The privilege of making mistakes

Making mistakes is what helps us learn and find our voices. So what happens when AI enters the picture?

The headline for this blog came from a writer on Instagram who expressed regret that AI had robbed her of the privilege of making a mistake.

Privilege? What an odd thing to say. And yet, how true.

If you’re a student, you probably know the feeling. Maybe you have only a few hours to complete a long essay, or a maths problem seems impossible to solve. Hand it over to AI, and you’ll have a polished answer in seconds. Why struggle when you don’t have to?

Here’s the catch. The struggle is where you learn. It is the learning. It’s a bit like a video game. You get better by dying at the same spot twenty times and noticing the pattern that’s making you fail. Once you see it, you try something different and go up a level. Failure teaches you how to do things better.

Our brains work in much the same way. When you wrestle with a problem, keep getting it wrong and finally understand why, the knowledge you gain sticks. A mistake is simply information pointing you towards what you haven’t figured out yet.

At Tutorfair Foundation, we call it ‘productive struggle’. It’s the sweet spot between too hard and too easy. Eighty-four per cent of our learners come back to say that the difficulty level of their lessons was ‘just right’. This means that, through our Maths Circles, for example, you take away more than just maths skills. You also build perseverance, self-confidence and flexible thinking, the kind of mental muscle you can draw on when facing other challenges life throws your way. Contrary to what you might expect, failure builds confidence. Knowing that you can recover from mistakes, as you have before, is a different kind of power from being flawless.

Mistakes also help you find your own voice. They teach you to write or solve problems in a way that is uniquely your own. Others may sound like AI, but you sound like you.

Does that mean you should avoid AI completely? Not at all. Just don’t expect AI to do the learning for you. Think of yourself as a musician developing a skill. AI can guide you, but it can’t do the work of learning the notes or mastering an instrument for you.

Try using AI as a sounding board instead, to understand where and why you’re going wrong. It can help you learn faster, strengthen your own work and, perhaps, even make you look forward to your mistakes.