Ten thousand hours. That’s the investment, according to Anders Ericsson’s research, which gave us the science. Malcolm Gladwell gave it to the rest of the world. It’s not talent or shortcuts, but the sustained engagement with difficulty. You get better by repeatedly pushing into the edge of what you can do.

Now consider a new pre-press study that found 10 minutes of AI assistance measurably reduced persistence and impaired independent cognitive performance. Across a series of trials with more than 1,200 participants, researchers tested people on math reasoning and reading comprehension. The finding revealed that AI helped in the moment, but when participants returned to working on their own, they performed worse and were more likely to give up. Not after months of dependency. After a single brief interaction.