Matt Beane, "The Skill Code: How to Save Human Ability in an Age of Intelligent Machines" (HarperCollins, 2024)

This episode of the "Peoples & Things" podcast interviews Matt Beane, author of "The Skill Code," about skill development in the age of AI. The conversation explores Beane's research on how organizations build skills, highlighting the crucial role of "apprenticeship" (informal learning through collaboration) and the three Cs: challenge, complexity, and connection. Beane discusses how AI tools, while offering potential benefits, can negatively impact skill development by reducing the need for human collaboration and creating a "self-serve" model where experts work independently, potentially hindering the growth of less experienced individuals. The interview concludes with Beane announcing his new startup, Skill Bench, aimed at building systems to improve skill development using AI.