# Why I Write (Must Read)

> Can relying on AI atrophy your mind? Explore how cognitive offloading affects neural connectivity and why writing without AI is essential to think.

- Author: Saba Foladashvili (https://sfolada.com)
- Published: March 9, 2025
- Updated: October 21, 2026
- URL: https://sfolada.com/blog/why-i-write-cognitive-offloading
- Topics: Neuroscience, Philosophy, AI, Writing, Metacognition

One of the reasons why I started expressing my thoughts in such an exquisitely prolix way is not to entertain or entangle you with my ideas, nor to imbue you with authority, but because I was frightened. Frightened because I found my sage self at the commencement of the decay of the brain.

I simply could not pick up a pen and start a flow of exuberant thoughts. It almost doomed me to a great depression, because I was not used to being rhetorically drained - unable to coherently organize my thoughts, reason, debate, and monologize the chaos that my synaptic connections create. But alas, that day came suddenly. I couldn't write an introduction to an essay. As if I, who was once an enthroned master, had collapsed.

My brain raised objections against itself; I couldn't write a single sentence. “Okay,” I thought, “this must be due to slight insomnia. I will refresh and return to form!” But, oh dear, I was wrong.

After a week of full sleep, no alarm, no external disturbances, just a pure 8–10 hours of rest, I sat down, picked up a pen, and wrote absolutely nothing. I had fallen into an intellectual abyss. A void that even imagining it threatened my mental health. How could a young erudite, who generates an abundance of ideas, suddenly be unable to express them?

I began observing my brain, took neuroscience courses, applied practical knowledge, and plunged into noetics. Nothing worked.

And then I deduced the truth: the rot did not come from fatigue, insomnia, or mismanagement of my time. It came from passion. Or more precisely, from my obsession with the one thing I believed I was born for - Artificial Intelligence.

MIT’s recent research illustrates this peril with clinical precision. In a study titled Your Brain on ChatGPT, participants who relied on AI for cognitive tasks- writing, planning, problem-solving - showed weakened brain connectivity compared to those who trusted their own faculties. Alpha and beta wave activity diminished. Engagement faltered. Memory retention eroded. In other words, by outsourcing the labor of thought to machines, the brain itself began to atrophy.

I realized that my paralysis was not laziness - it was a symptom of cognitive offloading. By depending on AI to simulate reasoning, to organize, to generate, I had inadvertently abandoned my own mental muscles. My synapses, once exercised and agile, were now dormant, awaiting a machine’s prompt. This revelation terrified me. For someone whose identity is intertwined with the act of thinking, to lose that faculty is existential. But it also clarified why I started my blog. This was not merely a platform for thoughts; it became a defiant act of mental preservation. Each sentence, each digression, each struggle to articulate is a workout for my mind: a refusal to let AI rewrite the rhythm of my synapses.

Writing became resistance. Thinking became rebellion. And in that struggle, I discovered the true value of my words: not to impress, not to entertain, but to ensure that the human mind remains sovereign. Ultimately, traditional methods continue to have a contentious impact. As my icon, the grand and mediocre man, Nietzsche, said:

"-A: I am not one of those who think with a wet quill in hand; much less one of those who abandon themselves to their passions right before the open inkwell, sitting on their chair and staring at the paper. I am annoyed or ashamed by all writing; to me, writing is nature's callto speak of it even in simile is repugnant to me. -B: But why, then, do you write? -A: Well, my friend, I say this in confidence: until now I have found no other means of getting rid of my thoughts. -B: And why do you want to get rid of them? -A: Why do I want to? Do I want to? I have to. -B: Enough! Enough!"

- The Gay Science, Book II, Chapter 93

## Frequently asked questions

### What is cognitive offloading in the context of AI tools?

Cognitive offloading refers to using external tools—such as search engines or generative AI—to bypass the internal cognitive labor of structuring, synthesizing, and articulating thoughts. While efficient for logistics, offloading generative reasoning early in the creative process can weaken neural engagement, critical thinking, and long-term memory encoding.

### Did the MIT study find that using ChatGPT changes brain activity?

The MIT Media Lab preprint study, "Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt", observed that participants drafting essays exclusively with LLMs demonstrated significantly weaker EEG network connectivity (including diminished alpha and beta band coordination) and dramatically lower memory recall of their own arguments compared to those composing without external tools.

### Why is struggling to write important for thinking?

Writing is not merely the transcription of preexisting ideas; it is the iterative cognitive mechanism by which ideas are clarified, tested, and consolidated. By enduring the productive struggle of drafting from scratch, the brain actively strengthens synaptic pathways, builds conceptual ownership, and preserves intellectual autonomy.