Most People Haven’t Actually Entered the AI Era

Here’s an image I just saw in a group chat. It’s very interesting, and apparently it’s from 傅盛 (Fu Sheng, a company boss). I think what it says is absolutely right, so I’m borrowing it here.

It reminds me of a lot of things from the past. I’ve never felt that habits of thinking, the ability to think, and the ability to ask questions mattered as much as they do now—especially in the AI era.

I previously posted a video whose main point was that ordinary people can start learning about AI by asking it five questions and completing five rounds of conversation every day.

I think this is the simplest way: start by getting a feel for what it can do for you. But I never imagined that so many people would leave comments saying, “What should I ask?” and “I don’t know what to ask.”

At the time, I thought, OMG... maybe this is the trickiest problem of all.

I also remember a time when my boss asked me to train all the departments and business teams in the company on fishbone diagrams. I made a very detailed PowerPoint, sent out a notice asking them to organize their own learning, and even drew up competition rules and prizes.

The next day, the administration manager came to me and asked, “Aren’t you going to organize an online training session?” I said, “I don’t think that’s necessary. It’s so simple—what is there to train people on? I’ve already written it out in great detail. They’ll definitely understand it.”

In the end, I didn’t hold a training session anyway (which shows how much I dislike training). Fortunately, though, what the departments submitted wasn’t too bad, and some of it was quite good.

Looking back later, I realized that her suggestion had been right. I had misjudged things somewhat and hadn’t thought about it from the users’ perspective.

Some habits of thinking take practice to become familiar. I’m already very familiar with this, but that doesn’t mean other people are too. Still, I think that once everyone practices using it more in their work, sooner or later practice will make perfect.

Another time, someone I knew asked me to make an XMind course with them—the kind you sell. My first reaction was also, “What is there to teach? Isn’t it just clicking a few buttons here and there? It’s very simple.”

What I mean is that the XMind software itself isn’t worth teaching. At its core, it is a visual expression of structured thinking. Even if you’re going to learn something, it should be a way of thinking—systems thinking and structured thinking.

Before AI, we wouldn’t really notice any obvious problem, because everyone had to do the work “by hand.” At most, the difference in efficiency was a fewfold.

But over the past year or two, I’ve begun to feel deeply that not knowing how to ask questions, or how to ask good questions, really has become a major problem.

AI has magnified the gap in thinking ability many times over. At this point, the difference in efficiency is no longer just a fewfold. In the future, the gap between those who know how to use AI and those who don’t could be dozens or even hundreds of times. This really is foreseeable.

These days, I often don’t feel like answering those “simple” questions either (unless it’s necessary to maintain a relationship, haha). Most of the time, you can tell from someone’s questions whether they’ve thought things through and worked with AI.

I want to say that, for many questions, AI can actually give better answers than many of the people around you. You can absolutely ask AI first about everything, and get into the habit of solving problems independently without bothering other people.

This is very important.