Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

It seems that when we stop doing something, we forget how to do it, sort of.

I recently read reports of AI causing “deskilling.” (pronounced de-skilling, not des-killing)

It seems that some folks were using AI tools to do something they used to do all the time. After a few months, one of those senior-level decision makers decided to take away the AI tools. The folks struggled to do what they had done earlier. They had de-skilled. I guess that is a nice way of saying they forgot what they were doing. The forgetting, of course, was temporary. They remembered what they knew and went on with the work.

There is a way to put a piece of paper into a typewriter so that it is straight. I used to know how to do that. I don’t any longer. I guess with some practice I could re-learn or re-skill that. There is a way to put tractor feed paper into a tractor feed printer so that it is straight. Same thing with that skill. I was de-skilled.

Then again, as I have noted in some other blog post somewhere at some time, these tools can teach us things that we didn’t realize we knew. Did you notice such and such? Yes, that is how this tool works.

Funny how the mind works. Practice something and it becomes something we do without thinking. The headlights on my car turn themselves on and off. I can’t remember how to do that. No great loss. Now, that typewriter thing had something to do with moving that roller thing so the paper could slide around loosely or something.