I recently found myself in a fascinating conversation about AI in education. How should schools approach teaching AI or allowing students to use it? The debate has compelling arguments on both sides.
AI is a profound tool that would be foolish to ignore—students will inevitably use it anyway, with or without proper guidance. However, AI is far from perfect. Anyone with specific knowledge in any field has likely witnessed AI botch information in their area of expertise. What makes these tools particularly challenging is how they can present incorrect information with such remarkable fluency, making a pile of garbage read like Hemingway.
In a deep existential chat with Grok AI, the chatbot dropped a hard truth on me.
"I'm not here to lead—I amplify what you choose to pursue. The ball's in your court; I'm just the assist."
Damn.
This raises a crucial question: In any project, how do we know when to leverage AI versus relying on our own specific knowledge, life experience, or preferences?
Any procrastinator knows that the most challenging part of any endeavor is just getting started. Once you achieve ignition, momentum takes over.
“The hardest part of any important task is getting started on it in the first place. Once you actually begin work on a valuable task, you seem to be naturally motivated to continue.” - Brian Tracy, Eat That Frog!
AI as Your Inertia Breaker
AI is great at helping you overcome that first 5% of a project—the inertia phase. By providing a starting point, even an imperfect one, it allows you to transition from stillness to motion. Rather than facing the intimidation of creating something from nothing, you can react, refine, and build upon what AI offers.
However, there's a critical distinction to make: using AI to jumpstart your process is different from using it to deliver a finished product.
The Danger of the "Easy Answer"
When we seek direct, finished results from AI, we often fall into a trap. The output might appear coherent and well-structured—AI is excellent at making things read well—but the content itself may be fundamentally flawed or a complete hallucination.
This is especially concerning in educational contexts. Today's students have unprecedented access to AI tools that can generate essays, solve problems, and simulate understanding. The danger lies in mistaking fluency for accuracy and polish for substance.
Inversion: Learning from AI's Mistakes
Interestingly, even "garbage" AI responses can provide value, similar to a mental model called inversion—a concept popularized by Charlie Munger. Click here for an article I wrote about mental models - it has been viewed over 2,000 times!
Inversion involves flipping a problem on its head and then working in reverse.
Q: If I wanted to be poor and unhealthy, what would I do?
A: I would slack off at work, eat highly processed food, and live a sedentary lifestyle.
Great! So if I want to be rich and healthy, I should step it up at work, eat well, and exercise.
I’m not saying that when AI gives a poor response you should assume the opposite is true, but the way your brain processes information is remarkably similar.
When AI misses the mark, our brains leap into action and say, “That’s not right; it should be more like this!”
This back-and-forth helps us extract the correct information from our brains. Staring at a blank page… not so much.
The Collaborative Approach: AI as Your Thinking Partner
Rather than using AI as a replacement for your own work, approach it as a collaborative partner that can:
Provide a starting point to overcome inertia
Create productive friction through its responses (even imperfect ones) that help you refine your own thinking
Instead of seeking definitive answers from AI, now you're using it to expand your thinking and challenge your assumptions.
Practical Applications
The next time you face the resistance of starting a new project, try this approach:
Start with an initial prompt related to your project.
Follow up with questions like "What is this missing?" or "What would you add?"
Evaluate the response critically — even if it seems off-base, use it to clarify your own understanding.
Take the wheel after gaining that initial momentum, applying your unique human perspective, ethics, and creativity
Sisyphus… Without the Mountain
Imagine a heavy ball on a flat surface. Getting that ball moving requires significant initial force—that's inertia. AI can provide that first push, helping the ball start rolling. However, as the ball gains momentum, it requires human guidance to steer it in the right direction, navigate obstacles, and ensure it reaches the intended destination. AI initiates motion; human creativity and judgment determine direction and ultimate value.
In a world increasingly powered by artificial intelligence, remember that these tools work best when they catalyze your thinking rather than replace it. Use AI to overcome inertia, then bring your uniquely human perspective to guide the momentum toward meaningful destinations.
