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Comment by lelanthran | Hacker News Reader

> Tutoring is a process, and the end result is that the student gains a demonstrable new capability. The how isn't as important as the end result.

I disagree. If, after you have been tutored, you perform well, but still need tutoring for the next year's exam in that subject, then you haven't been "tutored", you've been given a similar enough copy of the exam questions to train on.

As I keep telling my kids, good results is a side-effect of good habits. If you're half-assing things, it shows up in your results. If you studious and methodical, it also shows up in your results, just in a different direction.

AI is used primarily to half-ass things, do things without checking, getting good vibes by that sycophantic tone.

Get your kids into a rut of good habits, and they'll run in that groove forever, regardless of tutors or AI. Half-ass your way through life, then sure, they'll get fucked over by AI tutors too.

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I think you are doing a lot of assuming on how AI can be used for tutoring. I'm currently augmenting Chinese in person tutoring with a pi harness that helps me out with drills, lets me explore what things mean, get similar words or context related words and so on. It's not perfect, def not good enough to be a standalone thing, def has barrier of entry of being motivated to do honest self work but it's a massive value add into the process for me.

One huge issue IMO is that right now, around the world, most people are not taught at all how to learn for themselves nor how to critically think on their own. And that will indeed result in using it as a crutch and not a good tutoring tool.

> I think you are doing a lot of assuming on how AI can be used for tutoring.

I don't think so. In fact, I'll go one further: I don't think we're in disagreement, just that I've been communicating poorly.

Allow me retry: My point is NOT "AI makes tutoring worse". My point is that AI tutoring is irrelevant to sustained academic performance.

1. Academic success is a side-effect of good habits (high correlation, not all the way to `1`).

2. A good tutor will instill the good habits for a specific subject (IME, different subjects require different habits, but all require the student to be diligent and consistent at least)

3. Half-assing things, as a habit, will not materially improve outcomes.

4. Most AI use is for half-assing things.

I did not mean to imply that AI in tutoring cannot be successful, only that AI-use tends to result in half-assing things.

Your anecdote is almost the opposite of half-assing things.

> One huge issue IMO is that right now, around the world, most people are not taught at all how to learn for themselves nor how to critically think on their own.

That's a different problem, I think. As I am learning with my two boys, you don't need to teach critical thinking specifically. Critical thinking naturally arises out of being diligent and thorough.

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