought I might stop somewhere in nature, maybe near Umstead Park, and record there. Instead, I rode through NC State’s Centennial Campus and found the engineering quad almost completely empty.
It was graduation weekend. It was Mother’s Day weekend. The campus was quiet in that strange and beautiful way a place becomes quiet when it’s usually full of motion. I spent 12 years of my life there as a professor, from 2006 to 2018, so stopping on that quad felt less like finding a convenient place to film and more like being pulled into a moment.
I had a new microphone setup with me, which was part of the reason I stopped. I wanted to test whether I could record on the move, outside the normal home setup, in the middle of real life. That’s part of what I’m trying to figure out with Authbition right now. Not just what the show is, but how it wants to live.
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This episode also came from listener feedback.
I’ve heard a few things lately that matter. People have asked me to spend more time opening the show properly. They’ve asked me to read more of my own essays again. And they’ve asked when I’m going to monetize Authbition.
The first two shaped this episode. The third is still coming, but not by simply turning on ads. That doesn’t feel right for what this is becoming. Authbition is not only a podcast to me. It’s a movement, a brand, and eventually, I hope, a team of people building something meaningful together.
So for this episode, I returned to one of the original roots of the show: reading one of my own essays out loud.
The essay is called “The Biggest Criminal of Your Mind Is in Your Pocket.” I wrote it early one morning while Abby and I were camping in our Airstream near George Washington National Forest. It’s about cognitive offloading, GPS, smartphones, AI, memory, brain health, and the quiet ways convenience can weaken skills we may not notice we’re losing.
The subject is serious, but I wanted the essay to have some bite. Maybe even some humor. Before submitting it, I read it aloud to Abby because I wasn’t sure whether it was funny, sharp, or just too judgmental. That little behind-the-scenes moment made its way into the episode, too.
The bigger question in the essay is not whether technology is useful.
Of course it is.
I use technology every day. I used technology to record this episode from a bike ride. I use technology to publish, edit, distribute, write, organize, and build Authbition. I’m not trying to pretend I live in some pure analog world.
The question is whether I’m using technology after building the underlying human capability, or whether I’m letting the tool replace the skill before my brain ever gets the chance to grow.
That distinction matters to me.
GPS can help me get somewhere faster, but it can also keep me from building the map in my mind. A calculator can save time, but it can also keep me from practicing number sense. AI can support creativity, but it can also become a substitute for struggle, memory, discernment, and original thought.
I keep coming back to this tension:
Useful Technology <> Human Capability
I don’t want to reject the tool. I also don’t want to surrender the human being using it.
That feels especially important now, as AI becomes more normal, more powerful, and more embedded in daily life. AI did not invent cognitive offloading. Calculators, computers, CAD systems, GPS, and smartphones have been training us for this moment for decades. AI may simply be the most sophisticated version of a pattern that was already underway.
The body still needs movement. The mind still needs friction. Memory still needs use. Creativity still needs practice. Navigation still needs attention.
The tricky part is that I can see physical atrophy in the mirror. I can notice when my body gets stiff or weak. The brain is different. I don’t see cognitive atrophy when I brush my teeth in the morning. I don’t see the map in my mind shrinking. I don’t see the memory muscles softening.
So I’m trying to practice while I still can.
Turn off GPS sometimes. Calculate the tip in my head. Remember a phone number. Draw by hand. Play guitar. Walk without a plan. Get lost in the woods.
Not because technology is bad.
Because my brain is worth training.
Read the original essay on Medium for free with this friend link:
The Biggest Criminal of Your Mind Is in Your Pocket
Thank you for reading and listening.
Health, happiness, kindness, respect
for every being and all things.
— Andrew
