Why just observing isn’t enough
Have you ever listened to someone explain something to you and struggled to fully understand what they were saying? This happens a lot when listening to the rules of a board game, attending induction meetings at a new job, or watching presentations. Unless you concentrate extremely hard — or you’re blessed with a superb memory — it can be difficult to retain information by observing alone. The best way to truly understand something is often by doing it yourself and then practising as much as possible.
Learning through doing actually creates fundamentally different patterns in your brain when compared to just reading about something. Active learning, making mistakes and struggling through challenges builds stronger neural pathways than passive consumption ever could.
But here’s the key: you have to be willing to mess up a few times.
In the age of AI, there’s a risk we may be becoming less tolerant of mistakes and the time it takes to learn new skills. Many skills are already being replaced by machines. Why train someone new in a task that a computer can do? But this is causing a lot of knowledge gaps. People are becoming passive ‘conductors’ of information — able to quickly regurgitate processes and information to others — but without truly understanding what they are sharing.
This type of passive learning is actually bad for our brains. Our brains are incredibly efficient and constantly looking for shortcuts — so if we’re not activating the parts of the brain required to learn new skills through doing, and we’re merely observing, then those neural pathways may weaken over time. This can make it even harder for us to acquire new skills in the future.
This is a classic case of just because AI can do something on your behalf, it doesn’t mean it should. There is real value in practising skills yourself. You’ll strengthen your brain and feel more capable and confident as a result.