"We are in the age of vibe‑making, the feeling of competence without comprehension delivered by AI. You can ship an app without learning to code, cook a restaurant‑quality meal without understanding heat or timing, and write a passable essay without mastering prose. The results feel great, the learning doesn't. Simulation of mastery is changing our standards. We are getting comfortable with a good‑enough economy that confuses fluency with understanding, speed with judgment, and pattern‑matching with innovation."
"Almost a decade ago, my first job was in a fabrication lab on a noon‑to‑midnight shift. After dark, it was my studio: a laser cutter singing, a 3D printer tracing tight spirals. I made chairs you could assemble without screws, sculptures that resembled equations, objects that drew wows, not breakthroughs. I could run the machines, but without real domain knowledge and the judgment to use it, I couldn't push past interesting shapes into anything fundamentally new. Better tools made me faster, not deeper."
AI produces a surface-level competence by automating tasks that previously required deep domain knowledge, enabling people to ship apps, cook complex meals, or write essays without mastering underlying principles. This simulation of mastery lowers standards by equating fluency with understanding, speed with judgment, and pattern-matching with innovation. Faster tools can increase output while decreasing the capacity to generate fundamentally new ideas. Practical experience in hands-on fabrication shows that operating machines without domain knowledge yields interesting forms but not breakthroughs. As workplaces adopt AI, there is a risk of prioritizing performance metrics over cultivating durable skills and thoughtful judgment.
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