Teaching My Smart Friends AI

“If you can, always try to play with folks on a different level than you.” - Kenny Barron, Jazz Pianist

Years ago, I was invited to join a late-night table tennis crew of medical professionals. They are ER doctors, hospitalists, and PAs who had played for many years, some extensively during residency. Just like in music, I was excited to learn something new with experts from a different domain than mine. I’ve learned so much about the heroics of medical professionals before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic from them.

I love talking about science fiction with Dr. Trent Thorn and his wife Christi, who host the evenings. As I started building my first bits of software with ChatGPT, I would talk about how fascinating the technology was becoming. Episodes of Westworld and Pantheon came up often. Eventually Trent called me to say he had just set up a new computer and wanted to learn how I was doing it. We hung out for about 4 hours that night. I listened, then showed him how.

The next day, Trent called and sent me a link to his project. He had already figured out VS Code, GitHub, and was expressing most of his ideas in Python. Trent is one of the smartest people I’ve met, so teaching him agentic coding and watching that catalyst moment in such a short time was inspiring. I’ve since started talking to other professionals who are curious about how to get started with AI. Here is the simple “pedagogy” I have shared with incredibly talented, curious people across domains on how to get started with AI.

“You are not behind.”

This is not a race, at least not for us. Research labs have made astonishing progress that seems to be moving at a beyond-human acceleration. People have anxiety about being left behind, eaten up, or replaced. Step one is to bring everyone back down to earth and into a sense of calm. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.

“You do not need to learn anything new.”

A real bottleneck is not starting because there is a steep learning curve. I reassure them that the barrier to entry is about the same level of difficulty as a spreadsheet. I do not have a degree in computer science, and I am near the bleeding edge of wielding the tools with ease. Not everyone feels they have the luxury of time to learn another skill. I think that is fair, so the goal is to remove the imagined burden of using AI at a high level.

“It is new software.”

AI is not aliens or unrecognizable tech from another time dimension, and it most certainly did not come out of thin air. It is software, very advanced and beautifully engineered, but still as approachable as email. AI is domain-agnostic, so the value is available to an increasing number of workflows.

“You do not have to create more work than you have now.”

Most business owners I speak with feel like starting with AI will be like building the automated wonders of manufacturing. I explain that I have much more time to make music now that I have learned some incredible uses for AI in my work. The irony is that the better you get with AI, the less time you have to spend using it.

“AI is not new.”

The tale of an intelligence made by humans has been told for centuries. From the tragedy and warnings of Pygmalion to the promises of uploaded intelligence, we have always been curious about building AI. Many of the second-order effects we are feeling stem from cybernetics and the hope of the thermostat. Autopoiesis is not a novel idea. Working directly with it is.

“Infinite patience combined with compressed intelligence at scale is the biggest win for mini-enterprises.”

Running a company solo has all of the difficult layers people tell you about, and many that only those of us who have taken up the journey can truly know. We don’t always experience patience from clients, vendors, or within ourselves. So having a tool that never gets tired of my questions, or of building software, is profound. Calculators and transistors made processing large amounts of data over many surfaces possible. AI is our generation’s breakthrough, so learn for yourself and teach others along the way.

People want to jump straight to the tools, but take the time to listen to what they do day to day if you don’t know. What do they imagine is possible with AI, based on what they have heard? Do they use any AI tools yet? Start with what you learn from these answers instead of somewhere completely different. As an educator, if you have virtuosity of the material you are teaching, you can clear a path and mold a simple first step right away.

For me, the point isn’t AI taking your job, or someone using AI doing the same. The point is being the jazz piano player who gets beat at ping pong, shares a bit of “how to” with a doctor, and that doctor in turn helps move cancer treatment forward. That’s what AI is for me right now, teaching my smart friends AI and sitting back and watching them go. Those of us who become early adopters to teach others have an amazing opportunity to make a disproportionate impact on the people around us. If you have found a way into AI and are finding fluency, get others to that catalyst moment. This is the part I love.

I always remind myself that there was a time when graduate school work in music or dance involved a two-week hands-on walkthrough on how to burn a CD. What Kenny taught me with the line at the beginning was that there will always be more talented people and as many curious folks wanting to learn as I do. At some point, these technologies may be on a whole other level than us. All we need to do for now is meet people where they are and continue to do the work and art we love.

• Michael Wall, in tandem with GPT-5.4 Pro