read a piece on schools and attention that reframed the whole thing for me. the line that stuck: don’t say we teach the children of the future, say we teach children to keep thinking for themselves in a world where thousands of systems try to think for them every day.

that’s a mission you can measure, and it doesn’t expire when the technology changes. it also fits an ai-personalized school without the usual trap, because the tech is there to build independence instead of maximizing engagement.

the fact underneath is uncomfortable. almost nobody was ever taught how attention works. cognitive biases, manipulation, how a recommender actually decides, the economics of the whole thing, none of it is in school anywhere. so people read a feed as what is happening in the world, rather than as a selection assembled personally for them.

the piece keeps the honest counterpoint too. it’s not only that people don’t think. they’re tired after work, the brain saves energy, they opened the app to relax and not to analyze society. all of that is true at the same time.