“Let Me Check My Notes”: What One Interaction Revealed About AI, Ego, and the Future of Work

A few days ago, I asked someone a straightforward question during a conversation.

He paused for a moment and said, “Let me check my notes here.” But what followed wasn’t the sound of flipping pages or searching through a document. Instead, I saw him open ChatGPT and type in the very question I had asked.

At first, I was struck — not by the answer he gave, but by the subtle performance that had preceded it.

Why not just say, “Let me ask ChatGPT”?

Why the theater of expertise?

I couldn’t help but feel that something about the moment was disingenuous. It felt like a small, modern charade — an effort to appear as though the knowledge already existed within him, tucked away neatly in some virtual notebook, rather than coming freshly generated from an AI.

I interpreted the move as:

• An avoidance of admitting “I don’t know.”
• A form of image management, intended to preserve authority.
• A subtle attempt to perform expertise rather than exhibit curiosity.

And in a way, I understood it. We live in a world where saying “I don’t know” still feels risky, where being seen as the source of knowledge carries weight — especially in professional settings.

Still, I found myself disappointed. Was this what collaboration with AI had come to — not a tool to expand knowledge, but a crutch to maintain appearances?

Later, as I reflected more calmly, I began to see things differently.

Perhaps this wasn’t about deception at all.

Maybe what I had witnessed was something more profound — a symbol of cultural transition.

“Let me check my notes” wasn’t a lie. In today’s world, ChatGPT is the notebook. It’s where ideas live, where memory gets outsourced, and where insight is often born in real time.

In that context, his behavior seemed less about concealment and more about habitual language lagging behind evolving tools. Just as “hang up the phone” no longer involves physically hanging anything, perhaps “check my notes” no longer means flipping through paper or old files. It’s now about querying a living, thinking database that supports our cognition.

I realized:

• AI is being internalized as part of how we think.
• People are beginning to treat AI not as external help, but as an extension of their mental workspace.
• The cultural line between knowing and knowing how to find out has moved — and rightly so.

But this shift isn’t without danger — especially for teams and organizations that rely on clear knowledge signals, intellectual integrity, and decision transparency.

1. The Erosion of Intellectual Honesty If people consistently present AI-derived insights as personal expertise, the organization loses clarity about where knowledge is coming from. This may lead to:

• Over reliance on unchecked results.
• Decisions based on output that goes unchallenged, simply because it sounds authoritative.

2. A Culture of Performed Intelligence Over Real Collaboration When individuals feel they must maintain the illusion of knowing, they avoid open discussion, collaboration, or revision. Over time, this creates fragile cultures, where innovation stalls because nobody wants to look like they’re learning in public.

The only sustainable solution is cultural.

Organizations must normalize the use of AI across all levels, embedding it not just in workflows, but in language and behavior. That means:

• Encouraging people to own their AI collaborations, rather than disguise them.
• Creating a culture where saying “Let me check with <insert AI of choice here>” is seen as pragmatic, not weak.
• Training teams to challenge, refine, and improve AI-generated results — together.

When people can speak openly about how they use AI, the entire organization gets smarter, faster, and more honest.

Because the future isn’t about who knows the most — it’s about who learns the fastest, collaborates the deepest, and adapts with the help of intelligent tools.

And that future starts when we stop pretending, and start integrating.