In the AI era, core reasoning matters more — not less.
Calculation is free. Pattern-matching is free. Even essay-writing is becoming free. What's not free — and becomes more valuable, not less — is the ability to reason with rigor, set up the right problem, and judge when an answer is wrong.
I work in AI. The people shaping this field share something in common: deep mathematical intuition, built early. That foundation doesn't come from finishing the curriculum. It comes from struggling with problems just beyond it.
The kids who shape the AI era won't be the ones who used it to skip the hard parts. They'll be the ones with the muscles to think through them.