Are We Getting Smarter, Dumber, or Just Storing Less?
Weekly Wheaties #2609
In this newsletter:
📝 Post: Are We Getting Smarter, Dumber, or Just Storing Less?
🗞️ In Case You Missed It: Samsung Galaxy Unpacked
🗞️ In Case You Missed It: The Future of Tech
😎 Pick of the Week: Food Snob Starter Pack
📦 Featured Product: Buildin.ai
📝 Are We Getting Smarter, Dumber, or Just Storing Less?
In my personal and professional life, I’m a big fan of creating SOPs. Just in case you don’t believe me enough, you can see where I wrote about The Importance of Crafting Simple Standard Operating Procedures about a year ago. This topic has come up in more recent conversations, and I’ve seen a few different takes that I’d like to add to. One of the biggest problems with Knowledge Management (KM) and its little brother, SOPs, has to do with the sharing of that knowledge and data.
There are tons of softwares available to help here, but the bigger issue is having people actually document what is needed, and then sharing that information with those who need it. I think one of the biggest qualms I have is that when we don’t share information willingly, we not only limit our productivity, but we also limit potential innovations due to technical issues we may not even know exist. There are also two schools of thought here. First, our cognitive limitations, and second, hardware or software limitations.
The cognitive limitations are pretty obvious. We can only remember so much. There’s a study that shares how We don’t lose our childhood memories, scientists say they’re just out of reach. This is one reason it’s important to write things down and actually track what matters. Another study that kind of alludes to this states that Gen Z becomes first generation in history to score lower on IQ tests than their parents.
Many people would argue it’s because of their phones, computers, openness to the internet, and other technological factors. But I would bet you probably don’t remember any phone numbers you only learned about in the last 10-15 years. Your phone remembers them for you. However, you still probably remember your childhood phone number, or possibly your favorite local takeout. Kids these days know and remember different things than we did. The argument of social media use can also stand to argue that it may hinder long-term memory.
As technology innovates even more, there is another looming question: Is Artificial Intelligence Slowing Our Brain Functioning? You can imagine the answer, I’m sure. Sometimes, though, cognitive offloading helps. We use GPS to tell us how to get somewhere we’ve been 1000 times. This may be for the traffic, but this can also allow us to wonder and put forth brain power towards other thoughts we have. One less thing in a world where there are tons of things to worry about.
One tip for helping remember things includes writing it down. This is where I send you back to the beginning of this post regarding the importance of an SOP and KM before moving on. If you don’t have a personal database, folder, notes, etc, for things that would be important to you - here’s your sign to start. And don’t keep them in one place, because if you lose your phone or computer, it’s all for naught.
This is where we move into the limits of our systems’ hardware and software put in place. One of the most famous technological limitations put on software includes the Y2K problem. Many computer systems were designed in the 1950s-1970s and used two digits for the year - “65” for “1965” for example. Using two digits wasn’t necessarily just a choice that someone made, either; it was almost forced.
Using 4 digits literally doubled the amount of storage required, and in the same time frame of developing these softwares, hardware (storage) was extremely expensive. Every little bit helped, and sacrifices were made. Short-term thinking won over long-term viability. Not to mention it could have literally bankrupted a company or kept them from growing.
Fast forward to the mid-1990s, and this problem was now approaching. It wasn’t just an easy fix, either. Changing the code in millions of lines of software across thousands of softwares was not a quick or simple task. Storage is cheaper in comparison, but it required a lot of man-power and testing to make sure things went right.
With softwares being developed today to focus on an MVP, sometimes hardware or software limitations are put in place due to access or money. However, as you create systems and rules based on the hardware and software limitations in place, you should always be prepared to pivot or take another route when things change. These invisible constraints keep things from scaling appropriately, too. All that said, You Need a Second Brain. And it needs to be simple.
Are you capturing things for your personal Knowledge Management database? Your future self is begging you to.
🗞️ ICYMI: Samsung Galaxy Unpacked
Last week, Samsung held their annual Samsung Galaxy Unpacked keynote - introducing the new Galaxy S26 and Galaxy Buds 4. The phone comes with many AI updates, camera updates, software updates for camera apps, and an all-new Privacy Display - essentially giving you the same technology from screen protectors to provide a privacy screen. This is a very cool feature that will start a trend, I’d bet. And it can be turned on or off as necessary, too, based on specific apps or notifications. You can watch the Official Replay on YouTube or The Verge’s 12-minute recap.
🗞️ ICYMI: The Future of Tech
Google keeps iterating Nano Banana 2: Combining Pro capabilities with lightning-fast speed.
Here’s How Many Remote Operators Waymo Has Per Self-Driving Taxi
Meta and AMD Agree to AI Chips Deal Worth More Than $100 Billion
Nearby Glasses - an Android app to show you if there’s anyone wearing Meta smart glasses.
What the future will look like for Elon Musk and Sam Altman in 2050 if AI continues to scale, requiring more and more energy, and taking more and more jobs. This was also a Black Mirror episode.
😎 POTW: Food Snob Starter Pack
📦 Featured Product
This week, I’d like to share a piece of software to tie into the post. Buildin.ai is a new tool offered through AppSumo that helps with personal Knowledge/Project Management, Notes, Timelines, Mind Maps, and more. This is very similar to Notion, OneNote, and EverNote, offering a few features they don’t in a new and minimal way. A neat option is the ability to offer free or paid access to a public-facing page - I’ll share an example in the coming weeks as I prepare it. You can sign up for a free account or purchase a lifetime license starting at $49.
