On Cognitive Debt

Old and busted...

This weekend, we replaced our backyard door. I had never replaced a door before this weekend. I have done consecutively more ambitious DIY construction projects like this and we needed this done. And the budget for a job like this drastically drops if you try to do it yourself.

... and new hotness.

While I was working on it, one of my kids was absolutely surprised that I was doing it. He's seen me do other projects, but gaping at the big hole where the door once was he said that he didn't know that I could do construction work. I told him that, not only could we do construction work - we could do whatever we wanted.

I've wrestled with what I call "neoliberal brain" - a remnant of living in a neoliberal society that told me that if I sorted my plastic bottles into recycle cans I could save the world; I naively watched private corporations dismantle public services and further silo ourselves as third-spaces got bought, sold, and monetized. I was a part of a society that looked at things like "home ec," "shop class," and general DIY and laughed at it as a relic of an older time. It helps that with computers things get generally more difficult to fix. I have a vehicle made in the last five years and its a legit pain in the ass just to change the oil - and I've replaced an alternator on a truck.

This is an era where fixing things isn't just naturally becoming harder - farmers have had to fight John Deere on the right to repair their own tractors. It's only after a recent push for this that Apple has decided to act as the good guy and support right to repair in recent years. The very idea of being able to take care of your own devices, your own equipment, your own house slip further and further away. While there may be a natural decline in figuring out how things work as they get more complicated, there is certainly dark design at hand.

That's where we get onto the idea of "cognitive debt." I first saw it referenced when talking about the cognitive decline individuals that use generative AI suffer - they get less interested in finding a solution for themselves. I know I've been guilty of this same process - I'm trying to just get a javascript framework working and I don't care how so I'm just blindly following whatever process I find on Stack Overflow. If I had started in the tech industry nowadays, I would definitely fall for the siren call of Claude and just slip into the abyss. At least with Stack Overflow there was reinforcement from individuals confirming whether something was correct or not, and even then I was likely to still poke around for a few answers, look for a blog that does some explanation.

When I replaced my dishwasher - because we just didn't have the money for someone else to do it - my mom was absolutely flummoxed that I had done it. Less of the fact that it was me that did it and more that it was not a professional. By replacing the dishwasher, I was more ready to replace my garbage disposal unit. Now I have a solid understanding how my sink works. This is an understanding I can take when fixing other sinks in my house or for other folks.

I've messed up along the way - I needed to figure out a way to drill a hole in the stainless steel sink because I needed to add a spot for the air gap for the dishwasher. We also initially installed the sliding doors upside down. It gave me more work in the long run but these little things are palpable reminders for me to ensure that I pay attention every step of the process of creation or maintenance - to stay curious and attentive.

The "neoliberal brain" tells me to trust the capitalist systems: it's okay that I don't know how to repair any device that I own - and that I actually don't own them, I'm simply renting everything. That's for the best. Trust how Google Maps is directing me under this bridge that happens to be too short for my truck, trust ChatGPT's advice on how to compose this article, trust autocorrect that "oneiric" and "ziggurat" aren't words anymore.

Cognitive debt is the concept of losing that curiosity and attention to detail so that when things don't look right, you stop trusting your gut and give your trust to the machine. It's a weird windy road from replacing my own door to here - but my gut told me I could do this. Generative AI has a caustic effect on the cognition of people - DIY has a nurturing effect. I see how things are connected more, be it in my house or in my code or in my art.