You’re robbing yourself when you ask ChatGPT to solve it for you

As a professor, I see students massively depriving themselves of what’s most valuable in learning. They get perfect solutions from ChatGPT in seconds — and don’t realize what they’ve lost.

They haven’t lost grades or time. They’ve lost productive struggle — that wrestling with a problem that IS the actual learning.

What you lose when GPT solves for you:

• The pure happiness of the aha-moment. You know that feeling — when suddenly everything clicks and you literally feel the dopamine hit? That’s not just learning, that’s joy. GPT took that from you.
• That moment when, after three hours of being stuck, you suddenly see the solution. That breakthrough high — it’s yours by right of struggle. GPT stole it from you.
• The confidence that only comes after YOU pushed through the complexity. Not “I know the answer” but “I feel how it works.” Massive difference.
• The ability to sit in uncertainty without panicking. This only trains one way — by sitting in uncertainty. GPT robs you of this training.
• Your own mental model. When you struggle with a problem, you build understanding. When you copy an answer — you’re left with someone else’s model that isn’t integrated into your worldview.

Three levels where you’re robbing yourself:

Knowledge — GPT gives you an answer. You can repeat it, but it’s not YOUR knowledge.

Understanding — you don’t have a model of WHY it works this way. You can’t modify the solution, adapt it, transfer it to another problem.

Sense of mastery — that feeling of “I can do this” that only comes through personal victory over complexity. It’s like the difference between watching a video about riding a bike and the moment YOU caught your balance.

The saddest part:

You feel the emptiness yourself. Formally, the task is done, but inside — the feeling that you wasted your time. Because deep down you know — you learned nothing.

GPT is a wonderful tool when you already have your model, your understanding. Then you use it as an amplifier, not a crutch.

But when you replace your struggle with copy-paste from ChatGPT, you’re trading long-term growth for short-term relief. It’s like eating only candy — seems tasty, but your body degrades.

The alternative:

In our lab seminars and schools like JASS , we deliberately create situations where you can’t just get the answer. Where you have to push through yourself. And you know what? People thank us specifically for this — for the right and opportunity to struggle and win.

Productive struggle isn’t teacher sadism. It’s the only way to grow. GPT can give you the answer, but it can’t give you the experience of overcoming.

You choose: to be someone who CAN, or someone who knows where to ask.

What will you choose?

Kirill Krinkin