Learning Is Hard Work: AI Is Not Part of My Game Plan
August 25, 2025
No AI. Just a dinobaby working the old-fashioned way.
Dinobaby here—a lifetime of unusual education packed into a single childhood. I kicked off in a traditional Illinois kindergarten, then traded finger painting for experimental learning at a “new-idea” grade school in Maryland after a family move near DC. Soon, Brazil called: I landed in Campinas, but with zero English spoken, I lasted a month. Fifth through seventh grade became a solo mission—Calvert Course worksheets, a jungle missionary who mailed my work to Baltimore, and eventually, after the tutor died, pure self-guided study from thousands of miles away. I aced my assignments, but no one in Maryland had any idea of my world. My Portuguese tutor mixed French and German with local lingo; ironically, her English rocketed while my Portuguese crawled.
Back in the States, I dove into “advanced” classes and spent a high school semester at the University of Illinois—mainly reading, testing, and reading. A scholarship sent me to Bradley, a few weeks removed from a basketball cheating inquiry. A professor hooked me on coding in the library, building Latin sermon indexes using the school’s IBM. That led to a Duquesne fellowship; then the University of Arkansas wanted me for their PhD program. But I returned to Illinois, wrote code for Milton texts instead of Latin under Arthur Barker’s mentorship, and gave talks that landed me a job offer. One conference center chat brought me to DC and into the nuclear division at Halliburton. That’s my wild educational ride.
Notice that it did not involve much traditional go-to-class activity. I have done okay despite my somewhat odd educational journey. Most important: No smart software.
Now why did I provide this bit of biographical trivia? I read “AI in the Classroom Is Important for Real-World Skills, College Professors Say.” I did not have access to “regular” school through grade school, high school, and college. I am not sure how many high school students took classes at the U of I when they were 15 years old, but that experience was not typical among my high school class.
I did start working with computers and software in 1962, but there wasn’t much smart software floating around then. The trick for me has been my ability to read quickly, recognize what’s important, and remember information. Again there was no AI. Today, as I finish my Telegram Labyrinth monograph, AI has not been of any importance. Most of the source material is in Russian language documents. The English information is not thoroughly indexed by Telegram nor by the Web search engines. The LLM content suckers are not doing too much with information outside the English speaking world. Maybe China is pushing forward, but my tests with Chinese language Web search engines did not provide much, if any, information my team and I already had reviewed.
Obviously I don’t think AI is something that fits into my “real world skills.” The write up says:
“If integrated well, AI in the classroom can strengthen the fit between what students learn and what students will see in the workforce and world around them,” argued Victor Lee, associate professor at Stanford’s Graduate School of Education. GenAI companies are certainly doing their part to lure students into using their tools by offering new learning and essay-writing features. Google has gone so far as to offer Gemini free for one year, and OpenAI late last month introduced “Study Mode” to help students “work through problems step by step instead of just getting an answer,” the company said in a blog post.
Maybe.
My personal approach to learning involves libraries, for fee online databases, Web research, and more reading. I still take notes on 4×6 notecards just as I did when I was trying to index those Latin sermons. Once I process the “note”, I throw it away. I am lucky because once I read, write, and integrate the factoid into something I am writing — I remember the information. I don’t use digital calendars. I don’t use integrated to do lists. I just do what has been old fashioned information acquisition work.
The computer is wonderful for writing, Web research, and cooking up PowerPoint pablum. But the idea that using a tool that generates incorrect information strikes me as plain crazy.
The write up says:
Longji Cuo, an associate professor at the University of Colorado, in Boulder, teaches a course on AI and machine learning to help mechanical engineering students learn to use the technology to solve real-world engineering problems. Cuo encourages students to use AI as an agent to help with teamwork, projects, coding, and presentations in class. “My expectation on the quality of the work is much higher,” Cuo said, adding that students need to “demonstrate creativity on the level of a senior-level doctoral student or equivalent.”
Maybe. I am not convinced. Engineering issues are cascading across current and new systems. AI doesn’t seem to stem the tide. What about AI cyber security? Yeah, it’s working great. What about coding assistants? Yeah, super. I just uninstalled another Microsoft Windows 11 update. This one can kill my data storage devices. Copilot? Yeah, wonderful.
The write up concludes with this assertion from an “expert”:
one day, AI agents will be able to work with students on their personalized education needs. “Rather than having one teacher for 30 students, you’ll have one AI agent personalized to each student that will guide them along.”
Learning is hard work. The silliness of computer aid instruction, laptops, iPads, mobile phones, etc. makes one thing clear, learning is not easy. A human must focus, develop discipline, refine native talents, demonstrate motivate, curiosity, and an ability to process information into something more useful than remembering the TikTok icon’s design.
I don’t buy this. I am glad I am old.
Stephen E Arnold, August 25, 2025
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