📡 Live content — may be updated until and even during class

Week 1

Welcome to
AI-Native Solution Engineering

This is a course about becoming a better thinker — alone and with partners, human and AI.

Before We Begin

📋 Pre-Course Survey

Please take ~10 minutes to complete the pre-course survey. This helps us understand where you're starting and measure growth.

📝 What We're Asking

  • Your current experience with AI tools
  • Your confidence in various skills
  • Your goals for this course

Your responses are anonymous and help us improve the course.

10:00

Take your time — we'll continue when everyone is done.

First Things First

Let's Meet Each Other

👋 Small Group Introductions

Find 2-3 people near you. Share:

  • Your name and what you're studying
  • One thing you've built or made that you're proud of
  • One question you have about AI and your future career

The Heart of This Course

The core engine of learning here is
Conversations

Lectures orient you. Assignments give you practice. But conversations are where understanding deepens.

The best thinking rarely happens alone. It happens when ideas meet other ideas.

Learn more about Peer Conversations →

Why Conversations Matter

The Elephant in the Room

An ancient parable about the nature of truth.

"A snake!" "A tree trunk!" "A rope!" "A fan!" "A wall!"

🐘 The Parable

Six blind people encounter an elephant. Each touches a different part:

  • One touches the trunk and declares: "It's a snake!"
  • One touches a leg and says: "It's a tree trunk!"
  • One touches the tail and insists: "It's a rope!"
  • One touches the ear and argues: "It's a fan!"
  • One touches the side and concludes: "It's a wall!"

Each is partially right — and completely wrong about the whole.

The Insight

Truth is the elephant
none of us see in entirety

Your sense perceptions are limited

You can only experience what you can touch. Your background, experiences, and position shape what you perceive.

Others have touched different parts

Their "wrong" perspective might be the piece you're missing. Their experience completes yours.

Conversations reveal the whole elephant

Through listening — truly listening — we assemble a more complete picture than any of us could alone.

Open-minded curiosity isn't weakness. It's the only path to truth.

Let's Have a Conversation

Foundations First?

🎤 Two Perspectives

We need two volunteers:

  • One person who believes you should master traditional skills before relying on AI tools
  • One person who believes learning by doing with AI is more effective

This isn't about being right. It's about exploring how we learn best.

An Important Distinction

Conversation ≠ Debate

Conversation

  • Goal: Find truth together
  • Mindset: "What am I missing?"
  • Posture: Curiosity-driven
  • Outcome: Everyone learns something
  • Success: Changed understanding

Debate

  • Goal: Win the argument
  • Mindset: "Why am I right?"
  • Posture: Victory-driven
  • Outcome: Someone "wins"
  • Success: Unchanged positions

In this course, we practice conversations — the skill of thinking together.

Live Demonstration

Guided Conversation

"Should you master traditional skills before relying on AI tools?"

🧭 Ground Rules

  • Listen to understand, not to respond
  • Ask genuine questions
  • It's okay to say "I don't know" or "I hadn't thought of that"
  • The goal is exploration, not conclusion

Your Turn

Peer Conversation

Pair up with someone you haven't talked to yet. Have a conversation about AI and your future.

5:00

💡 Need conversation starters? Click to reveal:

What's one thing AI can't do that you can? +
Think about judgment calls, understanding context, knowing when rules should be broken, creative leaps that come from lived experience...
What skill are you developing that AI makes more valuable, not less? +
Consider: if AI can do the routine parts faster, what becomes the bottleneck? Often it's the human judgment, stakeholder navigation, problem framing...
What worries you most about AI in your field? +
Legitimate concerns are valuable data. What specifically feels threatened? Speed? Cost? Quality? Access?
What excites you most? +
What problems could you tackle that were previously out of reach? What tedious work could you delegate? What could you build?

Going Deeper

Conversation Guide

Most conversations stay shallow. Here's how to go deeper.

🪜 The Depth Ladder

Start with the core question, then use follow-ups to climb deeper:

"What's the bottleneck when conversations fail?"

1

Surface: What happens when conversations fail?

Describe what you've observed.

2

Context: What conditions lead to these failures?

What's present when things go wrong vs. when they go right?

3

Reasoning: Why do you think that happens?

What's driving the behavior? What are people optimizing for?

4

Impact: What does this reveal about what's needed for understanding?

What do you need to feel truly heard? What do others need?

5

Connection: How might this apply to our work together this semester?

What norms should we establish? What do you commit to?

After your conversation, complete a quick check-in:

Peer Conversation Check-in →

Your AI Partner

Setting Up the
Symbiotic Thinking Dojo

A practice space for thinking with AI. Let's set it up now.

🥋 Two Simple Steps

1

Get your free API key

Choose either provider — both are free and work great with the Dojo:

⚡ Groq Recommended

Uses Llama 3.3 70B model. ~14,400 free requests/day — great for longer practice sessions.

Get Groq API Key →

(not to be confused with Grok from xAI)

🔵 Google Gemini

Uses Gemini 2.5 Flash model. ~20 free requests/day — good for quick sessions.

Get Google API Key →
2

Enter the Dojo and add your key

Open symbioticthinking.ai, click Settings, choose your provider (Groq or Gemini), and paste your API key. Your key stays in your browser — we never see it.

3

Try the Practice Dojo

Select Practice Dojo, choose CST395, then select "Understand the Course" to have a conversation that helps you learn about this course.

This is where you'll practice thinking with AI — not just using it.

Being Honest About Uncertainty

This Course Makes Some Assumptions

We can't predict the future. But we can prepare for a range of possibilities.

Assumption 1

AI capabilities will continue to expand. Tasks that seem "safe" today may not be tomorrow.

Assumption 2

Human value isn't disappearing — it's shifting. From doing to directing. From knowing to judging.

Assumption 3

Self-direction becomes more valuable when execution can be delegated.

Assumption 4

The best way to develop judgment is through practice — building, failing, reflecting, iterating.

I'm not asking you to accept these assumptions uncritically. I'm inviting you to test them.

Looking Ahead

Your First Challenge

This week, you'll identify a problem in your own life worth solving — and attempt to solve it with AI as your partner.

This Week

Superagency Challenge: Solve a real problem you care about

Reflection

Document what worked, what didn't, and what you learned

Next Session

Share your experience in peer conversations

Prep Activity → Go to Sprint 1 →

How This Works

Grading Philosophy

✓ Generous

Complete most activities on time → get most of your points

I'll drop a few low scores in each activity group. Your lowest sprint grade gets replaced by your second-highest sprint grade.

⚡ Rigorous

Sprint demonstrations and final submissions

These are where you show what you've actually learned. I'll grade these carefully.

⚠ Strict

Late penalty: 7% per day

But if it only happens a few times, the dropped grades and sprint replacement will cover you. The system has built-in forgiveness — just don't make lateness a habit.

Need more time? Bring it up in class, in-person — I'll usually support changes within the following week. Please, no individual or email extension requests.

Before We Go

Closing Reflections

A few volunteers to stand up and share what's on your mind.

🎙️ Share Anything — Or Pick a Prompt

You're welcome to share any thought, question, or reaction. If you'd like a starting point, consider:

  • What's one thing from today that surprised you or made you think differently?
  • What question are you leaving with that you didn't have before?
  • What's one thing you're curious to try this week?
  • What's something you're still skeptical about — and that's okay?

There are no wrong answers here. We're practicing conversations, not performances.

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