Iren Bencze Teacher and Mentor

Yesterday, I shared how Socrates might just be humanity’s best prompter, and why the Socratic method is the ultimate pedagogy for the AI age.

Today, a new connection hit me while diving into ancient literature.Think about the Book of Job. When God finally responds to Job from the whirlwind, He doesn't offer a lecture, an explanation, or a defense. Instead, He unleashes a torrential series of questions:

"Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?"
"Who shut the sea behind doors?"
"Did you give the horse its strength?"

It is, in essence, a cosmic Socratic dialogue. Just like Socrates, God uses questions to dismantle the illusion of knowledge, change Job's frame of reference, and force active processing instead of passive listening.

Whether we look at ancient philosophy, sacred texts, or modern AI engineering, the rule holds true across millennia: True mastery isn't about having all the answers; it’s about having the humility and skill to ask the right questions.

As educators and mentors guiding students into the AI frontier, our job isn't just to teach them what to know. It’s to teach them how to question—how to prompt, how to reframe, and how to engage with a world (and a technology) vastly larger than themselves.

Talking about AI literacy, Peter Diamandis noted that it is "The ability to prompt, to reason with AI, to use it as a research partner, a creative collaborator, and a force multiplier." He then went on to say that according to Fei-Fei Li, and rightly so, "Socrates was humanity’s best prompter. ...The Socratic method is the pedagogy for the AI age." I can see reason in that.

The Socratic Method Step by Step: How It Works with a Real Example Understanding the Socratic Method Through A Famous Philosophical Di...

Sometimes the sheer weight of the world makes us want to retreat. If you or someone you love has been feeling such weariness lately, this message from Elder Holland is a welcome anchor.

It begins with a laugh—a hilariously honest letter from a seven-year-old complaining about how boring church meetings can be—but it ends with one of the most urgent, tender pleas for mental health and personal worth you will ever hear.

Do watch this one all the way to the end: it is entirely worth staying for the "whole feast".

Fear Not: Believe Only! Elder Holland teaches that we can have hope in difficult times because of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The world tends to celebrate the loudest voice in the room. We mistake brashness for confidence and aggression for strength. Reading about the the life of Moses today—a man described as "mighty in words and in deeds" yet "very meek, above all men"—made me think about a different kind of power.

As Elder David A. Bednar recently taught, meekness is defined by strong self-restraint. It is the disciplined ability to act rather than react. While weakness is the inability to do anything, meekness is having the power to do everything, but the wisdom to do only what is right.

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2018/04/meek-and-lowly-of-heart?lang=eng

I like how Peter Diamandis uses an AI example to explain how our own brain works. (I used to do it backwards: human thinking to LLM. 🙃)

"Here’s how an LLM trains: it reads a sentence, predicts the next word, checks whether it was right, and adjusts its internal weights. Right answer? Strengthen that pathway. Wrong answer? Weaken it and try again. Billions of repetitions, trillions of adjustments.

Your brain does the same thing. Every experience is a prediction. You reach for a coffee cup and predict its weight. You start a sentence and predict how the other person will react. When reality matches your prediction, your synapses strengthen. When it doesn’t, your brain recalibrates."

Exciting news! The AI Doc is now available to buy or rent. If you missed the theatrical release, you can now see this critically important film at home. Find it wherever you get your movies on demand.

Invite your friends and family for a movie night — it's meant be watched together.

Science tells us that when humans are lost without landmarks, they naturally walk in circles—even when they are absolutely certain they are moving in a straight line. This is the reality of "spiritual drift" as well. We don't usually lose our way all at once; we drift in small, seemingly insignificant loops.

In this talk, Elder Uchtdorf (a former pilot) explains that a life is kept on track the same way an aircraft is: through constant, minor course corrections. Just as the Israelites needed fresh manna every morning, we need a "daily restoration" to keep from looping back to old patterns: we cannot navigate today’s challenges purely on yesterday’s insights.

My favorite takeaway: "Do you want to change the shape of your life? Change the shape of your day. Do you want to change your day? Change this hour. Change what you think, feel, and do at this very moment."

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2021/10/41uchtdorf?lang=eng

An honest and heartening talk from years ago.

Waiting on the Lord Elder Holland teaches that we can have faith that the Lord will answer our prayers in His time and His way.