First Blog

Prolog.   AI is the most powerful tool of any kind to come along in many years. Almost all of us are frequent users. It's a time-saver, problem-solver, information resource, and grammar fixer. But it can't do everything. This is our problem for today: to explore its limitations. We build a wall around AI, which, if it gets out, we're in deep trouble. Be sure to read Section 2. Amazing. ----------------------------------  Problem-Solvers --- What AI Can Never Do G Donald Allen Without creativity, we would see only the same old patterns. 1. Introduction. Every day brings new reports of astonishing advances in artificial intelligence and agentic systems. Truly, AI is the problem-solver we’ve always needed. The pace of achievement is genuinely remarkable. Yet students and young thinkers may gradually absorb the idea that AI can accomplish virtually anything, a notion that can feel intimidating, or even discouraging, to minds still awakening to the wonder and mystery of th...

  The hallmark of every great problem-solver is fidelity to facts and reason. 1. Introduction. The character of a great problem-solver is an assemblage of assorted properties that often seem contradictory. How can you be analytical and yet open to subjective thinking? How is it realistic to be both flexible and decisive? The best problem solvers prefer a balance of characteristics. Too much of one doesn’t expiate another. All are needed, but in what measure for what problem? For the NASA Mars landing, analytics skills dominate. Maintaining diplomacy with an enemy requires all of them. To coach a major sports team, one needs analysis, flexibility, discipline, and great knowledge of the game and team. Yet the coach must be aware of the impact of all decisions and of their biases. Coaching has strategic and tactical components, together with the analytic and subjective. Rare is the real-world problem for which only a single answer is correct, absolute, incontrovertible, and requ...