AI figure with books and a futuristic cityscape

Thinking Without Autocomplete

We are racing to build machines that can “imprint” knowledge instantly—yet we rarely ask what happens to the ability to learn. In “Profession” by Isaac Asimov, education becomes a technical procedure. Skills are uploaded directly into the brain. Careers are assigned. Competence is standardized. The system produces experts at scale, efficient, predictable and optimized. Until it encounters the outliers. The short story protagonist cannot receive preloaded knowledge. At first, he appears defective. Later, we discover he belongs to the minority capable of something far more disruptive: learning the hard way. Reading. Questioning. Connecting dots. Creating what does not yet exist. ...

April 12, 2026 · 2 min · 232 words · Me
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I published “Energizing kids with Robotics”

I published “Energizing kids with Robotics” medium.com/@malcata/energ… #education #kids #robotics #stem #lego #fll Original Tweet

June 16, 2017 · 1 min · 15 words · João Malcata
image of teams training their robot missions

Energizing children with robotics

Every year I look forward to judging on the national tournament for the FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL), a robotics program designed to get kids excited with STEM. I always get more than I give back and somehow this contagious energy ends up loading my “batteries”. However, by the end of the day, via a stressful scoring process, there is a clash between Meritocracy and Pedagogy that drains all the energy.

June 5, 2017 · 6 min · 1100 words · João Malcata