TLC: AI & Cognitive Surrender - What an AI Learning Penalty Might Mean for All of Us

Friday, October 30, 11:00am - 12:00pm (EDT)

Link:

Time shown in -04:00 America, New York

Hi TLCers!

Join me for a very important, but also a little spooky conversation, as we ask the question:

Is AI making us sharper, or is it doing the thinking that made us good at our jobs in the first place?

My son, Geoffrey Wortham, and I led a session on AI and Cognitive Surrender at MeasureCamp Chicago last weekend. It was standing room only, with people leaning in the doorway. Then, right when the conversation got really good... we ran out of time.

So we made everyone a promise. We'd do it again, give the content the time it deserves, and leave real space to talk it through together. This session is us keeping that promise.We also picked the date on purpose. It's close to Halloween because, let's be real, this topic is a little bit spooky.

The spooky part
New research suggests heavy AI use may be wearing down the things that make us good at what we do: critical thinking, recall, and the drive to keep getting better. None of this stays in the classroom. When a task gets fully handed off, the skill behind it never gets practiced, and that same thing is happening on our teams and in our own work.

The research we plan to cover

What we'll cover

The Gen AI Learning Penalty
How LLMs Affect the Brain
Novices vs. Experts
The Skills Gap
Productivity vs. Motivation

If you read some of the research above, you’ll see there are lots of studies to cover. But we also plan to save plenty of time for discussion so we can talk about real ways to solve for all of these scary things.

This community, and this industry, is full of some of the most innovative and creative people we know. So, come ready to get a little spooked, then stick around to help us find some solutions.

Costumes optional. Thinking caps required.

Presenters

Geoffrey Wortham, Full-stack Software Developer & Solutions Engineer, Adjunct Professor of CIS, and private tutor for higher-level math
Me, Geoff's mom, TLC Founder, and organizer of Optimizers Conference

Join the conversation Friday 30 October,
8 AM Pacific | 9 AM Mountain | 10 AM Central | 11 AM Eastern | 3 PM GMT

Add to Calendar 2026/10/30 10:00:00 2026/10/30 11:00:00 America/Chicago TLC: AI & Cognitive Surrender - What an AI Learning Penalty Might Mean for All of Us Hi TLCers!

Join me for a very important, but also a little spooky conversation, as we ask the question:

Is AI making us sharper, or is it doing the thinking that made us good at our jobs in the first place?

My son, Geoffrey Wortham, and I led a session on AI and Cognitive Surrender at MeasureCamp Chicago last weekend. It was standing room only, with people leaning in the doorway. Then, right when the conversation got really good... we ran out of time.

So we made everyone a promise. We'd do it again, give the content the time it deserves, and leave real space to talk it through together. This session is us keeping that promise.We also picked the date on purpose. It's close to Halloween because, let's be real, this topic is a little bit spooky.

The spooky part
New research suggests heavy AI use may be wearing down the things that make us good at what we do: critical thinking, recall, and the drive to keep getting better. None of this stays in the classroom. When a task gets fully handed off, the skill behind it never gets practiced, and that same thing is happening on our teams and in our own work.

The research we plan to cover

What we'll cover

The Gen AI Learning Penalty
How LLMs Affect the Brain
Novices vs. Experts
The Skills Gap
Productivity vs. Motivation

If you read some of the research above, you’ll see there are lots of studies to cover. But we also plan to save plenty of time for discussion so we can talk about real ways to solve for all of these scary things.

This community, and this industry, is full of some of the most innovative and creative people we know. So, come ready to get a little spooked, then stick...

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Event details:
https://www.addevent.com/event/wyqdc599s7bd

https://zoom.us/j/91416921421?pwd=mkPGdW9crrWk7ONahs4ogKzTRXOZpe.1&jst=3 Kelly Wortham tlc@testandlearn.community false 30

https://zoom.us/j/91416921421?pwd=mkPGdW9crrWk7ONahs4ogKzTRXOZpe.1&jst=3

Kelly Wortham, tlc@testandlearn.community