The Cost of Convenience
April 2024
(Approx. 4 min read)
I’m Joe Vogelpohl. I work as a consultant with Kepner-Tregoe, helping organizations think clearly and make sound decisions when the stakes are high. That can mean anything from a nuclear weapons lab to a semiconductor cleanroom, or a Fortune 500 operations center that can’t afford confusion when something goes wrong.
Over the years, I’ve spent a lot of time in rooms where the wrong choice costs more than money. In those moments, you see how critical thinking really works, not as a buzzword, but as a skill that keeps people safe and productive.
What I’ve started to notice is a general confusion about how to use AI. Everywhere I go there is a feeling that things are, or should be getting easier and faster. There is a FOMO around AI. People are surrounded by tools that make decisions for them, dashboards that surface the “right” choice, and systems that automate judgment itself.
It sounds efficient and looks like progress.
But I’ve started to wonder what all that ease is doing to us.
We’re living in an age of convenience, one where friction feels like failure. Yet the more we automate, the less we engage the very muscles that make us capable of reasoning, discerning, and deciding.
That’s what I call mental atrophy, the slow fading of our ability to think deeply and creatively.
This site, and my upcoming book Atrophy Hunter: How to Stay Sharp in the Age of Convenience, are part of my attempt to push back against that trend. It’s about reclaiming the discipline of thought, the kind that doesn’t outsource decisions to algorithms or rely on the easiest path forward.
Over the coming months, I’ll share insights from my work, lessons from people who make high-stakes decisions every day, and stories from The Knowing Edge, a new podcast produced with Kepner-Tregoe. The podcast explores the fine line between going with your gut, and following a strict process.
If you’re interested in protecting the parts of yourself that make you human, then this is where the conversation begins.
Subscribe to Sharp Thinking Notes for reflections and updates, and follow along as we explore how to stay sharp in the age of convenience.