Pratik Ratadiya > Essays

I Miss Thinking Hard

Recently, OpenAI heard rumors that a major mathematical problem was about to be solved, and threw 10,000 AI Agents towards the problem (and a few million dollars in compute) to get the answer in less than 90 hours. Prominent mathematicians are now criticizing AI companies, stating the pursuit of a quick outcome is depriving humanity of the learnings that come from the process. While the subject is still a hot debate, it did get me thinking. These days, if I have a question, I ask my favorite LLM provider and get the answer within an instant. My CEO wants me to make a presentation deck — I go on Figma and get a preexisting template, edit a few pointers, and get applauded for my design choice. My friend wanted to reject his Hinge date, but was not sure how. He uploads their WhatsApp chat into Claude, lo and behold, a personalized message is in place. What should I have for dinner this evening? My food delivery app is preloaded with a few recommendations that I can instantly order from. Voila! For the majority of human existence over the last 10,000 years, these abilities would feel magical. For us, this is now just any other day. Access to information, opinions, or options has never been easier. Is that a net good for society? I am not sure. I miss thinking hard.

Thinking made us patient: Let’s go back a decade. Say you had to write a report on a niche topic. You either had to go to a library or start searching through the Internet for relevant artifacts. Sometimes, you could find them on the sixth page of your Google search results, or deep down in the second last paragraph of a web page, or in the seventeenth chapter of the book you had been reading through the last few hours. Giving up was not an option. You had to get the right answer. You had to be patient. Another example I am reminded of is programming. You would be scratching your head for hours stuck on that one bug, only to finally get some help in a random comment on a seven-year-old Stack OverFlow discussion. It was like a time travel into the past that you would continue till you found the right wiseman. The journey was rewarding.

Contrast this with today – AI can now answer most questions within seconds, write deep research reports within minutes, and build end-to-end applications within hours. A few seconds of delay from your chatbot can make you feel irritated. How dare it take 17 seconds to write about the irrigation systems of the Harappan civilization from 4,000 years ago! Most people go back to the same old show if they cannot figure out what to watch on Netflix within a minute or two. We don’t have to think as hard anymore for most daily tasks. But it is also making us more impatient. Attention spans are decreasing, and the lack of deep thinking is not helping us much towards this end.

Thinking made us creative: When things were not served on a platter, we had to be creative, pull out some tricks, and work around the constraints. Street smartness was necessary.

Look at parents from the previous generation. A mother could turn a spoon and cup into a toy to stop her baby from crying. Take away their iPads and YouTube, and I am not sure if 99% of parents today have a clue on how to stop those tears.

Thinking opened up unexpected pathways: When we had to work our way through things, we bumped into unexpected people, opinions, and found out about new paths and offers. A chatbot never digresses from the question, and recommendation algorithms keep the door closed for unexpected revelations. The job site algorithms show me what jobs they think I am a good fit for, unknown to my unwritten talents or aspirations. A few photos and cheesy lines are now enough to express dating interest; who has the patience to truly know a person before making the first move? All of us are like horses with their blinders on. Where is the fun in life if there is no randomness in the pursuit of the unknown?

This is not to say that access to Internet, AI, or social media is always a bad idea. It can help you get to solutions quicker. It can provide you very unique perspectives that you may not be able to find locally. It can supercharge your existing knowledge and abilities. But are most of us using it to get additional data points to bolster our own independently formed world view? Most Gen Z and Gen Alphas have started to rely on technology to shape all of their opinions, knowledge, and skills. When your fundamental view and take on a subject is built on somebody else’s hard thinking, are you truly independent in making judgements? I suspect this is one reason why mental health issues amongst teenagers are on a rise worldwide. They rarely have to wait patiently to get what they want, or be creative and go out of their comfort zone to get something. When reality strikes hard, they learn it the hard way.

I think we should continue to use technology to automate the mundane. But we should still shape and be in control of the creativity to explore new frontiers, the art of interacting with fellow humans, the efforts to keep someone happy, and the independent thought needed to shape our own future. If the Internet tells us how to think, an algorithm shapes our opinions, and a chatbot gives us instant gratification, we will soon start to run out of patience and creativity. The brain needs exercising to stay fresh. Everyone is running those ten thousand steps and counting those calories. Are we doing enough for our brains? Maybe that's what those mathematicians and all of us will really be mourning.

P.S. A few random musings when writing this essay

What do you think?