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The Only Trait for Success in the AI Era—How to Build It | Carnegie Mellon University Po-Shen Loh

EO22:30Added Aug 31, 2026

Po-Shen Loh reveals why modern education may be failing us—and what it will take for humanity to thrive in the AI era.From AI solving Olympiad-level problems...

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Contributed by 刘嘉琪

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  1. Intro

  2. 00:00Soon after Chat GPT came out, I started
  3. 00:02traveling around the country telling
  4. 00:04people, "Oh no, there's this new thing
  5. 00:06people are going to need to learn to be
  6. 00:08more creative because that's the only
  7. 00:10thing that the AI can't do." I don't say
  8. 00:12that anymore because now I've seen that
  9. 00:14the AI can actually come up with lots
  10. 00:16and lots of ideas. Last year, the
  11. 00:19International Math Olympiad problems,
  12. 00:21four of them were solved by Google's
  13. 00:24artificial intelligence. The
  14. 00:25International Math Olympiad has six
  15. 00:27questions and all six of the questions
  16. 00:29are very very original. They are so
  17. 00:31original that when the national coaches
  18. 00:33meet, they all look at the problems and
  19. 00:36they all try to make sure nothing too
  20. 00:38similar to those problems has ever
  21. 00:39appeared in any contest or anywhere in
  22. 00:41the world before. The questions are
  23. 00:43supposed to be really original. But
  24. 00:45nevertheless, the artificial
  25. 00:46intelligence was able to come up with
  26. 00:48solutions to four out of six, which is
  27. 00:49more than I can do. The creativity in
  28. 00:52the AI can probably surpass what we can
  29. 00:55do, too. The only unique thing about
  30. 00:58human intelligence is that we hopefully
  31. 01:00care that humans still exist.
  32. 01:03I'm Po Shanlow. I'm a mathematician who
  33. 01:06likes to solve real world problems. In
  34. 01:08real life, I'm a math professor at
  35. 01:10Carnegie Melon University, but I'm also
  36. 01:12a social entrepreneur where I've been
  37. 01:14running my own educational solution,
  38. 01:17which tries to make the world a more
  39. 01:19thoughtful place.

  40. AI’s #1 Target in Schoolwork

  41. 01:29[Music]
  42. 01:31in schools. One of the biggest places
  43. 01:34where students are using AI to cheat on
  44. 01:37their homework is for their writing.
  45. 01:45This unfortunately could make a huge
  46. 01:47problem for human civilization because
  47. 01:49you just have to think what is that AI
  48. 01:52anyway? It's a large language model. How
  49. 01:54is that AI so good? It's because it's
  50. 01:57good at language. It's good at looking
  51. 01:59at the patterns of words that often
  52. 02:01appear. If many kids lose this ability,
  53. 02:05we'll get many kids who grow up and
  54. 02:07aren't able to think logically. All
  55. 02:09they're able to do is just take whatever
  56. 02:11anyone else gives them. they'll just be
  57. 02:13dependent. If you're already grown up
  58. 02:16and you already have that skill and
  59. 02:17you're using the AI to achieve that task
  60. 02:20because that's for your job, great.
  61. 02:22Okay, you're using it to do a job. But
  62. 02:24if you're in school, why are you doing
  63. 02:26that writing? It's not because the
  64. 02:28writing you make is going to make money
  65. 02:30directly. No, no, that writing is
  66. 02:32actually part of your own learning.
  67. 02:34Using AI to do your writing homework in
  68. 02:36school is like saying, "I'm not going to
  69. 02:39run a mile for exercise. I'm going to
  70. 02:41drive my car one mile for exercise. How
  71. 02:44much exercise you get? You get none.
  72. 02:45You're going to grow up and you're not
  73. 02:47going to be able to be as physically
  74. 02:48fit. Similar thing here with mentally
  75. 02:50fit. And just this observation that the
  76. 02:53power of the large language model is the
  77. 02:55L, the language. That's why we need to
  78. 02:58really make sure that all of our kids,
  79. 03:00if any, and if you're watching this and
  80. 03:01you're students, this is why you need to
  81. 03:03be really, really good with language for
  82. 03:05the next generation. All of these skills
  83. 03:07like reading and writing, communication,
  84. 03:09logic, these are all going to be very
  85. 03:11important because these are how you
  86. 03:13develop a a good way to think. I was
  87. 03:16explaining to people the reason why we
  88. 03:17do this math is not because eventually
  89. 03:19we have to do algebra, but the reason is
  90. 03:21because eventually this just makes you
  91. 03:23smarter. So you're able to go and think
  92. 03:25through situations you haven't seen
  93. 03:27before and figure them out. I interview

  94. How a Carnegie Mellon Professor Tests Creativity

  95. 03:29lots and lots of high school students
  96. 03:31who want to work with me. And during the
  97. 03:34interview, the way that I interview for
  98. 03:35intelligence is I ask them questions,
  99. 03:38usually math questions because those are
  100. 03:39analytical. And I ask them questions
  101. 03:41until it's very clear from their body
  102. 03:43language that they have never seen this
  103. 03:45question before. Because usually if
  104. 03:47you're doing math questions and you've
  105. 03:48seen it before, you have a certain look
  106. 03:49of confidence in your eyes. But I wait
  107. 03:51until it's really clear that they have
  108. 03:53never seen this before. And then I want
  109. 03:55to see how you think. Actually, because
  110. 03:58you've never seen that question before,
  111. 03:59the expectation is that you won't solve
  112. 04:01it. And so then I start to give hints.
  113. 04:04Those hints are usually ideas that they
  114. 04:06wouldn't have encountered before in
  115. 04:08school. And then I want to see how
  116. 04:10quickly can you synthesize these new
  117. 04:13hints, these new ways of thinking,
  118. 04:14synthesize them into a solution for a
  119. 04:17problem we have never seen before.
  120. 04:20Actually, that's also creativity.
  121. 04:23So that's one particular piece. But

  122. What Matters More Than Creativity

  123. 04:25going forward, I think that one of the
  124. 04:27skills that people will really need is
  125. 04:29that aspect of actually wanting to
  126. 04:33create value and delight in other
  127. 04:35people. Why do I say this? I say this
  128. 04:38because for many, many years, humans
  129. 04:41were the top species, the most capable
  130. 04:44things on this planet. Soon it will not
  131. 04:47be that case. Soon, you're going to have
  132. 04:50to work together to survive. The only
  133. 04:53way to get other people to want to team
  134. 04:56up with you is for you to authentically
  135. 04:59and deeply be a person who is motivated
  136. 05:02by creating value in the other. If you
  137. 05:04are not that way, you are a bad partner
  138. 05:07and people will not want to go and team
  139. 05:08with you. If they don't team with you,
  140. 05:11you will die. You will lose opportunity
  141. 05:16because eventually all of these kinds of
  142. 05:19jobs you can use AIS to do. Then why
  143. 05:21would anyone want to employ you? Why
  144. 05:22would anyone want to have you as as
  145. 05:24someone on their team? Presumably only
  146. 05:26because they somehow felt like you are
  147. 05:28going to create some value and they they
  148. 05:30like that vibe. They like you. I think
  149. 05:32what we really need is to get more and
  150. 05:34more people who are figuring out what
  151. 05:36the real problem to solve is. But
  152. 05:39unfortunately sometimes when kids just
  153. 05:41think about problems, they don't realize
  154. 05:43that the way that you solve a problem is
  155. 05:46through empathy and through relating to
  156. 05:47other people. Why? because you can't
  157. 05:50solve a problem unless you can visualize
  158. 05:52it through their eyes. I do spend a

  159. Simulating the World

  160. 05:55significant amount of my life working
  161. 05:57towards the goal of being better at
  162. 06:00simulating the world. I also use AI for
  163. 06:02that. I think I'll give one exact
  164. 06:05example. I was just in Nashville,
  165. 06:07Tennessee last week and I just saw a
  166. 06:08really I thought very very talented
  167. 06:11singer in one of the bars there. Wow,
  168. 06:14she's good. And I just got curious, how
  169. 06:17hard is it to be able to get a
  170. 06:18performing spot on Broadway in
  171. 06:20Nashville. So I asked AI and I was
  172. 06:23actually not just interested in AI tell
  173. 06:24me about it. I I want to see the links,
  174. 06:26you know, tell me more. What is the
  175. 06:28background of this particular place here
  176. 06:29she's performing at? Right. I I will
  177. 06:31make my own conclusions based on
  178. 06:33knowing. Oh, oh, oh, I see. So there's
  179. 06:35all of these different people who would
  180. 06:36want to do this thing, right? So if
  181. 06:38you're one of the people who got picked
  182. 06:39to do it at this prime time, oh, this
  183. 06:41makes logical sense. See, I'm using the
  184. 06:44AI to build the logic inside my brain
  185. 06:47for understanding country music
  186. 06:50performance. And why was I trying to
  187. 06:51understand? Honestly, it's because these
  188. 06:53days I also work with professional
  189. 06:54entertainers. So, I'm also myself always
  190. 06:56scouting. The big heart of this is I
  191. 06:59wasn't using the AI to write the report
  192. 07:01for me. I was using AI to make myself
  193. 07:03better at that particular goal. Being
  194. 07:06able to simulate the world is the
  195. 07:08superpower that makes someone able to be
  196. 07:11a successful entrepreneur. Simulating
  197. 07:13the world allows you to imagine a
  198. 07:17product or imagine a strategy and then
  199. 07:19play it forward in your head. What would
  200. 07:22happen if I did this?

  201. Why School Makes You Depressed

  202. 07:29A long time ago when I started with
  203. 07:31education, I was actually just thinking
  204. 07:32about how to help people do math
  205. 07:34problems. Today when I think back to
  206. 07:36that time, I think I was probably a
  207. 07:39solution looking for a problem in the
  208. 07:41sense that uh somehow I thought it would
  209. 07:43be very important for people to be good
  210. 07:44at math. But then things that happened
  211. 07:46later in my life as I became the
  212. 07:47national coach of the US Olympic math
  213. 07:49team, I saw situations where there were
  214. 07:52so many so clever, so capable people who
  215. 07:56were still so depressed. And
  216. 07:57furthermore, after they graduated from
  217. 07:59high school, they even didn't really
  218. 08:00know what to do next because they
  219. 08:02thought that the point of life was to
  220. 08:03find ways to prove you're better than
  221. 08:05other people. That's when I realized we
  222. 08:08actually will do much better if we think
  223. 08:10about the philosophy to start with,
  224. 08:12right? The philosophy in life should not

  225. A Life Goal That Truly Makes You Happy

  226. 08:13be how do I outdo everyone else? If you
  227. 08:16do that, you will you'll probably never
  228. 08:18be satisfied. But if your philosophy in
  229. 08:20life is, hey, it is actually addictive
  230. 08:23to make a bunch of other people happy.
  231. 08:25Oh, now I can do it for five people. Oh,
  232. 08:28now I can do it for 500 people. Oh, wow.
  233. 08:30Now I can get thousand people to come to
  234. 08:32this thing. The more that you do, the
  235. 08:34more you want to do. And the fun part is
  236. 08:36that correlates also with traditional
  237. 08:38success. Then I realized, ah, I should
  238. 08:40be trying to push this worldwide. And if
  239. 08:43I don't do it, who will? with the things
  240. 08:46I've done in my life, I now have an
  241. 08:49opportunity to go and say, you know,
  242. 08:52I've seen what happens if you go all the
  243. 08:54way in pure competition. I've seen what
  244. 08:56happens if you go all the way and just
  245. 08:57practice problems to do the best on
  246. 08:59tests.
  247. 09:01Actually, that's not the right target.
  248. 09:05And I realized that because of my
  249. 09:06background, I would be able to shift
  250. 09:09mindsets. Then I said, okay, this is
  251. 09:11what I have to do.

  252. Scaling Critical Thinking

  253. 09:13I am a math professor at Carnegie Melon
  254. 09:15University. Uh the way I teach every
  255. 09:17single one of my classes is that I just
  256. 09:19go up to the chalkboard with a piece of
  257. 09:21chalk and I write today we're going to
  258. 09:23do this but I forgot exactly how to do
  259. 09:25this. So I need all of you to suggest
  260. 09:27ideas and then the whole class
  261. 09:29experience becomes one where the
  262. 09:31students are suggesting ideas and I'm
  263. 09:32giving them feedback on their ideas. And
  264. 09:34what I've been working on as a social
  265. 09:36entrepreneur to make it possible for
  266. 09:38everybody to be able to experience
  267. 09:40education in this way is we run an
  268. 09:42online program. It's called live.
  269. 09:45We found a way to scale up the education
  270. 09:48of critical thinking. You see the
  271. 09:50limiting factor is to have enough
  272. 09:51coaches to lead all of this critical
  273. 09:53thinking and brainstorming. And we scale
  274. 09:55it up by making a win-win situation by
  275. 09:57just observing that uh one of the
  276. 09:59greatest ages to learn critical thinking
  277. 10:02is when you're 10 to 13 years old. And
  278. 10:04it turns out that some of the best
  279. 10:06people to lead 10 to 13year-old kids
  280. 10:09into the joy of being thoughtful are
  281. 10:12high school kids who are about 15 to 18
  282. 10:14years old. But what I observed is that
  283. 10:15there were plenty of kids who were 15 to
  284. 10:1818 years old who were already very
  285. 10:19clever academically, especially in math.
  286. 10:21their limiting factor in life eventually
  287. 10:24was not going to be their science,
  288. 10:25technology, engineering or math. It
  289. 10:27would be communication skills,
  290. 10:29confidence, and the ability to win over
  291. 10:31anybody and lead a team. So, I created a
  292. 10:34program where we find kind and
  293. 10:37mathematically clever high schoolers.
  294. 10:39And then I hire professional comedians
  295. 10:41and actors to teach them how to be
  296. 10:43charismatic and how to be able to win
  297. 10:45over anybody because if you can convince
  298. 10:47anybody to love math, you can convince
  299. 10:49anybody to do anything. And so this this
  300. 10:52exchange, they're trained by the actors.
  301. 10:54They coach math. Uh while they're
  302. 10:56coaching math, we pay for an actor to
  303. 10:58watch them for every hour that they're
  304. 10:59coaching math. The actor gives them
  305. 11:01real-time feedback to help them become
  306. 11:04more enthusiastic, emphatic, and a more
  307. 11:06winning personality. Win-win situation.
  308. 11:09Now, the high schoolers directly
  309. 11:10benefit, their life becomes much better.
  310. 11:13In return, they're producing all of
  311. 11:15these critical thinking classes for kids

  312. Building Networks for the AI Era

  313. 11:17all around the country. The architecture
  314. 11:19of this is that it just connects people.
  315. 11:22We are introducing kind and thoughtful
  316. 11:24high school students to middle school
  317. 11:25students to help them see, hey, you
  318. 11:27could become these great people who are
  319. 11:30having fun and also having a very
  320. 11:32fulfilling life. But also the way we
  321. 11:34execute the whole thing, the high
  322. 11:36schoolers all teach in pairs that not
  323. 11:38only makes the experience more fun for
  324. 11:40the people who are learning math, but it
  325. 11:42makes it so that these kind and really
  326. 11:44mathematically clever people get to know
  327. 11:46each other. because I don't know what
  328. 11:48kind of challenges we're going to face
  329. 11:49in the future. I think they're going to
  330. 11:50be quite big and technology will make it
  331. 11:52so that whatever the challenges we face
  332. 11:54are, they're big. So, we also need to
  333. 11:57have a big network of kind people who
  334. 11:59are clever, who know each other, and who
  335. 12:01have trust so that if there are some
  336. 12:03civilization threatening challenges that
  337. 12:06arise, well, then maybe there will be
  338. 12:08some people who will stand up, work
  339. 12:09together, and do something about it.
  340. 12:11This is what I pay attention to as I
  341. 12:13travel around the entire country and the
  342. 12:14world. I'm actually thinking about the
  343. 12:16robustness of human society. Whether or
  344. 12:19not if there was some challenge that
  345. 12:21faced the world due to technology, are
  346. 12:23we as human civilization equipped to
  347. 12:26rise up and face that challenge? To me,
  348. 12:29it all starts from thoughtfulness.

  349. Taste: AI’s First Theft

  350. 12:38The work I do is really focused on
  351. 12:41building up autonomous human thinking.
  352. 12:44That's why the core word I use for the
  353. 12:46philosophy is thoughtful. I've watched
  354. 12:49over many years as people are becoming
  355. 12:52less and less interested in thinking. I
  356. 12:55think that actually happened because
  357. 12:57people found out that they can entertain
  358. 12:59themselves with iPads and this
  359. 13:01unfortunately makes people also not have
  360. 13:03as much interest in concentrating and
  361. 13:06thinking about something. AI could make
  362. 13:08that much worse. The fun part of life is
  363. 13:11having your own contribution to the life
  364. 13:14that you live. Actually, I think that's
  365. 13:16why people actually like creativity.
  366. 13:18It's fun. People like to draw. People
  367. 13:20like to put their own flavor. People
  368. 13:21like to wear their own fashion. It
  369. 13:23expresses themsel. This expression of
  370. 13:25yourself, it would be lost if everything
  371. 13:27you do is efficient but just reliant on
  372. 13:30the AI which told you how to dress
  373. 13:32today. That's why I want more and more
  374. 13:34people to discover it's fun to think.
  375. 13:35it's fun to have your own twist on
  376. 13:37things, your own your own idea that you
  377. 13:39inject inside. The other dangerous thing

  378. Truth: AI’s Second Theft

  379. 13:41that happens if people lose the ability
  380. 13:43to to think and reason is that it makes
  381. 13:47it far easier to deceive people. The
  382. 13:49world is so complicated that if you look
  383. 13:52at any situation in the world, sometimes
  384. 13:54depending on how you tell the story of
  385. 13:56what happened, you can say statements
  386. 13:59that are all true which make you come up
  387. 14:02with a different feeling. I think it's
  388. 14:04really important for people to be
  389. 14:06critical and to for people to be able to
  390. 14:08understand what's really going on
  391. 14:09because sometimes when someone's talking
  392. 14:11to you, they have an agenda. Like I'll
  393. 14:13be frank, I have an agenda. I'm trying
  394. 14:14to build a more thoughtful world and I'm
  395. 14:16going to be very very upfront with you
  396. 14:17on that. Anyone who's watching this
  397. 14:19video, I think it's really important
  398. 14:21that we have as many people as possible
  399. 14:23find out how much fun it is to delight
  400. 14:25other people and to have the ability to
  401. 14:28think and figure that out. That's my
  402. 14:30agenda. But you see, everyone has an
  403. 14:32agenda. And if you can't think for
  404. 14:35yourself and you just listen to some
  405. 14:37authority, what if that agenda is
  406. 14:40actually to your detriment? You'll have
  407. 14:43no way of knowing. The technology

  408. 5 Perspectives vs. 7.5 Billion

  409. 14:46revolution really made all of us start
  410. 14:48to realize how much of an impact bias
  411. 14:52has in the sense that whoever makes some
  412. 14:55technology tool has some bias. What does
  413. 14:58bias really mean? Well, I guess as a
  414. 15:00mathematician, the way I would say it is
  415. 15:022 plus two is always four. That's right.
  416. 15:05What's the point of life? Oh, I don't
  417. 15:07know. Like, there's no clear definition.
  418. 15:09What's the point of life? I think the
  419. 15:11point of life is is to delight as many
  420. 15:12other people as you can, but I know that
  421. 15:14you might not necessarily agree, and
  422. 15:16it's not a problem. I think it's it's
  423. 15:18healthy that we may have different
  424. 15:19starting points. The part that becomes
  425. 15:22unhealthy is where there is only a very
  426. 15:25short menu of options each of which is
  427. 15:28followed by a huge number of people.
  428. 15:31That's actually where bias comes in
  429. 15:33because we just we just mentioned so far
  430. 15:35in this in this video a couple of
  431. 15:36different uh sources of AI providers,
  432. 15:39right? We have we have Claude, we have
  433. 15:40OpenAI, there's also Gemini. If you're
  434. 15:42in China, there's Deepseek. There are
  435. 15:44all of these, but that's relatively few.
  436. 15:46If you think about it, that's that would
  437. 15:48be sort of like saying, well, the world
  438. 15:50has lots of different viewpoints. It has
  439. 15:52five of them. Really? No. No. The world
  440. 15:54has seven and a half billion different
  441. 15:57viewpoints. There are 7 and 12 billion
  442. 15:58people. One of the beautiful things
  443. 15:59about
  444. 16:01I guess humanity is the fact that there
  445. 16:03are so many different ideas all out
  446. 16:05there. And let's be frank, some of the
  447. 16:08ideas are bad. Some of the people are
  448. 16:10unfortunately in prison because they
  449. 16:12decided to kill someone else. Hopefully
  450. 16:14we all understand that this are a bad
  451. 16:15idea. But the point is there are lots of
  452. 16:18different people who are trying
  453. 16:19different kinds of ideas, lots of
  454. 16:20different philosophies. And in this
  455. 16:22great big marketplace of ideas that is
  456. 16:24the world, we see some ideas come out
  457. 16:27and the the variety also allows us to
  458. 16:29have more creativity perhaps. And when I
  459. 16:32look at the different AI tools, well,
  460. 16:35it's actually well known that they have
  461. 16:37certain biases. This is also why for me
  462. 16:39when I try to get the news, I don't only

  463. How to Avoid One-Sided Thinking

  464. 16:42go to CNN.com. I also go to Fox News. I
  465. 16:45tune my social media so that my X is all
  466. 16:49tracking Republican uh right-leaning
  467. 16:51viewpoints and my Facebook is all
  468. 16:53tracking left-leaning viewpoints. And I
  469. 16:55look at both of them every day because I
  470. 16:57want to see what's going on. And my
  471. 16:58expectation is yes, you're going to be
  472. 17:01biased. You have a certain view on the
  473. 17:02world and you think you're right. And
  474. 17:03you're biased, too. You have a way of
  475. 17:05thinking of the world. And my job as I
  476. 17:07simulate the world is to try to figure
  477. 17:08out where do you disagree? Ah, you
  478. 17:10disagree perhaps on a few values of how
  479. 17:13people should live their life. And then
  480. 17:14that causes you to have different ways
  481. 17:16of reporting on the story. I think it's
  482. 17:18all the more important now that there's
  483. 17:20AI out here which sounds like a very
  484. 17:22convincing reasonable person. It's even
  485. 17:24more important that people look at
  486. 17:27things and say, "All right, is that
  487. 17:29really the story?" Because I think that
  488. 17:32the AI is going to be so good at looking
  489. 17:35complete that you may think you have the
  490. 17:37entire story on a controversial
  491. 17:39situation, but you don't.

  492. How to Stay Hopeful Despite It All

  493. 17:47I am an optimist, as you can probably
  494. 17:49tell from the way I'm talking. I'm
  495. 17:51optimistic because I can see that
  496. 17:53thoughtful people stick together. I've
  497. 17:55been working on my work with this whole
  498. 17:57group of high school students and so on
  499. 17:59for 3 years and I can just see there are
  500. 18:02so many kids who are not kids anymore
  501. 18:05who are growing up who are really clever
  502. 18:07but so kind and they also know each
  503. 18:10other. They make me optimistic about the
  504. 18:13future. Not only the ones that I work
  505. 18:15with but the fact that if I'm working
  506. 18:16with these people that means there are
  507. 18:18other people out there too. I'm
  508. 18:19basically seeing with my own eyes the
  509. 18:22power of what can be done if you bring
  510. 18:25together people who have in common this
  511. 18:28idea that they actually like people and
  512. 18:30they want to make the world brighter.
  513. 18:33See, one reason I'm building this whole
  514. 18:35community of really kind and clever
  515. 18:38people is because I'm also hoping to

  516. Making Money While Solving Real Problems

  517. 18:41eventually build a whole lot of social
  518. 18:43entrepreneurs. Social entrepreneur is
  519. 18:45someone who makes a conscious decision
  520. 18:47to not necessarily become that rich.
  521. 18:50You're doing it for a different purpose.
  522. 18:52It's not because you want tons of money.
  523. 18:54It's because what makes you happy is
  524. 18:56seeing lots of delighted people. Social
  525. 18:58entrepreneurship is hard. The hard part
  526. 19:01is that sometimes at the beginning you
  527. 19:04feel this is an important problem that
  528. 19:06needs to be solved. Why won't people pay
  529. 19:09me to do it? I need a donation or an
  530. 19:12investment or something. That's how I
  531. 19:15started off. Today when I do my social
  532. 19:17entrepreneurship, I think very carefully
  533. 19:20how much does that problem actually
  534. 19:22cost? You know that if it's a problem,
  535. 19:24there's a real cost. In fact, it should
  536. 19:26be possible to make money. That word
  537. 19:28entrepreneur hopefully also includes
  538. 19:30something about sustainability through
  539. 19:33business type form. A good social
  540. 19:35enterprise should make a net profit on
  541. 19:38every single person that they help.
  542. 19:40Right? The problem that happens with
  543. 19:42social entrepreneurship sometimes is
  544. 19:43that people are doing something which
  545. 19:45would be nice to solve, but they haven't
  546. 19:48found a way to tie that together with
  547. 19:50solving a problem that has real monetary
  548. 19:52value that you can find someone to pay
  549. 19:54for. You should hopefully be able to
  550. 19:56figure out how it costs the world
  551. 19:58something that the problem is there.
  552. 20:00Aha. Now try to figure out who is paying
  553. 20:02that cost right now and see if maybe
  554. 20:04they would be interested in paying you
  555. 20:06for you to go and solve that problem.
  556. 20:08You just have to go and hunt around how
  557. 20:10can I figure out how the positive that's
  558. 20:13created on average is spread apart
  559. 20:16across everyone who is playing and then
  560. 20:18you also get a little bit too. That's
  561. 20:20actually what we do. For example, we
  562. 20:21provide all this education since we make
  563. 20:24the best after school math classes for
  564. 20:26middle school students who want
  565. 20:27enrichment in the world. We have lots of
  566. 20:29customers. They pay for it. So, we have
  567. 20:31the profit. But because I'm a social
  568. 20:33entrepreneur, we subsidize students from
  569. 20:36different parts of the country and
  570. 20:37different parts of the world. How come
  571. 20:38nobody else ever thought of putting
  572. 20:40professional actors to live coach high
  573. 20:43school math stars who are kind while
  574. 20:46they live stream math classes to middle
  575. 20:47school kids? And that whole thing builds
  576. 20:49an ecosystem that builds a more
  577. 20:50thoughtful world that can hopefully help
  578. 20:52to sustain our human civilization. It's
  579. 20:55actually an obvious idea. There are
  580. 20:57actors. There are math people. We can
  581. 21:00all win. It took 11 years to really
  582. 21:04build up to the stage that I am right
  583. 21:05now. It took 8 years to come up with
  584. 21:07that idea.
  585. 21:08You can imagine how many other weird

  586. Destroy Your Ideas

  587. 21:10ideas came about along the way. Anytime
  588. 21:13I see any thing in the world or
  589. 21:15something I need to do, I try to keep
  590. 21:17coming up with a weird new way to do it.
  591. 21:19For fun, I like to constantly be
  592. 21:21thinking, is there another way? Is there
  593. 21:23another way? Is there another way? When
  594. 21:25I do this most of the time I come up
  595. 21:28with a way and then the next question
  596. 21:29becomes all right what could be wrong
  597. 21:31with it. So I first generate like this I
  598. 21:34want to generate new idea and after the
  599. 21:36new ideas there I say now I want to
  600. 21:38destroy the new idea. I want to shoot it
  601. 21:39down. How could it possibly be wrong?
  602. 21:42Because 99% of the ideas that I generate
  603. 21:44that are new are fundamentally flawed.
  604. 21:47But 1% are good. You have to just be
  605. 21:51constantly for its own sake saying could
  606. 21:54there be another way of doing this?
  607. 21:56Could there be another way of doing
  608. 21:57this? So this combination of generate
  609. 21:59with excitement, destroy with lots and
  610. 22:02lots of effort and then after a while
  611. 22:04one diamond appears
  612. 22:08then push it.
  613. 22:11[Music]
The Only Trait for Success in the AI Era—How to Build It | Carnegie Mellon University Po-Shen Loh — Transcriptly