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The Human Advantage: Nine Skills We Can't Afford to Lose in an AI-Powered World

Posted on 01/23/2025

Photo by Aarón Blanco Tejedor on Unsplash

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Blogger John Spencer discusses the important human skills vital to retain in an AI, instant, world. The list is not exhaustive but seems timely to remember. Ideas to think about:

1. Confusion as a Catalyst for Learning
   “If we think about AI, a chatbot’s instant answers might lead students to sidestep confusion rather than work through it, potentially missing out on deeper understanding.”
2. Productive Struggle as a Means to Mastery
   “The permission to make mistakes can lead to productive struggle, which can ultimately lead to a creative breakthrough. Productive struggle builds critical problem-solving skills and persistence. It can help lead to a growth mindset.”
3. Slower Learning for Lasting Knowledge
   “However, when AI speeds up access to information, it can disrupt this process, sometimes trading depth for surface-level engagement. Here is where it helps to “develop a ‘snailed it’ mindset.”
4. Divergent Thinking to Move Beyond the Algorithm
   As we think about problem-solving, "generative AI uses a convergent thinking process that leads to the most common answer. By contrast, we as humans, have the potential to engage in divergent thinking.”
5. Developing Your Own Voice in a Predictive World
   AI does not use a variety of sentence structures which makes reading something interesting. It is “vanilla” and without personality.
6. Cultivating Empathy for Better Creativity
   Humans can create robots which act “pro-socially” but a “robot cannot feel loneliness” or “heartache.”
7. Contextual Understanding
   AI generates broad and expansive information which lacks any real-world awareness. This often leads to” inconsistencies, misinterpretations, or overly literal responses and answers that are not tailored toward any kind of cultural awareness.”
8. Wisdom in a Sea of Information
   There is danger “in viewing newer ideas as being inherently better than anything classical.”
9. Extended Focus in a Distracted World
   AI pulls people away from “sustained engagement, reinforcing a pattern of quick, fragmented interactions.” Humans have an innate ability to engage in deeper problem-solving and creativity.

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