Spellcheck doesn’t create bad spellers; it lets spelling atrophy. Autocorrect and red squiggles do the work, and users stop internalizing rules. Just as GPS dulls a sense of direction, spellcheck erodes linguistic instinct. Remove the tool, and spelling falters—not from ignorance, but from disuse.
Now, AI poses a deeper threat. Its danger isn’t power; it’s passivity. Overreliance produces a generation unprepared for work that demands creativity and critical thought. Intellectual laziness already plagues classrooms, and AI only intensifies it.
To resist that drift, education must evolve. It isn’t enough to teach information—we must also teach metacognition. Students need to examine their own thinking: to ask why they believe something, how they reach conclusions, and where their reasoning fails. AI can assist, but only if used deliberately. It should provoke thought rather than replace it. By offering counterarguments and exposing blind spots, it sharpens cognition.
Idea for Impact: The real danger isn’t AI itself. It’s what we stop doing when it takes over. The spellcheck lesson still holds: unused skills don’t vanish; they decay.
Cutting tennis balls in half might let you store more in a standard 3-ball tube, but the sacrifice is stark.
Fred Smith, who 
The critical mind 
There’s a purported Zen parable that goes like this: A seasoned thief brings his son to a wealthy man’s house in the dead of night. They sneak inside, and the father carefully guides the son through the process—finding valuables, avoiding noise, and staying hidden. At one point, while the son is inside a room, the father suddenly slams the door shut and locks him in, then loudly raises the alarm before disappearing into the shadows.
Luck isn’t merely chance—it’s about 
When you’re stuck or facing inner conflict, an unexpectedly helpful method is to imagine a conversation between different sides of yourself.
Defining a problem with a specific solution already in mind can limit your perspective and obscure the real root causes. This narrow focus often results in quick, ineffective decisions that miss the mark.
When team members come to you with problems, resist the urge to jump straight into “fix-it” mode. It’s a common reflex, but it can 
Creativity is hardwired in us. Watch a four-year-old for an hour, and you’ll see a mind brimming with inventions—imaginary friends, wild stories, makeshift gadgets. Without fear or judgment, she’ll explore, question, and reimagine the world.