I've been thinking about this a lot lately. There's a real tension between using AI as a learning tool versus using it as a shortcut that quietly hollows out your ability to actually understand something.
When I started using AI assistants to help me pick up new technical skills, at first it felt amazing. Instant explanations, code examples, answers to questions I was embarrassed to ask anyone. But after a few months I noticed something uncomfortable. I could get things working without really knowing why they worked. The AI filled in the gaps so fast that the gaps never became the struggle that actually builds understanding.
On the other hand, some people seem to be genuinely accelerating their learning by using AI to get unstuck quickly, then going back to understand the fundamentals on their own terms.
So I'm curious what this community thinks, because you all seem to engage with AI more deeply than most. Have you found a mode of using these tools that actually makes you smarter and more capable over time, or does it feel like the more you rely on them the more dependent you become? Is there a meaningful difference between AI as a tutor versus AI as an answer machine? And do you think the average person is even thinking about this distinction, or are we sleepwalking into a generation of people who can prompt but cannot think through hard problems independently?
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