Do Things Yourself

If you’re letting artificial intelligence do the hard work for you, you’re using it wrong.

Use artificial intelligence to help you do the things you hate, but hire people to help you do the things you love.

Artificial intelligence was never meant to replace you. It was meant to make you more productive by allowing you to focus on the hard stuff, while it knocked out the abundant, tedious, and small stuff.

So if you’re thinking about jumping on the AI assistant bandwagon, or if you already have, then please consider doing things yourself.

The Problem with AI

ChatGPT blew up during my final year of college. It’s a mesmorizing tool that was—and still is—completely abused.

I watched students throw entire assignments into ChatGPT, just for them to hit CTRL C and CTRL V while calling it a day. It left an extremely bad taste in my mouth. Especially considering many of them graduated without even building something completely themselves.

Artificial intelligence became a gateway drug for procrastination and laziness. The number of students that actually cared for the learning material was dropping by the day.

When you’re so easily given the answer to problems and you accept the answer without explanation, you are doing yourself harm. This is relevant whether or not you’re using AI. You aren’t engaging the problem solving parts of your brain. Your critical thinking skills become weak.

When you tackle a challenge yourself, whether or not you suceed, it’s good for you on so many different levels.

• You learn something new, becoming more intelligent.
• You become a stronger person, proud and happy to have overcome something.
• You build motivation, as you’ve proven to yourself you can do something.

Why would you want to take away the one part that separates us from machines? You cannot and should not depend on artificial intelligence.

The Learning Blueprint

Learning doesn’t have to be stressful. If you are truly passionate about the subject, you will put in the effort and find the time. You probably learn something new everyday without even thinking about it!

For more intentional learning, a blueprint that doesn’t involve growing a dependency on artificial intelligence, here’s what done throughout my time as a student:

1. Find a topic you’re passionate about.
2. After doing just some light research on the topic, jump straight in with a project.
3. Challenge yourself often—only when you have given your best effort should you look for answers.
4. Stay consistent and organized.
5. Life happens, don’t be too hard on yourself when goals aren’t achieved.

Being quick on your feet and ready to learn things individually is incredibly valuable. If you can build something—and I really mean anything—without the use of AI that solves a problem for an end user: you’re golden.