In this blog post, I want to get across some thoughts and opinions on how wisdom and experience really do count for something, and how valuable those qualities are in a world becoming obsessed with AI.
We ALL have value.
I have been teaching AutoCAD since the year 2000. Twenty -five years (yep, 25) teaching Autodesk software applications. I have officially been an Autodesk Certified Instructor since 2006 (nearly twenty years). I guess that ages me a little (note the wry smile as I type that). I am, in fact 56 years young, and some often say I look younger. You can blame that on good moisturiser and good genes, LOL.
I am seeing too many posts about how people of a certain age (my age) are being immediately discounted when applying for jobs in a very uncertain employment market. I do wonder if some of these employing companies are using AI criteria when receiving applications for job roles. Is there an AI bot in there that says if you’re a white male over 50, you’re done? Because, sadly, I am seeing way too much of it on all my social media channels. On LinkedIn, in particular. Maybe their algorithm is now AI-driven with those criteria? Who knows? And before anyone gets sexist angst, I am using that analogy purely because I am a white male over 50, right? It’s happening to everyone!
I am probably raising heckles at this point, raising my opinion around colour, gender, and age. I am simply making a point. And that point is that regardless of colour, gender, and age, we ALL have value. In fact, those values we have as human beings should be screaming against AI when it comes to it being used as a facilitator for employment. Since when has a non-sentient entity’s decision been more important than your gut feeling for a certain applicant for a role? That has really got under my skin recently.
In my previous blog, I wrote about Autodesk University (AU) 2025 in Nashville and how the conference keynote went on about AI, and how it made my eye twitch uncontrollably. Well, it’s twitching again. This time because I am now seeing the all-prevalent-AI telling us who we should be employing to work for us, who should be creating content, and who should be teaching learners how to learn and it’s bugging me. And here’s the irony. As a speaker at AU2025 in Nashville, I won a Top-Rated Class/Speaker Award. The first one in nineteen years of speaking at AU. Guess what category my award was in? Top-Rated Class for AI. Go figure.
On that note, thank you for the award, Autodesk! It’s taken nineteen years to get one, and lots of late nights, and planes, trains, and automobiles, but I now have one. It’s an honour and a privilege!
What happened to wisdom and experience?
In the last few days, I have seen Autodesk promoting an impressive statistic. They have reached the milestone of 150 million students and educators worldwide.
Fair play to Autodesk. That means that over 150 million students and educators have learned with and taught using Autodesk software worldwide. One of those educators is me. Yes, that aged, white, 56-year-old Autodesk Certified Instructor.
What am I getting at, you may ask? Well, I am endeavouring to tell you that I am a person, not an AI agent. I teach people. I teach face-to-face in classrooms in Autodesk Authorised Training Centres (ATCs). I create online content on platforms such as Global eTraining, LinkedIn Learning, and Udemy that teach people, and every single one of those people who learn from my content is a human being.
Many moons ago, a lovely Scotsman called Tom Monaghan – also an Autodesk Certified Instructor, told me one thing that has always stuck with me. And that is, to use his exact words – “People learn from people”. We are built that way. It’s instinctive, it’s in our genetics from the day we are born. We learn. I learned to put my laces in my shoes from my late Dad, who was ex-Navy. It’s a simple workflow, and it stops your wet shoes from rotting your shoelaces. Not rocket science, but it works.
Also, people of a certain age have more world and life experience to impart to others. It’s often known as wisdom. Let’s consider a typical dictionary definition of the word ‘wisdom’.
Wisdom (noun)
The ability to make good judgments based on what you have learned from your experience, or the knowledge and understanding that gives you this ability.
To use a well-known fictional example. In the Star Wars movie, The Empire Strikes Back, Luke Skywalker goes to Yoda to train as a Jedi. Yoda has the wisdom to teach Luke the ways of the Force. Luke understands and respects that wisdom and learns from Yoda’s imparted wisdom. (Yes, Luke does impetuously fly to Dagobah to save his friends against Yoda’s wishes, but that’s another story).
Relate that to the CAD department of a large engineering firm. The older, experienced CAD Jedis can assist the younger, new CAD Jedi Padawans (apprentice Jedis) to learn by mentoring them, and imparting their wisdom and knowledge.
If this is the case, why are so many (dare I say it) older people being turned away or rejected from job applications? Why are larger corporates ditching older staff for younger staff? Surely, from an organic viewpoint, older staff can offer way more with their wisdom and experience?
Don’t get me wrong here. I am not being biased because I am of a certain age with wisdom and experience. I am simply at a loss as to why that wisdom and experience is not being taken advantage of by these corporates to enhance and build their workforce.
Building the Jedi and Padawan relationship.
I am a huge advocate of mentoring. I was an AU Speaker Mentor until 2024. I mentored new AU Speakers not only to make their AU presentations fly, but also with their confidence, enhancing their AU experience, by offering them my AU wisdom and expertise from being an AU Speaker veteran. Being an AU Speaker Mentor (the AU Jedi), ensured that the newbie AU Speaker (the AU Padawan) had the necessary knowledge to move forward at AU, and enjoy the experience of being an AU Speaker, taking advantage of all that being a speaker at AU had to offer.
Let’s dive deeper into taking that into a commercial environment. Consider that CAD department I mentioned earlier. Having one or more CAD Jedis in that department is incredibly valuable. The CAD Jedi(s) can impart their knowledge and wisdom to the new CAD Padawan(s). This mentoring relationship is incredibly valuable and could even be formalised internally, so to speak, as an ‘apprenticeship’. Milestones and proofs of concept could be built in, ensuring that the CAD Padawan(s) learn all aspects of the CAD function required of them and more.
Based on the knowledge gained, this then empowers the Padawan, inspiring them to get to Jedi status, and as time goes by, the student becomes the master, and the cycle then repeats, with the new CAD Jedi teaching the new intake of CAD Padawans. This cycle of knowledge is so important, and right now, I do not see any AI being able to impart the human side of wisdom and knowledge. Yes, AI is a great aggregator of information, and yes, AI is highly useful when it comes to removing repetitive, onerous tasks, but we still need the humanity to drive knowledge, and maintain the checks and balances needed when errors (and AI hallucinations) occur.
Let me give you a simple example. When I first tried out ChatGPT, I asked it to give me a simple workflow for creating a polyline in AutoCAD. I did this FOUR times, and each time, the workflow was slightly different, with different (albeit small) errors. Those errors could easily change the outcome of the simple workflow, thus creating FOUR transferred errors. A mentor with their mentee could sit down in front of AutoCAD, and the mentor could show the mentee how to CORRECTLY create the polyline first time around, and the mentee could repeat that numerous times for the mentor, until they both know that the mentee can create a polyline without error. As they say, practice makes perfect, and then the muscle memory gained by the mentee ensures that the skill is remembered and maintained. That’s the humanity I’m talking about. The handholding, the look over the shoulder at the screen to check it’s OK. I don’t see any AI providing that reassurance to a newbie, building their confidence, face-to-face. Us humans need that reassurance to make sure we feel confident enough to take the next step. That’s what we do with our children, and then our children do that with their children. As Disney’s The Lion King imparts to us – the circle of life – and that circle is all-encompassing, no matter how it is applied. It could be in a CAD department, in a kindergarten, a child learning to ride a bicycle. We all need that mentorship to make sure we have the confidence to lose the training wheels and go on to ride the bike confidently and with expertise.
Moving forward. With purpose.
Before any of you jump in and start slating me for my opinion, it is simply that. My opinion. I am no AI guru, but what I do see is a generation becoming reliant on a processor and a screen for learning. Learning has so much more to offer than that. Learning can be a conduit to friendship. I was an AU Speaker Mentor to an incredible newbie AU Speaker. This incredible lady then went on to speak on the main stage at AU2024 and win the Autodesk Design & Make Award at AU2025 for her contribution to the AECO community. I am honoured to class Shelby L Smith as a close friend and fellow Autodesk Expert Elite. And her friendship came about from mentoring her to be the best she could be. Again, humanity, relationships, friendships. I don’t see AI offering that.
As I bring this blog post to a close, I would like all of you to consider this as you move forward in whatever it is that you do. Think about the human relationships you have. Think about how they have moulded you into not only who you are, but how you present yourself, and how you have developed. Has someone assisted you as a Jedi Padawan, to work towards becoming the Jedi you aspire to be? Take a few minutes to ask yourself that, and if you don’t have a Jedi to mentor you, is it worth finding one, or asking to have one?
The human connection is fundamental to learning. And to always be learning, it’s imperative that the human connection is maintained and consistent. AI is not a substitute. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
Best, SCB (The CADjedi)
