Do you use a calculator?

I ask AI to avoid all the AI slop search results I’d have to sift through when I could get my slop delivered directly.

Slide rule

I do something similar except I’ll stop using my GPS if I’ve driven the route multiple times.

I think that is a good compromise, or maybe doing it just for your own local area and regular commute routes.

While I get the appeal in general, I don't know if I want to go back to planning out a route with maps when driving to far-away unfamiliar locations.

Roads trips I'm willing to compromise on, but not my home city. That's the one place I should know like the back of my hand.

I usually try doing it in my head first. I use paper if it is available. I use a calculator when I don't have time, or fail at the first two steps.

I noticed my number skills were deteriorating without proper use, and I found that alarming. I'm still weaker than I used to be, but not as bad as I was.

It's just important to think for ones self when one can. The brain is a muscle that atrophies without use.

"EEG" on "AI"? I heard you like pseudo-science, so I put extra pseudo-science in your pseudo-science, dawg!!!

Maybe you number skills are fading because you waste your time and energy on pointless computations. Maybe they just fade with time...

The brain is a muscle that atrophies without use.

This is anti-scientific. But again I don't think doing multiplication problems is really going to help anything.

Are you referring to the AI search results? If so, I've fallen into a similar strategy. I'll search for something, usuaply how to do something then read the AI result. If it's what I'm looking for, then I'll click through to the referenced articles. The AI result is usually too vague. Part of my problem is probably bad searching skills on my part. I'll often find what I'm looking for way down the first page or sometimes the second page of results. The AI cuts through that searching page after page or tells me that I need to change my search terms.

Depends on the complexity of the route. When I visit my parents in another city (5-6 hour drive) I write down the intersections/exit numbers to look out for on a sticky note I leave on the dashboard.

I guess if you wanted to get detailed you could include the distance then as you drive do the mental math as an activity for yourself.

Although it's easy to "create" pseudo-science with EEG data, the presence of EEG by itself does not mean straight pseudo-science. It can be used correctly, and it's actively used in the medical field to detect brain diseases, for example.

*That said, I'm not saying the study here is to be believed, I have not read it, just commenting on EEG

I've actually taken note of my navigational skills over the last couple years... I grew up in one state, and then a few years after graduating college, moved to a different state. When I was growing up, phone navigation didn't really exist as it does now, cars didn't have built-in navigation, and standalone navigation devices were slow and not all that great (at least the ones I could afford).

I find that when I return home, even 10 years later, I am able to navigate all the places I used to go unaided with ease, back-roads, niche routes, able to travel for hours without getting "lost".

When I moved, though, I had very recently gotten my first smartphone, and google maps was very convenient to "learn" the new area. I ended up just continuing to use navigation since it was convenient. I've found that beyond the major main routes, I don't have the same kind of "built-in" navigational skill that I do for my original home-turf. I never really learned the area.

I am moving towards a smart-phone-less life, and I've been able to let go of a lot, but GPS navigation remains a sticking point. I need to start training myself to navigate unaided in my current area.

I like this analogy and generally avoid using GPS (admittedly it's out of laziness lol). The most insane part to me is I live where everything is on a grid and somehow people are still impressed I can figure out how to get places, even without having been there. GPS brain is real.

EEG on AI users

For long drives I have maps up mostly to alert me for traffic. Even if I know the route.

You would think the world right now is led by bright, clever, thoughtful individuals considering the AI panic lol

I drive via landmarks and signs most of the time unless it’s an address I don’t personally know. Makes you feel more connected to where you live.

Your brain is weirdly unhappy with the concept of other brains doing math. Nice!

The brainpower involved in mental math is just real-time factorization and otherwise general application of the rules of arithmatic. It's no waste, it's just a well practiced set of pathways that take annoying math and make it friendly. It takes at most 2 seconds to know if it's time to use a calculator.

"ChatGPT, summarize this study for me"