The Calculator Effect
I started checking the calculator even when I already knew the answer. Not because I needed it—because I didn’t trust myself. That’s the part that stuck with me. Not the math. The muscle I stopped using.
Nino Chavez
Product Architect at commerce.com
Post 1 of 5 in Muscle Memory
It’s not that I can’t do the math. It’s that I stopped trying.
I caught myself reaching for the calculator for something like 14 x 12. Easy math. Stuff I used to do without blinking. But I didn’t trust myself to be right. Not because I didn’t know—it’s because I didn’t want to be wrong. That’s different.
And it’s not about the calculator. It’s about what happens when you offload something basic, over and over, until the part of you that used to just know starts to get quiet. You stop feeling confident. You stop practicing. You just tap the screen.
That’s the beginning of atrophy. Not physical, but cognitive. Not dramatic, but real.
The calculator isn’t the villain. I’m not anti-tools. But if I use something often enough to replace thinking entirely, I’m not getting faster—I’m getting weaker.