The Vergecast · Tuesday, September 1, 2026
V. Song and Liz Lapato discuss the benefits of physical writing for memory recall and cognitive function. They contrast this with the potential for AI to offload cognitive tasks, leading to a less sharp mind.
“Um, I just, I'm just going to put in a plug for paper. Um, not only because, you know, you can customize it however you want, but also because there's a fair amount of research that shows physically writing stuff down makes it easier for you to remember.”
“It's 100% true too. Like, um, I was going through a period where I was reading books and then really struggling to remember what it was that I had read. And so I started like an active reading journal where after I read a book or after I read like a certain section of it, I'll just go sit down and I'll be like, what happened during the section I read? And I'll write that down.”
“And that's something that I worry about with this concept of like AI helping you as an everyday tool for everything because you're just offloading your cognitive thinking in a way that makes you less sharp.”