The End of Why

00:00:01: Hello and welcome.

00:00:03: Before we get into this episode, I want you to listen something Daddy.

00:00:08: why

00:00:08: can't see the stars

00:00:10: during day?

00:00:11: Because sun shines so bright that we cannot see them anymore.

00:00:15: But where do they go?

00:00:17: Honey!

00:00:17: They don't go anywhere.

00:00:19: There's still there.

00:00:20: We just cant'see them.

00:00:22: Why not if their're still there?

00:00:24: because sunlight is stronger.

00:00:26: but why is sunlight strong?

00:00:28: because Sun is much closer

00:00:31: Closer

00:00:31: than what?

00:00:32: Closer then the other stars.

00:00:34: The sun is a star?

00:00:35: Yes, yes it is!

00:00:37: How close

00:00:38: is the

00:00:38: Sun?!

00:00:39: You know what sweetheart?

00:00:40: that's really good question.

00:00:42: I don't know the answer but you made me curious.

00:00:44: let me find out and i'll tell later.

00:00:46: okay promise I promise.

00:01:02: Did this conversation sound familiar ?

00:01:05: I'm sure many of you recognize yourselves either as child or parent.

00:01:10: Isn't fascinating The kind of questions children ask when they're exploring the world.

00:01:16: It's that genuine curiosity, That can be a pure delight but equally annoying When we don't have the knowledge or time to answer them And when life gets in the way Dads' promise To find out the answer Can easily be broken.

00:01:31: Maybe the child forgets about the question Or maybe she learns that Curiosity isn't really rewarded.

00:01:38: I've been thinking alot About this lately Because although we know that curiosity drives exploration, learning innovation and development.

00:01:47: We are making it harder for people to stay curious.

00:01:51: Curiosity vanishes in a world that's focused on certainty outcomes and answers And the implications of that are rarely acknowledged not In our educational systems Not in business and in particular not in the current race for AI adoption.

00:02:08: But when curiosity is gone Our motivation to learn follows.

00:02:12: Knowledge today is just a prompt away, learning is judged by how fast it pays off.

00:02:18: both turn into a transaction.

00:02:21: It's not the same kind of learning that happens when we really want to explore problem When curiosity is driving us to extend learning beyond obvious outcome.

00:02:31: But this exactly where continuous improvement connecting different ideas, new perspectives and deptability come from.

00:02:40: Isn't that what we call innovation?

00:02:42: When people lose curiosity about their work it doesn't happen overnight.

00:02:47: It's driven by the environment We give them when we focus on executing instead of thinking delivering Instead of developing And performing overgrowing.

00:02:57: Gallup has been measuring this for over two decades in global engagement surveys.

00:03:02: The results are not encouraging And while some people take the drop in human engagement as a signal to question work environments we've created, others use it as an excuse to replace humans with AI.

00:03:17: This connects my previous episode called The Confidence Trap because is overconfidence at large?

00:03:23: believe that anyone can foresee implications of scaling the use of AI and ignorance of the human capabilities.

00:03:36: that got us to this point.

00:03:39: Now, does it mean I'm joining the AI fear narrative?

00:03:43: Certainly not because Fear is never a good teacher!

00:03:46: I prefer Curiosity.

00:03:48: So just few weeks ago i built myself a work stream & project planner.

00:03:53: It's a web app to organize my entire work running only on my laptop.

00:03:58: I builded using Claude Code But now I wanted to see whether someone like me, without a technical background could actually build something real with AI.

00:04:10: And my curiosity despite some frustrations and the serious learning effort was highly rewarded.

00:04:16: The app runs on over four thousand seven hundred lines of code.

00:04:20: It does exactly what i needed it do.

00:04:22: finishing just felt amazing almost unbelievable.

00:04:27: What didn't expect is that building would also take me over thirty years back in time.

00:04:33: It was nineteen ninety-five.

00:04:35: as I wanted to improve my English, i had convinced my parents to finance a school year abroad and went into the UK.

00:04:42: their A level system allowed me pick specific focus subjects.

00:04:46: so alongside economics & French ,i picked computer science .I got first computer at thirteen.

00:04:54: of course ive used it primarily for games but i was interested how this worked.

00:04:59: Signing up for that class simply meant following my curiosity.

00:05:04: So, while I was still fascinated by how well my app worked... ...I was taken back to my first day in class!

00:05:11: The moment of entering the room is still a scene burned into memory.

00:05:16: It's looks from the teacher and other students.

00:05:20: Yes, i'm the only girl.

00:05:22: And the whole room communicated something immediately.

00:05:26: You do not belong here.

00:05:28: The teacher even said, this is the computer science class.

00:05:32: Are you sure?

00:05:32: You're in the right room not very inviting or encouraging Right?

00:05:37: I'm sure you can imagine how well the classes went.

00:05:40: It's easy to exclude someone from learning but i am Not Someone To Give Up.

00:05:44: Quickly Calling Germany From The UK In Ninety-Ninety Five Wasn't Cheap But My Uncle Had Studied Information Technology And Was Quite Computer Sevy.

00:05:54: He was the one person able to help me understand what I wasn't getting in class.

00:06:00: So, i called him not just once.

00:06:02: every time i would very quickly explain What?

00:06:05: Was working on.

00:06:06: write down everything he said go back to The study room work On it and call again if i still didn't get It.

00:06:13: i was eager To stay but it was certainly tough.

00:06:16: One day we had to present homework.

00:06:19: i don't really remember what it was exactly a number.

00:06:22: We have to figure out But what I do remember vividly is this.

00:06:26: With the help of my uncle, i had come up with a number that was different from everyone else's and it was the correct one!

00:06:34: I Was The Only One In The Class Who Got It Right.

00:06:37: For A Moment I Felt Some Hope but the looks on Everyone's Faces Quickly Destroyed It Again.

00:06:43: So If You Think That Was A Moment Things Shifted?

00:06:46: That Getting It Right Would Somehow Change How I Was Seen And Treated...It Didn't..If Anything It Made Things Worse.

00:06:53: After two months of receiving that continuous message, if you don't belong here I changed to history because it was the only class with a space left.

00:07:03: So definitely not my choice and i had a hard time developing a strong enough interest in The Ottoman Empire To get a decent grade.

00:07:12: In the confidence trap we looked at what happens when We reward performative confidence too much but I deliberately Left something out of that episode.

00:07:21: The way confidence gets taken away from others.

00:07:24: Curiosity builds our drive to learn, but we also need encouragement to sustain it!

00:07:30: Without it the courage-to-keep going is easily

00:07:33: destroyed.".

00:07:34: What I experienced in nineteen ninety five wasn't unusual —the same certainty that inflates the confidence of some people—is being used to tell other they are not enough and at worst exclude them.

00:07:47: This happens in classrooms in teams and an entire workplaces.

00:07:52: Go back in time yourself now, think of the best teacher you ever had someone who's influenced you still carry.

00:07:59: just hold that memory for a moment And let us look at what curiosity actually is.

00:08:05: considering our childhood nature and how we learn.

00:08:09: I would say it s fundamental part human nature A trait We all carry when enter this world.

00:08:15: It certainly holds an intrinsic motivation And from an adult perspective, we may be inclined to say that some people have more of it than others.

00:08:24: But just let me guess a little bit what your teacher was like?

00:08:28: They probably didn't just give you facts and figures... ...and didn't hand you the answer!

00:08:33: I'm sure they asked questions that weren't focused on one solution.

00:08:38: rather made not knowing feel-like-the start of something….

00:08:41: …something you wanted to explore yourself.

00:08:45: They inspired you to think across subjects and connect the dots.

00:08:49: That is, The best form of teaching!

00:08:51: It's the ability to empower our innate curiosity.

00:08:55: So Curiosity isn't just a trade.

00:08:58: If it gets nurtured by great teachers... ...it becomes A skill A skill that defines whether we consider learning something finite or infinite And thats what most organizations get wrong.

00:09:10: they treat like a trait instead of a skill.

00:09:13: Research on learning consistently shows that people become more curious when they're given problems worth thinking about, When their questions are taken seriously.

00:09:22: When they feel safe enough to make mistakes and keep learning.

00:09:27: Curiosity needs a gap – something we don't know yet but want to know!

00:09:31: That gap is the engine of Learning.

00:09:33: If We Close It Too Fast by Handing People The Answer By Punishing Mistakes & Questions And Leaving Thinking To Whoever Speaks The Loudest We kill the very thing that makes learning possible.

00:09:46: And we have built entire environments, that did exactly that long before AI arrived.

00:09:52: AI is in many ways just amplifying the conditions that are already given and it's striking to see people building something that risks destroying the very qualities that got us this far.

00:10:04: History is full of inventor-and-tinkerer stories that show us why curiosity has a skill to be nourished.

00:10:12: In the eighteen forties, Ada Lovelace looked at a mechanical calculating engine and saw something others were missing.

00:10:20: She didn't just see a tool to calculate faster.

00:10:23: she asked what else could be done with it?

00:10:26: Eventually she described what computers can do a century before they existed At age of twenty seven With no formal scientific position but with question she couldn't let go off.

00:10:38: Nikola Tesla did not invent things by following her plan He played with ideas compulsively, without knowing where they were going.

00:10:46: Most of what he tried didn't work—he kept going anyway!

00:10:50: The alternating current that powers most of the world's electricity today came from someone who simply wouldn't stop asking what electricity could do?

00:11:00: Neither was chasing a deliverable or optimizing for output —they were following their

00:11:05: curiosity.".

00:11:07: So leaders building environments where learning is only valued by its direct impact on performance are hollowing out their organization.

00:11:16: The pattern I've repeatedly seen, Is that when profits drop the first budget to get cut?

00:11:21: It's learning and development And the reasoning is almost always the same.

00:11:25: it's the hardest to connect two immediate return and the easiest To explain away.

00:11:31: but every time it happens curiosity and learning take another hit.

00:11:35: The message to employees is quiet, but clear.

00:11:39: Your development is costs not investment.

00:11:42: the organizations that will sustain know something different.

00:11:46: they know that investing in people IS THE FUTURE and That Investment Is Not Only About Training And Development Budgets But About An Entire Culture Built On The Genuine Belief That People Are The Reason.

00:11:58: The Business Exists.

00:11:59: It's A Culture Where Curiosity Is Valued Where Someone Can Say I Don't Know Yet Safely where learning happens daily and not because it's in the calendar.

00:12:10: It is an environment-and leadership culture that continuously supports it, so the way curiosity is being treated at an organization eventually tells us more than any cultural statement on a company

00:12:22: website.".

00:12:23: Two companies got this right long before AI was making headlines.

00:12:27: In two thousand five Delta Airlines filed for bankruptcy.

00:12:31: The US airline industry was on its knees after nine eleven.

00:12:35: Pressure to cut everything was enormous.

00:12:38: Delta cut costs too, but they did not cut the belief that their people were the reason their business existed.

00:12:44: CEO Ed Bastien then still in the role of CFO didn't just look at numbers.

00:12:50: he got curious about the people running the business.

00:12:53: so you started gathering up to three hundred employees a time for listening sessions called Velvet Velvet as in behind-the-velvet road.

00:13:03: Twenty years later, those sessions still happen and he didn't stop at listening.

00:13:09: Delta also runs a program called Behind the Wings.

00:13:12: Senior leaders volunteer to do front-line jobs themselves.

00:13:16: They sit behind baggage drop desks At ticket counters they deal with frustrated customers And cold mornings on the ramp.

00:13:24: Starting in twenty twenty delta rebuild its career framework Apprenticeship programs, internal promotions before external hires.

00:13:33: A talent architecture that lets people see what they could become next All of it driven by a CEO who was genuinely curious about What is People Needed to do their best work?

00:13:45: Take care of your people and They take care of customers And happy customers reward you with loyalty.

00:13:52: Delta has been building That for twenty years.

00:13:55: Lego, the Danish toy company went through something similar.

00:13:59: When Jürgen Knutstorp became CEO in two thousand four The Company was on the brink of bankruptcy a victim of overexpansion and lost brand identity.

00:14:10: He wasn't outsider a former McKinsey consultant And the first CEO not from the founding family?

00:14:17: The First thing he did was get curious.

00:14:19: you walked to the organization asking questions What does it actually mean to work at Lego?

00:14:25: what is that we do better than anyone else?

00:14:28: why does this company exist?

00:14:30: he sent his designers, who live with families for a week just watch how children played.

00:14:36: He wanted to understand what lego was before trying fix it.

00:14:40: With the approach turned into one of the most valuable toy brands in the world.

00:14:46: two different industries and countries but two leaders with the same curiosity and belief in people running their business.

00:14:54: These companies got it right, But they still seem to be exception.

00:14:58: Most companies went opposite direction And now AI enters stage.

00:15:03: Deloitte recently published research that should stop every leader already playing the headcount reduction with AI game.

00:15:11: Organizations are spending ninety three percent of budgets on AI technology just seven percent on the people expected to use it.

00:15:19: And only ten percent of organizations say that they are seeing meaningful return on that investment, so I'm wondering is there overconfidence in AI technology or underestimation of human capabilities?

00:15:34: Most likely its both because The math clearly shows It doesn't add up and Its not as if leaders haven't been told.

00:15:42: VCG is just one consulting company which advises the opposite.

00:15:46: When companies undertake AI transformation, they need to focus two-thirds of their efforts on people related capabilities.

00:15:54: and even more interesting – The companies that actually lead in AI adoption follow this rule.

00:16:00: Ten percent are resources or AI models.

00:16:03: Twenty per cent are infrastructure and data to run them And seventy per cent on how people work with it.

00:16:11: Most organizations, however stick to the high-invest in technology low invest and people approach.

00:16:18: That is the current reality of AI adoption at the organizational level.

00:16:23: But what happens to us individually?

00:16:25: Do we have a choice about how much We use the shiny new tools?

00:16:29: according To some headlines about companies forcing employees to use AI for higher productivity probably not Earlier this month, Time Magazine published research on nearly two thousand working adults.

00:16:42: The study wasn't asking whether people used AI – it was asking how they used it!

00:16:48: People who accepted AI outputs without questioning them but took the first answer and moved on reported lower confidence in their own thinking leading to a weaker sense that work is still theirs.

00:17:06: reported the opposite – more confidence, stronger ownership.

00:17:10: And most important detail….

00:17:12: The people most likely to push back on AI were ones with existing expertise which means that those at risk are still developing.

00:17:22: The junior team member who doesn't have knowledge yet to recognize when AI is wrong and a new hire who hasn't had sufficient background in the company or the person who was never really encouraged to think for themselves.

00:17:36: We have already stripped entire generations of the experience, of figuring something out for ourselves and now we're handing them tools that will not only kill their curiosity but take their confidence and ambition right with it.

00:17:51: so the risk of what we are losing right now can hardly be ignored.

00:17:56: still The race for artificial general intelligence continues at full speed.

00:18:01: Consider OpenAI's definition of AGI – systems that will outperform humans at most economically valuable work.

00:18:09: It comes as no surprise, people are already fighting AI adoption!

00:18:14: Why would anyone want to make use something that eventually makes them redundant?

00:18:20: The idea that we'll adapt and find purpose in other things is one the most reckless assumptions being made today.

00:18:31: It's clearly overconfidence in the light of power dynamics and wealth accumulation already running this world.

00:18:38: And people most confident we can handle are not even ones who built technology.

00:18:44: Joffrey Hinton, one of the founding figures of modern AI left a senior position at Google in twenty-twenty three.

00:18:51: The reason?

00:18:52: He wanted to be able speak freely about what could go wrong.

00:18:57: Yoshua Benjo, another key architect of deep learning has spent years advocating for safety measures.

00:19:04: He also asks for slowing the race down – for looking at second and third order consequences before they become irreversible.

00:19:12: They are not outsiders…and just two of many critical voices among those who built technology And clearly aren't saying full speed ahead.

00:19:22: However their voices sound more and more alarming And maybe that's necessary to reach the people holding the strings, but it doesn't help learning.

00:19:31: The attention economy pulls them into the fear narrative –the more alarming the headline….

00:19:36: …the more clicks... ...the more followers and revenue.

00:19:39: A whole content industry is now using these voices to profit before their revenue stream is also done.

00:19:46: Instead of raising awareness in educating they're running on drama & fear.

00:19:51: But Fear Doesn't Inspire Curiosity.

00:19:54: it leads us into paralysis.

00:19:57: If you genuinely believe AI is coming for your job, regardless of what you do why would you stay curious about how to work with it well?

00:20:04: Why would you invest in learning ?

00:20:06: Why would any organization invests in developing its people and It IS becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.

00:20:14: Fear creates paralysis.

00:20:16: Paralysis lowers engagement.

00:20:19: Disengagement hurts performance and then companies see replacing human workers as the only way out.

00:20:25: What we actually need is the opposite, We need people curious enough to ask their heart questions engaged enough care about answers willing stay in discomfort of not knowing yet The complexity.

00:20:39: our brains are still being mapped.

00:20:48: What we seem to have forgotten is that we got this far by refusing to accept, That the answer in front of us Is the final one.

00:20:57: So how much overconfidence does it take To think that We can hand our thinking to machines Without looking carefully at what were trading away?

00:21:06: Why do talk about capabilities growth and innovation When don't even understand The conditions made those things possible In first place?

00:21:15: Just Think About what actually see in most companies The person who has a better idea of doing something but doesn't say it because they're too far down in the hierarchy.

00:21:25: A new joiner full of ideas, who learns within few weeks to keep their head down Because someone tells them that's just how we do things here.

00:21:34: And an experienced manager used to ask great questions But stopped when told focus on cutting costs.

00:21:41: None chose not being curious.

00:21:44: The environment made curiosity too costly for them.

00:21:48: And when we introduce AI into such an environment, We certainly don't bring it back.

00:21:53: Instead we amplify the conditions that already reduced it.

00:21:57: So what should playbook for empowering humans with AI actually look like?

00:22:02: I would say we need leaders With courage to hit pause button To sit in second and third order consequences Before we race past them.

00:22:12: Leaders who see people as reason.

00:22:14: their business exists and AI as a tool to expend our capabilities, not to replace them.

00:22:20: And we need organizations—and leaders—we can trust.

00:22:24: Arrogance and overconfidence don't build trust.

00:22:27: Curiosity —and care about people

00:22:29: do.".

00:22:30: In the next reflection episode I will give you practices that drive your own curiosity… …and help inspire it in others!

00:22:42: But seeing advantage more and more, sometimes even deliberately destroyed is something I'm willing to fight against.

00:22:50: Not by going against technology but the fear narrative We have.

00:22:55: bring back our curiosity Our willingness learn grow And humility.

00:23:00: accept that we don't know everything.

00:23:02: We should consider this far with way more capabilities than what AI currently built on because it is built on a fragmented idea of human intelligence, and maybe its time to become more curious about humans again.

00:23:18: So stay curious!

00:23:19: Stay tuned!

00:23:20: Let me close this episode by continuing the story with which

00:23:26: Of course I can help you with that!

00:23:41: Here is a bedtime story.