To succeed in our dystopian, technocratic, AI-driven future, you only need one (ok, maybe two) skills to succeed: The ability to learn and the ability to work well with others, even if they aren’t human.
Learning is a skill
In an economy increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence, the most valuable skill you can cultivate is the ability to learn. Learning is a skill and one that you can get better at. With practice, you can learn more quickly, effectively, and on your own terms. This isn’t just about staying competitive; it’s about thriving in a world where technology moves faster than any single individual can keep pace. And that’s exactly why using ChatGPT (or any large language model) to accelerate your learning isn’t cheating; it’s common sense. The real trick is using it the right way.
Picture ChatGPT as a personal tutor who never sleeps. No matter your field (changing careers into software engineering, upskilling for a promotion to management, or even accounting), ChatGPT can introduce you to the basics. It’s the digital equivalent of having an infinitely patient teacher who will walk you through the same concept over and over without ever rolling their eyes. That means you can focus on understanding the overall logic behind a framework or the reasoning behind a legal precedent, rather than memorizing every single detail. But instead of needing to pay and attend a tutor, you can get on-the-job experience without falling behind.
Yet while ChatGPT can provide quick answers, the real power lies in asking the right questions. Rather than simply accepting whatever information it gives you, challenge it to explain “why this method is better than that one” or “what if my dataset is ten times bigger?” or “What are the drawbacks and alternatives to this approach?” The real world doesn’t stand still, and neither should your curiosity. By probing deeper, you force ChatGPT to behave more like a teacher defending its lesson plan—and you develop the critical thinking skills that make you truly valuable in the workplace. This is also the inherent risk of using ChatGPT: it is often wrong, often right, often outdated, but will make claims with an equal amount of confidence regardless. Your job is to dig into that uncertainty and come out with a deeper understanding. This curiosity and distrust is what learning looks like in the age of LLMs.
This curiosity is also what will prevent you from becoming the next “lawyer who got caught citing non-existent cases in court because they trusted an AI’s output.” The lesson: treat ChatGPT like a junior associate, not a senior partner. For major projects, cross-reference your AI-generated answers with verified sources, official documentation, and maybe even a human expert or two. The ability to distinguish fact from fiction in a sea of data is what makes you indispensable, not your ability to recite lines of code or legal clauses. No matter how good the AI gets, it can’t replace your judgment, experience, and nuanced understanding of the field. You are smarter, if not as expansively knowledgeable, as an LLM. It is your job to ask the right questions.
Ultimately, it’s this combination of curiosity and skepticism—of letting AI do the heavy lifting while you keep a strategic eye on the horizon—that makes you a powerhouse in any AI-driven workplace. Rather than feeling overwhelmed by how rapidly technology changes, you’ll learn to adapt by asking better questions, consulting multiple sources, and understanding the underlying principles of whatever you’re working on. That’s how you turn ChatGPT into a skill-accelerator, instead of just a digital parrot repeating the internet back to you.
Master how to learn using tools like ChatGPT, layer that on top of your real-world knowledge, and you’ll find yourself thriving in an environment where so many are left scrambling. Don’t just look things up—dig into the “why” and the “how,” and remember that no technology can replace a mind that’s actively engaged and relentlessly curious. In an economy run on AI, that’s precisely what makes you irreplaceable.
Pair Coding: the perfect analogy of working with LLMs
What is pair coding? In a traditional pair programming setup, one person plays the “driver,” typing out code, while the other serves as the “navigator,” guiding the broader direction. This is exactly how you should treat AI. Let the AI do the heavy lifting when it comes to drafting early-stage ideas—whether it’s code snippets, marketing copy, or even a rough legal outline—so you can step back and scrutinize the bigger picture. Rather than becoming mired in every line of code or piece of text, you focus on whether it’s solving the right problem, meeting real-world constraints, and aligning with ethical or legal standards. Remain curious and skeptical, don’t stop asking questions!
One of the biggest misunderstandings is that this approach is limited to engineering. It’s not. A copywriter can guide ChatGPT through a design process to get some of the groundwork done. A lawyer can have it draft an initial brief, but then verify every source and footnote as though dealing with a junior associate’s work. Even a marketing manager can use AI to brainstorm email campaigns while still maintaining control over tone, compliance, and final messaging. In each case, the AI’s role is to expedite the grunt work so you can spend more time applying professional discernment.
This sounds a lot like teaching, doesn’t it? Guiding someone through a process, having them explain and show their work, and critiquing them? Being able to teach a concept is often seen as synonymous with mastery over that subject. If you can guide an LLM through this process, you are increasingly mastering your subject matter.
So again, treat your LLM as a junior on your team, not a seasoned expert. Always ask it to justify its suggestions. If you’re coding an optimization problem, for instance, demand to know why it selected a particular solver or constraint formulation. If you’re drafting a contract, challenge every clause until you truly grasp the rationale behind it. Over time, as you gather enough real-world experience and in-depth knowledge, you’ll rely less on what the AI “thinks” and more on your own judgment. It’s there to give you speed, not to replace your critical thinking.
However, pitfalls abound if you don’t maintain that sense of oversight. The now-infamous lawyer who cited phantom cases generated by an AI is a classic cautionary tale (yes, another one). Simply because ChatGPT (or any AI) can produce text that looks authoritative doesn’t mean it is. A good navigator always reads the draft thoroughly, double-checks sources, and ensures that everything meets professional and ethical standards. Ultimately, if something goes wrong, it’s your reputation—and possibly your career—that takes the hit, not the AI’s.
It also helps to remember that learning and doing should be an ongoing, integrated process. There’s a quote from “Dune” that says, “A process cannot be understood by stopping it. Understanding must move with the flow of the process.” Instead of pausing everything to study in isolation, let the AI churn out some initial scaffolding—be it a software module, a proposal, or a concept—and then weave in your domain knowledge. That’s how you pick up new skills on the fly without stalling your progress. At first, the AI might do most of the driving, but as you gain expertise, you’ll take the wheel, and the AI will simply become your helpful assistant.
Eventually, you may find yourself at a stage where ChatGPT is just one of many tools in your toolbox, used more for convenience than instruction. But to get there, you have to make peace with the driver/navigator dynamic, where you’re the one asking tough questions, checking its work, and shaping the direction. That’s the sweet spot: the AI handles the tedious stuff, and you handle the higher-order thinking. By the time you reach that level of comfort, you’ll have transformed from a novice reliant on AI suggestions to an expert who knows exactly when—and how—to make the most of this incredible technology.
Potential reigns supreme
LLMs are a tool for democratizing knowledge. If you have raw potential but not the formal training, you can still jump right in. Use ChatGPT to get started on complex tasks—code, legal briefs, data analyses—then learn as you go. There’s no reason to wait for a piece of paper or a formal course. You decide when you’re ready to tackle something new.
