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Ask AI to teach you

When AI does the work and you just take the output, you get the answer but miss the learning. Over time that compounds quietly: AI gets more capable, your own skills plateau or drift. This experiment is about prompting differently, adding a question that forces understanding alongside the output. Try it when you notice you're using AI a lot but couldn't fully explain the work it helped you with.

How to run it

Add a learning prompt to your AI interactions for meaningful tasks. Not everything, just the ones where you'd normally be developing skill or judgment.

01

When asking AI to do something you'd want to understand, add one of these to your prompt: "Explain why this approach works", "Walk me through your reasoning", "What would I need to know to do this myself?", or "What are the key concepts behind this?"

02

Read the explanation, not just the output. If something is unclear, ask a follow-up.

03

Note one thing you actually understood better or would do differently next time.

04

Once a fortnight, each person shares one insight from this practice in a short team moment, 10 minutes is enough.

Recommended time

4 weeks, with two short team shares built in.

What to notice

  • Are you starting to ask AI different kinds of questions over time?

  • Do you feel more confident explaining work AI helped with?

  • Does the team share surface different ways people are learning from AI?

What this might move

critical thinkingskill atrophy
Activate

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