The Offloaded Mind · 5 minutes
Work with AI. Think for yourself.
An example, a comparison of the order and three habits for your next task.
Roger Basler de Roca · As of: October 2026
TEDxSchaan talk
How small Language Models in AI could reform Education
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For example: preparing a decision
Here is how the three steps can apply to your own task. This is a practical example, not a study finding.
1
Your idea first
Write down which solution you prefer and why.
2
AI as a challenger
Ask: "What are the weaknesses in my reasoning? Which alternative am I overlooking?"
3
Your judgement last
Check the suggestions and decide for yourself. Write down why you adopt or reject something.
Who thinks first? Order in the experiments
Pick a workflow and see how, according to the studies, it affects the result, unaided performance afterwards and memory of your own work.
- KI
AI generates
- M
Human adopts
- KI
AI text stays
Faster and visibly better. Afterwards these people argued more weakly without AI than the no-AI group (−0.38 points), and those who wrote with an LLM could hardly quote their own texts correctly.
Schematic illustration, not measured data. Bars show directions from the cited studies, not their effect sizes. Effects were measured short term, mostly within one session.
Work WITH AI, not BY AI
AI can do some of the work for you. To keep learning yourself, how you use it matters: think first, then ask the AI and check its answer.
1
Input competence
What you put in
Before the AI produces something, you produce something.
In practice
- Two minutes before the prompt: sketch your own answer, even if it is incomplete.
- Note your criteria: how will I recognise a good result?
- Decide which categories of work go to AI and which deliberately do not.
- Reinvest the time saved: question assumptions, test arguments.
2
Dialogue competence
How you work with the machine
Let the AI push back instead of letting it deliver.
In practice
- Structure prompts with GCES: goal, context, format, source.
- Ask the AI specifically for weaknesses in your own position.
- Request explanations and reasoning instead of finished solutions.
- Treat time pressure as a warning sign: under pressure, people delegate more than is good for them.
3
Review competence
What you adopt
Adopt only what you can justify and defend without the machine.
In practice
- Justify every adoption in one sentence.
- Check AI output with HALT: origin, omission, logic, factual core.
- The no-screen test: could I explain and defend the result in a meeting?
- Watch for uniformity: does the result sound like everything else?
Do you work WITH or BY AI?
Statement 1 of 6
Before I ask AI, I have a first answer of my own in my head or on paper.
A reflection aid, not a scientific measurement instrument. No data is stored.
Questions and terms
What is cognitive offloading?
Cognitive offloading is handing mental work to tools, media or other people to relieve working memory. Calendars, calculators and search engines are classic examples.
What is different about generative AI?
Earlier tools stored information. Generative AI produces the thinking itself: the argument, the analysis, the decision paper. That moves outward exactly the work through which competence is built.
What is the performance paradox?
Performance with AI rises immediately and visibly, while the ability without AI can decline at the same time. This only shows later, when the tool is missing.
Does AI make us dumber?
Research now asks less whether and more how. Order matters: people who first commit to their own position and then use AI as a checker lose nothing in the following task without AI. People who adopt AI answers directly lose measurably.
What does "Work WITH AI, not BY AI" mean?
Working with AI means: your own position first, AI provides counter-arguments instead of solutions, and you only adopt what you can justify. The yardstick is what you can do afterwards without AI.
What is the three-pillar model?
It describes three competences: data competence (what you put in), dialogue competence (how you work with the machine) and verification competence (what you adopt).
What can leaders do?
The most effective interventions in the experiments were built-in friction rather than appeals: for example a lock that releases AI only after you state your own position, or a requirement to justify every adoption.
Is the self-check scientifically validated?
No. The self-check is a reflection aid, not a scientific measurement instrument. It runs locally in your browser and no data is stored.
What is still open?
Hardly any study measures over months whether the effects last. It is also open which mechanism is at work and whether the findings apply to vocational training, since most samples come from universities.