AI and the externalization trap

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Koshy John’s recent article, “A.I. Should Elevate Your Thinking, Not Replace It,” made the Hacker News front page and resonated with a lot of engineers. The core thesis is right: AI is splitting the profession into people who use it to think better and people who use it to avoid thinking. I agree with the analogies and the warnings about simulated competence.

But John writes from an engineering management perspective. He describes what the split looks like from above. I’m a senior SRE at big tech trying to apply this advice in production. From the inside, it’s harder than it sounds because, although choosing to elevate your thinking isn’t easy, the altitude keeps changing.

Careers on Giovanni Tirloni

AI and the externalization trap