this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2025
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Argues for the importance of student essays, and then:
I remember student essays as being soul-crushing vapid toiling, personally.
The author is very fixated on the notion that these essays are vital parts of human education. Is he aware that for much of human history - and even today, in many regions of the world - essay-writing like this wasn't so important? I think one neat element of AI's rise will be the growth of some other methods of teaching that have fallen by the wayside. Socratic dialogue, debate, personal one-on-one tutoring.
I've been teaching myself some new APIs and programming techniques recently, for example, and I'm finding it way easier having an AI to talk me through it than it is grinding my way through documentation directly.
It IS easier than reading the documentation, just like using a GPS is easier than reading a map.
In both cases, the harder task helps you build a mental model much better than the easier task.
For the GPS it doesn't really matter much, since the stakes are low--it's not important to build a mental model of a city if you can always use GPS.
With programming I'm more cautious -- not knowing what you're doing can lead to serious harms. Just look at the Therac.
I'm not writing code for a medical device. I'm tinkering with a mod for a game. I can't imagine how getting something wrong would do any greater harm than wasting some of my time.