I’ve almost always been an early adopter when it comes to technology. When the Apple Watch first launched, I stayed up all night with some buddies to be the first to purchase it. At 3 a.m., I had three computers open, hammering refresh, trying to be one of the first people to get one. I was in the first 1,000 people to purchase one, according to an Apple employee based on my order number. Looking back, that was… kind of dumb. Laughably dumb. But it says something about me. I love innovation. I love tools. I love seeing what’s possible when technology moves the world forward.

So when AI broke onto the scene, I didn’t hesitate. I jumped in quickly. And almost immediately, I felt a strange temptation. The temptation wasn’t just to use it. It was to let it do the heavy lifting. Thinking. Writing. Organizing. Deciding. It was efficient. It was impressive. And if I’m honest, it was dangerously convenient.

I’m still learning how to use AI well. But along the way, I’ve discovered a simple filter that has helped me stay tech-forward without drifting into tech apathy.

Does this tool assist my thinking, or is it replacing it?

That question has become a line in the sand for me. Because I’m convinced one of the great challenges for men right now isn’t learning how to use AI. It’s learning how to stay sharp while using it.

When I say sharp, I don’t mean smarter or more informed. I mean a man who can think clearly, discern wisely, decide courageously, and show up present when it matters. Sharp men don’t just consume information. They carry responsibility.

WORK, THE CURSE, AND WHY THIS MATTERS

From the beginning, men were created to work. Not as punishment, but as purpose. We were built to cultivate, create, steward, and carry responsibility. Work was always meant to be part of what makes a man fully alive.

But the curse of sin corrupted it.

When Adam and Eve sinned, everything changed. Work became toil. Frustrating. Resistant. The ground itself pushed back.

Genesis 3:17-19

And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

Ever since, men have lived in a mixed relationship with work. We’re fulfilled by it, and yet because of brokenness, we also loathe it. We long for the reward of work, but we resent the resistance that comes with it.

That tension explains a lot about us.

It explains why technological progress is so appealing. Almost every major advancement lightens the load in some way. It reduces friction. It eases the weight.

And in many ways, that’s mercy.

From stone tools to medicine to machinery to modern systems that keep the world moving, God has allowed humanity to discover ways to reverse or lessen the effects of the curse. Tony Reinke, in his book 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You points out that technological advancement can be understood as humanity discovering ways to relieve the physically burdensome aspects of living in a fallen world. Of course, this is not about salvation or being freed from sin in a spiritual sense. And I believe that using technology to ease the burden isn’t evil. In many ways, it’s grace.

But man has always had a tendency to take a good thing and bend it by his own will to give into his desires. In this case specifically, apathy and avoidance.

What begins as relief can quietly become replacement.

WHEN RELIEF BECOMES REPLACEMENT

We gravitate toward the path of least resistance. If something else can do the work for me, why should I? If something else can do the thinking for me, why would I wrestle with it?

Some mental outsourcing is good. Calculators, computers, and systems that remove mundane thinking can clear the path for deeper thinking. That kind of tool use creates space for knowledge, appropriately applied. Also known as wisdom.

But AI is different from any other technological advancement in history.

AI is a technology so advanced it has revealed something uncomfortable about us. Given the opportunity, we will outsource not just mundane thinking, but thinking itself.

Not just arithmetic, but discernment.

Not just organization, but authorship.

Not just efficiency, but judgment.

And that’s where staying sharp becomes a real issue.

THE DULLING EFFECT

What I’m seeing more and more isn’t a lack of intelligence. It’s a lack of practiced wisdom.

In our pursuit of the path of least resistance, men are letting tools decide for them instead of informing them. ChatGPT or Grok studies the Bible for them. Writes the note for their wife’s anniversary card for them. Crafts every email, every response, every hard word.

Much of this, I believe, is rooted in fear. We live in a moment where saying the wrong thing carries a real cost. Men are afraid of misstepping, of looking foolish, of being exposed. So instead of risking discernment, they outsource it. Instead of exercising judgment, they lean on a tool to speak for them. And over time, that dependence dulls what should be sharpened.

But wisdom does not form without risk.

Discernment is sharpened by making real decisions with real consequences. Judgment grows through practice. And when a man consistently avoids that work, he loses the edge that only risk can forge. He grows dull.

And dullness doesn’t stay confined to technology.

It shows up in leadership.

In marriage.

In fatherhood.

In faith.

As this dulling sets in, men begin to avoid difficult, in-person conversations because there’s no prompt to consult. We put off making decisions and let responsibility fall on something else. We stay unchallenged. Over time, we grow stagnant.

Real life doesn’t have pause buttons or edit functions. Leadership doesn’t come with a prompt. Marriage and fatherhood don’t allow rewrites. They require presence, courage, and wisdom in real time.

THE CHALLENGE: STAY SHARP

Staying sharp in an AI age won’t happen by accident. It has to be chosen. Practiced. Guarded.

Use AI to assist your thinking, not replace it. Let it sharpen ideas you’ve already wrestled with. Let it organize convictions you already own. Let it pressure-test decisions you’re already responsible for.

But don’t surrender the work that was meant to form you.

Think first, then use the tool.

Decide before you delegate.

Write what only you can write.

Have conversations you can’t pause.

Technology should remove friction around thinking, not friction from thinking. The moment it begins doing the work that forms discernment, courage, and responsibility, the cost is no longer technological. It’s personal.

Tools can be powerful. Progress is good. But a man who no longer carries weight—even mental weight—will eventually lose strength he didn’t realize was being forged there.

In an age where thinking can be outsourced, strong men choose to stay sharp.

Use the tools. Embrace the future. Just don’t surrender the work God intended to form you.

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