One of the stated goals of technological innovation is to make our lives easier, to help us save time in the tasks we do every day.
Many historical innovations have met this promise: washing machines, dishwashers, cars, planes, trains, microwaves, Zoom. All of these save us time and make a previous task more efficient. Putting your laundry in the washing machine is infinitely more efficient and effective than washing clothes by hand.
But what if part of the effectiveness of a task comes from the time it takes? In other words, what if the friction in a process is a feature, not a flaw? And what if removing that friction from the process results in a worse outcome?
There are a wide range of AI tools that promise to help us do everything from write content more quickly to distill huge amounts of information.
Can this be useful? Of course? Can it make us more efficient? Possibly.
But does it actually help us improve our knowledge?
It depends on your outcome, but I’ll argue no.
ChatGPT can read and summarize long reports or papers faster than you. It might be tempting to have it read things and summarize them, thinking you’re gaining knowledge more quickly.
But what gets lost in its summaries? What nuances is it leaving out?
Learning anything — from a language to a subject matter — is a layered process that necessarily requires efforts over time. To truly acquire knowledge, to embody what you know, requires more than reading the cliffs notes. It entails integrating pieces of information over time, learning beyond the information.
At best AI can give you a familiarity with the subject matter. But you’ll miss the nuance; you won’t engage with the material in the same way. You will get topline information, but not knowledge.
There’s a difference between knowing the answers and understanding the process.
True knowledge is embodied. It’s based in experience.
If you want to learn something, you have to put in the work and engage with the material.
There are no shortcuts, but it’s time well-spent.
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