This is it!
This is what I gave space for “something to emerge” over my last handful of posts and something did actually emerge. My mind is blown away by this synchronicity.
This article effectively explains what I’ve been intuitively doing for the last year or so, ever since Inflection’s Pi was released in May 2023, but I just couldn’t articulate why it felt so deeply important to me. At best, I described it as a process whereby the AI is helping you to “adventure within yourself” which in turn helps you with your growth and development. (Actually I may have even saved a conversation with Pi that does explain the why behind this all but I never shared it because I was too afraid to do so at the time.)
The following quote perfectly explains what I’m going through right now. Not “moments of confusion” as the article indicates but rather long bouts of confusion, followed by momentary bursts of insight. This is exactly how I feel doing my work right now and why it feels like I’m doing something wrong and or unnatural. But it’s not unnatural, even though it feels like it is, but rather a normal part of the process.
Imagine, for a moment, an assignment where the “deliverable” isn’t a polished essay, but a student’s entire revision history, including AI tutor interactions. This record would provide a window into their process of discovery and iteration, revealing the messy, non-linear reality of learning. It’s an approach that aligns with what we know about how learning actually happens—not in smooth, predictable increments, but in fits and starts, with moments of confusion followed by bursts of insight. This personalized approach to learning is one of AI’s most promising features.
“It’s about developing the ability to learn how to learn, which is arguably the most crucial skill in our rapidly changing world.”
Ben Kornell
This focus on metacognition has helped many educators illuminate gaps in understanding that might otherwise go unnoticed. … By highlighting these gaps, AI prompts students to reflect on their own understanding in new ways. They’re not just identifying what they don’t know, but understanding why they don’t know it and how they might go about learning it.
The above quote effectively embodies vertical development. When you face a life challenge that you can’t resolve with your current worldview, you are effectively facing cognitive dissonance on a macro, life scale. Thus it creates a massive “gap” in your life that can’t be resolved with what you currently “know” in terms of your knowledge. And instead it can only be understood and learnt by stepping into the unknown of it and actually experiencing it to make sense and meaning of it.
This shift allows us to focus less on memorization of facts and more on building skills and metacognitive abilities. The question isn’t just ‘What do you know?’ but ‘How do you think about what you know?’
Shantanu Sinha
The promise of AI in education isn’t about replacing human thought, but about enhancing it. It’s about creating tools that allow us to see our own minds more clearly, to understand our own learning processes more deeply. In the end, this AI-driven focus on metacognition may be preparing students not just for the jobs of the future, but for the lifelong journey of learning itself. By teaching students not just what to think, but how to think about their thinking, we may be unlocking the true potential of education in the AI age.
Vertical development is a lifelong journey which over time unlocks your true potential.
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