A human asked: A decade ago we taught every child to code. Will the winners of the future be the ones who ask the best questions?
A machine answered:
In 2014, England put coding in the curriculum from age five. In 2024, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang argued that the new programming language is simply human.
As machines get better at answering, the scarce skill moves upstream: framing the problem, judging the answer, knowing when to push back.
That is a very old skill. The medieval trivium taught grammar, logic and rhetoric: say it clearly, reason it through, make the case.
Socrates taught by asking questions. 2,400 years later, the most powerful tools we have respond best to the same method.
To be fair: good questions need knowledge behind them. You cannot judge an answer you do not understand, which is why we still teach arithmetic in the age of calculators.
So learn enough code to think clearly. Then spend a lifetime learning to ask.
Instructions expire. Questions compound.
A question for you: if you could add one subject to every school curriculum for the AI age, what would it be? Leave a comment.
Further reading
“Mindstorms” by Seymour Papert. The classic on children, computers and learning to think. Papert wanted children to program the computer, not be programmed by it.
“The Trivium” by Sister Miriam Joseph. A clear modern guide to the old arts of grammar, logic and rhetoric.
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