June 18, 2026
Estimated reading time: 9 minutes
Key takeaways:
- Cognitive debt is the technical debt nobody is measuring. When AI generates code faster than engineers can understand it, teams lose track of what their system does and why.
- The tool isn’t the problem – the relationship with it is: two interns used AI at the same frequency. The difference? Whether they engaged with what it produced.
- Your satisfaction scores are hiding the problem! The most reliable signal isn’t how engineers feel, it’s whether their skills are actually developing.
Dr. Margaret-Anne Storey, professor of computer science at the University of Victoria, first used the term ‘cognitive debt’ in October 2025 while teaching an entrepreneurship startup course.
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June 18, 2026
