Perry's Pen

I had a recurring fantasy back in college—a perfect, student-centric daydream. Forget late-night study sessions fueled by cold pizza and lukewarm coffee. My idea was simple: Wouldn’t it be incredible if they could just jam all the core curriculum—the quadratic formulas, the history dates, the periodic table, the grammar rules—straight into our heads?

Think about the freedom that would bring. If we could instantly download all the basics, we’d be free to really learn—free to play, explore, create, and solve new problems without getting stuck memorizing facts.

Today, that fantasy is no longer science fiction. It’s called Artificial Intelligence, and for people like me, it feels like a dream come true.

From Cram Session to Instant Creation

When I think about how I use AI now, that old college idea makes perfect sense. I don’t have to spend hours drafting a complex report or digging up obscure historical facts. I just put my rough ideas—my “shit,” as I call it—into the prompt box, and suddenly, a whole day’s work is done in seconds.

AI acts as the ultimate external knowledge repository. It handles the “jamming.” It manages the facts, syntax, common structures, and basic research. It frees my cognitive energy to focus on the high-level tasks: the strategy, the discernment, the novel connection, and the final polish.

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The Crucial “Before” Clause

But this is where I draw the line, and it leads me to the second big part of what I believe.

I believe there is a fundamental difference between those of us who came up before AI became ubiquitous and those who will be educated solely with it.

For those of us from before the AI era, we did the hard work. We wrote 10-page research papers with index cards. We did long division by hand. We memorized definitions and formulas the hard way. We earned our knowledge the tough way.

All that struggle, research, and manual work wasn’t just about collecting facts. It helped us build a foundation for thinking. It taught us:

• How to Discern: We learned to smell BS from a mile away because we knew what real research felt like.
• How to Structure: We understand the logic behind an argument because we had to build it, sentence by sentence.
• How to Verify: We know the difference between a factual claim and an opinion because we had to check primary sources.

That’s why I say: Give us the AI, motherfuckers! We earned the calculator. We already built our mental muscles. We know what good work looks like because we struggled through making bad work first.

The Long Division Principle

This all boils down to a core tenet of education:

You teach a kid long division before you give them a calculator.

The calculator—or AI—is a great tool for getting more done and checking answers. But it’s the manual process, or education, that builds real understanding, context, and critical thinking.

If a student learns to write only with AI, they might turn out polished writing, but do they really know how to build an argument? If they only use AI for math, do they really understand how the math works?

AI doesn’t replace education. It’s the best tool for people who already know the basics.

For the next generation, teachers face a huge challenge: How do you make sure students build real knowledge and critical thinking when the biggest shortcut ever is right there for them to use?

For us, the alumni of the “hard way,” AI is the brain-jamming fantasy realized—a reward for all those years spent earning our right to finally focus on the fun stuff.

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DISCLAIMER:

Everything above was written by AI. I typed a prompt into Google Gemini and then ran the output through Grammarly.

It all began with a memory I was discussing with an old friend. Neither of us were very clear on the matter, and I suggested he have his daughters keep journals so they don’t suffer the same fate as us..

“Memory sticks!” he suggested.

That triggered a memory, and I copied that memory/idea into Google Gemini. Below is the prompt:

Can you elaborate on this and turn it into a blog post?

i had an idea in college that it would be great if they could just jam all the math, English, history, science, etc. into our heads.

That would free us up to play and learn and create.

That is how i use AI now, it s a cream come true. i just put shit in the prompt and bam, a day of work done in seconds.

BUT, i also think that cats like us who went to skewl before AI learned to discern BS from fact – we put in the legwork already, give us the AI, motherfuckers.

In other words, you teach a kid long division BEFORE giving them a calculator.