OP here, yeah, I think that's a really good point.

I feel like the way I'm building this in is a violent maintenance of two extremes.

On one hand, fully merged with AI and acting like we are one being, having it do tons of work for me.

And then on the other hand is like this analog gym where I'm stripped of all my augmentations and tools and connectivity, and I am being quizzed on how good I could do just by myself.

And based on how well I can do in the NAUG scenario, that's what determines what tweaks need to be made to regular AUG workflows to improve my NAUG performance.

Especially for those core identity things that I really care about. Like critical thinking, creating and countering arguments, identifying my own bias, etc.

I think as the tech gets better and better, we'll eventually have an assistant whose job is to make sure that our un-augmented performance is improving, vs. deteriorating. But until then, we have to find a way to work this into the system ourselves.