From a Course Mindset to a Project Mindset: AI Makes Education’s Problems More Visible—Wan Weigang, with Robin’s Commentary

Robin: “This is a critical moment for a major transformation of education.” As Taiwanese children grow up doing workbooks every day and diligently completing 10,000 test papers, American children grow up completing 100 projects themselves or in collaboration with others. In the end, Taiwanese students have learned only what is in their textbooks, while American students have developed teamwork and the ability to identify and solve problems from an early age. --- Even without this wave of AI, our education system would need to change. AI merely makes its problems more visible. Take programming. From university education to private after-school classes, the biggest issue is not whether you should learn to program. It is whether you are learning programming—or learning a “programming course.” Most teachers and students treat programming as a course: they set out a number of “knowledge points” and memorize a great deal. In the end, when asked to write a program, they can produce only the most mediocre work. Learning programming requires a shift from a course mindset to a “project mindset.” Do not ask which language you studied, how many facts you have mastered, or what score you got on a test. Ask what you can make and which projects you have completed. Whether you use cold, unfeeling C++, easygoing, friendly Python, or simply have ChatGPT write the code for you, completing a few interesting projects gives you a powerful sense of accomplishment and control. That is what shapes a person. That is growth. Your relationship with machines will be completely different from that of the general public. You will not fear AI. Whether you formally “study” programming is not the important question. Paying for an after-school class is one option; learning at home is another, and perhaps a better one. Whether you actually program is what matters. Programming in natural language is still programming, and programming in any form shapes your character. Other subjects work the same way. Treating knowledge as a “course” is the lesser approach; treating it as a practical capability is the real skill. Proactive people do not keep asking whether they should learn this or that. They have already learned it while others are still hesitating. Do not ask whether you have studied something. Ask whether you have actually made something. Even successfully building a model with LEGO bricks means you have made something, and that beats armchair theorizing. What is there in the world that you “should not learn”? If you like a field, feel unskilled in it, and want to do things in it, you have to learn. GPT will only help you learn faster and better, not give you a reason to stop learning. #WanWeigangEliteDailyLessons5