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Friction Was the Point (hthabet.com)
3 points by Zvizr 17 days ago
1 comments

Friction is the mechanism by which mammalian brains acquire skills. This is as close to proven as we get in cognitive neuroscience; without a struggle, we literally don't learn. This is not a controversial statement. The only way to improve our cognitive skills is to intentionally add friction - aka practice. Use it or lose it.

This isn't necessarily anti-AI. Imagine a tool that could quiz you, provide context for decisions, and make sure you're up to date on your knowledge of the codebase - instead of just writing code for you. IOW an AI-based system could intentionally add the right kind of friction to improve understanding.

Agreed, an LLM could be scaffolded on your deficits and with enough time, empower your learning and growth arc far better than you or any other human could outline a bespoke learning framework for a particular subject.