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Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Harry Floyd’s essay The Things You Used to Know by Heart argues that information available in memory can influence your thinking differently from information you can retrieve only after deciding to look it up. It is a reflection on living alongside AI—not a study showing that AI use causes memory loss or weaker reasoning.
What is “The Things You Used to Know by Heart”?
Harry Floyd published the essay on DEV Community on September 30, 2026; the listing says it originally appeared on his Substack. It belongs to his short series “The Quiet Part,” about living alongside AI. The available text frames its subject as what relying on AI to remember may do to a person’s thinking.
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Floyd’s piece is an essay, not a product review or a report of a cognitive experiment. It names no study, statistic, or external expert to establish its argument as a measured effect.
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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsWhat distinction does Floyd make?
The essay contrasts knowledge that is already carried in memory with information that is easy to retrieve but not readily recalled. A saved phone number is still accessible, for instance, but having it on a phone is different from knowing it without looking. Likewise, a fact an AI system can supply may be findable without being present in the person’s own thoughts.
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Floyd’s point is not simply that one method is better. He asks whether the difference matters because remembered knowledge can be present while someone encounters a situation, whereas fetched information generally arrives only after the person knows to ask for it.
How does memory shape the questions someone asks?
Floyd illustrates his idea with a hypothetical memory of a grandmother who salted food heavily and grew up with little. If both details come to mind while the reader is cooking, they might prompt a question: could her seasoning have reflected earlier scarcity?
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The example does not establish the grandmother’s motive; the reader might never know whether the inference is right. Its purpose is to show how remembered details can meet and suggest a question before someone searches for an explanation. That is the essay’s argument, not evidence that memory or AI has a particular measured effect on reasoning.
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Does Floyd argue that every fact should be memorized?
No. Floyd explicitly allows that many things are appropriately looked up. His concern is with knowledge that may shape what a person notices or which questions occur to them—not with memorizing every phone number, date, or detail that could be retrieved later.
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The practical distinction the essay invites readers to consider is whether a piece of knowledge is merely useful to have on hand when needed, or whether having it readily in mind could affect how they interpret an experience. Floyd leaves that judgment to the reader rather than setting out a rule for what must be memorized.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What does the essay establish—and what does it leave open?
The available text supports a reading of Floyd’s central idea: carried knowledge might enter thought without a separate retrieval step, while findable information has to be requested. It does not demonstrate that AI use makes people forget, weakens thinking, or reduces their capacity to reason. The essay closes by asking what demonstrates a person’s capacity to think when understanding can be borrowed so easily; it poses that question rather than answering it with empirical evidence.
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