The Courage to Look Silly, AI Cheating & Gary’s Economics

Student Cheating Is Becoming Impossible to Detect in an A.I. Era by Dana Goldstein

​Really interesting article, but it sparked an even more interesting conversation with my five teenagers. AI can now intentionally add believable typos, awkward phrasing, and other “human” mistakes to avoid detection. While they agreed it’s made cheating much easier, they also pointed out the other side of the coin: many teachers are now using AI just as carelessly. They’ve received AI-generated feedback that didn’t make sense, and even taken AI-created tests that didn’t match what was actually taught in class. Just another reason my 90s high school experience was superior!

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The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo

Man, I enjoyed this book. Like really enjoyed it, and it’s probably worthy of a deeper discussion someday. If you’re looking for a fast-paced, plot-driven book, this isn’t it. Instead, it’s a character study centered on a married couple and their four daughters. Maybe it resonated because the couple married young and spent decades building a life together, which felt familiar to me. More than anything, though, it’s a thoughtful exploration of family relationships between siblings, parents and children, and spouses. As one of eight kids, and with five of my own, it forced me to do a good bit of reflecting on my own relationships.

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Gary’s Economics

Maybe it’s the economics degree I earned 25 years ago, but I’ve always enjoyed thinking about money, markets, incentives, and inequality. If that sounds like your kind of jam, check out Gary Stevenson. He’s a former trader who made millions before leaving finance, and he now spends much of his time talking about economic inequality and arguing for higher taxes on the ultra-wealthy. I don’t agree with everything he says, but I think he raises some thoughtful questions that are worth wrestling with.

“You wouldn’t worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do.” — Often attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt

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“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” — Winston Churchill

The courage to look silly

Last week the whole fam soaked up sunny Southern California. Great trip. We ate, we beached, we took a surf lesson.

And out of that lesson, I got a different kind of lesson.

The instructor said, “The younger kids will probably pick this up the fastest.” I scoffed. I figured he meant some kind of kid physics. A combo of balance and lower center of gravity.

But that wasn’t his point.

“It’s because they can wipe out fifty times and laugh,” he said. “Meanwhile us adults fall twice and start apologizing. The older people get, the more they care about looking bad.”

Dang. Surf dude dropping some wisdom.

It also made me wonder how often I contradict what I tell my kids.

Be brave.

Try new things.

Fall down.

Get back up.

And yet how often do I avoid trying something simply because I don’t want to look foolish? Skip the dance class. Pass on the new sport. Stay in my comfort zone because it’s safer than risking a reputation.

So what did I do?

I fell. Over and over again. I’d love to tell you I was intentionally modeling resilience for my kids. But they were legitimately better surfers than I was.

And honestly, I loved failing in front of them. Sure, maybe they learned something about perseverance. But more than that, they got to see that looking foolish is sometimes simply part of doing interesting things. That trying something new almost always starts with being bad at it.

(For the record, I did remind them that Dad still wins at most things.) 😉

One last tip, parents: You might as well get comfortable being the butt of the joke.

Once your kids become teenagers, they turn into world-class roasters. Despite your best efforts, they’re probably going to get the last laugh anyway.

You may as well laugh with them.

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Thanks for reading, dads.

Let’s make this time count!