Watching a video today on AI brain rot really helped cement for me what it is...a steady drop in practiced skills we take for granted. If you don't occasionally write emails, you get worse at it. if you don't do deep reading for yourself, you get worse at it. If you don't keep drawing or coding or composing, you get worse at them. Then the day comes when you need the skill, or something related to the skill, but you're too rusty to be effective. And critical thinking? Oh, that's a skill.