AI Can Give You Answers. Only Curiosity Gives You Understanding.

Bridge digital insights with real-world experience.

In a world where AI can answer almost anything in seconds, how do you stay curious? I heard two versions of this question the other day on different podcasts, framed in separate ways, but with the same meaning. It became a thought provoking question for me. The more I thought about it, the more important it seemed. We’ve already seen how critical thinking skills, research abilities, and even general knowledge has changed (and not necessarily for the good) over the last couple of decades with the idea of a Google Search. What does it mean that the answers we get back now give you everything you think you’ll need with steps and actions on what to do with it served right up with a prompt?

The answer is really no different than the one from the search change, or any big step forward in knowledge sharing. Learning and understanding still can only come from curiosity, not being given the answer. Let’s explore this a little further.

The Easy Path Isn't the Right Path

It would be easy to just keep leaning on AI more and more. Ask a question, get an answer, move on. That is certainly a functional use of AI and what many people are doing today. AI is advanced search.

We've actually been sliding this direction for a while. As Google search matured, people got a little lazier. They took the first answer that popped up instead of digging in. AI has made that worse. I could say AI isn’t doing that intentionally, but in a way it is. It’s designed to serve up information based on the prompt it’s given. That is its intention. It just doesn’t know whether that is good or bad for the situation. And the bigger concern is it says it with such confidence, we believe it more than the searches we used to perform that only pointed us in directions for more complex questions. Now, AI is handing you the answer directly, whether it’s right or wrong.

Depending on the situation, it can feel a lot like cheating on a test. If you copy the answer and get a good grade, you pass the test. But you don't actually know the material. You didn't earn the understanding. And that gap catches up with you eventually.

Lee Cockerell's Paris Example

Lee Cockerell, the former Executive Vice President of Walt Disney World Operations, made this point on his podcast, Creating Disney Magic. Ask AI to tell you everything about Paris, and it will. You'll get the history, you’ll learn about their politics and people going back hundreds of years. You'll get information and picture of the landmarks, the Eiffel Tower, the rivers, the wine country, all of the above.

You'll know about Paris. You still won't know Paris.

No amount of AI output replaces standing there, seeing it with your own eyes, tasting the food, talking to the people. That's where the real learning happens. We already believe this, by the way. It's why we still travel, why we'll pay more for an experience instead of just reading about one. I just experienced this in a place on many people’s bucket list, Iceland. Even the pictures I took do not do justice to the depth of beauty and unique geographic features we experienced in person and saw with our own eyes.

If you haven't read his book, Creating Magic: 10 Common Sense Leadership Strategies from a Life at Disney, it's worth the time. It's leadership advice built on lived experience, not shortcuts.

Now apply that same thinking to how you use AI in your work. You can ask it to help you write a post, analyze your business, plan your next move. But if you don't understand where that answer came from, and you never go test it, apply it, or live with it, you're left holding an incomplete sense of knowledge. It looks, and may even feel like understanding. It isn't.

A Story Closer to Home

This happened before AI, but it’s another perfect example of how experience exceeds two dimensional information. Our kids were homeschooled, and their grandparents took each one on a trip to the location of their choice. My son chose to go see Italy. Before he left, we taught him about the places he'd visit and the history behind them. He played a video game set in one of the cities they were going to visit.

Then he actually went and saw it for himself.

It stopped being something he read in a book or heard in a lesson. He felt what it was like to stand there, and all that history connected to something he could see. He took what he’d seen in the video game and used it to find his way in a real place. The appreciation he walked away with was nothing like what you get from information you memorize for a test. It turned into something else entirely: a genuine interest in the place, one that makes him want to keep learning about it as he gets older. Not to mention the memories and experience he continues to share today.

That's the difference between being told something and understanding it.

What This Means for You

AI is a great place to start, but it shouldn’t be the destination. The leaders who get the most out of AI in the years ahead won't be the ones who ask it the most questions. They'll be the ones who take what AI gives them and go do something with it. They'll get curious. They'll test it, apply it, push on it, and see if it actually holds up in their business, with their team, in their own environment.

AI can genuinely be a useful tool to start your learning journey. You can even use it to map out your approach, but to get something of real value from it, you have to remain interested and curious about what you are trying to accomplish. You will get a lot more satisfaction from the outcome in that moment, but more importantly, have an experience you can draw on in the future that will truly move you forward.

How do you stay curious to take your learning to deeper levels?

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